The Polish Accreditation Committee, expressing its care for the highest quality of education, awards: Education Excellence Certificates. This procedure is complies with Art. 250 of the Act of 20 July 2018, Law on Higher Education (Official Journal of 2018, item 1668, as amended) and §4 sec. 14 and §9 sec. 3 point 10 of the Statute of the Polish Accreditation Committee and Annex 4 to the Statute.
The basis for granting the certificate is a positive programme evaluation for 6 years, supported by good practices in the field of the quality of education or documented, regular achievements of students and graduates. Applications for awarding the Education Excellence Certificates are submitted by chairmen of sections working in the fields of science and the field of arts, following the recommendation (with justification) contained in the team’s opinion.
The Certificate are given in four categories:
The certificate are given to higher education institution offering a programme, which assesment by possitive and it is supported by good practices in criteria: 1) Structure of the study programme: concept of education, learning objectives and outcomes 2) Implementation of the study programme: programme contents, timetable for the implementation of the study programme, forms and organisation of classes, methods of education, student placements, organisation of the teaching and learning proces 3) Admission to studies, verification of learning outcomes achievement by students, giving credit for individual semesters and years and awarding diplomas 4) Competence, experience, qualifications and the number of staff providing education. Staff development and in-service training 5) Education infrastructure and resources used in the implementation of the study programme and their improvement and 10) Quality assurance policy, designing, approving, monitoring, reviewing, and improving the study programme.
This certificate can be given to a programme who in the assessment team’s report, positive rating under detailed programme assessment criterion 8: “Supporting learning, social, academic or professional development of students and their entry on the labour market. Development and improvement of such suport”, and it is supported by good practices in the scope of supporting students in the learning process and by recommendation to award an excellence certificate with a justification. Secondly, those programmes fulfild the criteria: 4 ), 5), 9) (Public access to information about the study programme, conditions for its implementation and achieved results) and 10) and confirm the effective influence of students on ensuring and improving the quality of education in the field of study and they are presenting good practices in this area.
The field of study may receive this certificate if the visit report indicates good practices relating to criterion 7). Conditions for and methods of improving the internationalisation of education provided as part of the degree programme, and the justification of the assessment in the degree of meeting the criteria 1), 2) and 4) confirm the effective impact of international cooperation on the concept of education, implementation of the study program and staff development, and include good practices in this area.
The application of the awarding with the Certificate for a programme study should be justified by identifying in the visiting team report good practices in terms of criterion 6) Cooperation with representatives of social and economic stakeholders on the development, implementation and improvement of the study programme and its impact on the development of the degree programme , and justification of the assessment of the degree of meeting the criteria 1) , 2), 4) and 10) should confirm the effective influence of external stakeholders on the construction and implementation of the study program and improvement of the quality of education in the field of study, as well as indicate good practices in this field.
Units that lead the fields of study awarded by the Presidium of the Polish Accreditation Committee with a certificate, implement effective, innovative and exemplary solutions promoting the quality of education, characterized in particular by:
- effectiveness, i.e., the ability to achieve objectives in the sphere of improving the quality of education;
- universality, i.e., the transferability to other universities;
- innovativeness, i.e., an innovative character in the sphere of improving the quality of education;
- exemplariness, i.e., possibility of serving as a point of reference;
- ethicality, i.e., compliance with standards and ethical values and the principles of social responsibility;
- sustainability, i.e. repetitiveness and durability of impact on education quality improvement.
Congratulations to all those involved in the process of building a culture of quality education in the awarded fields of study! The list of awarded fields of study is presented below.