Quality at ULiège: management and support of quality

T

he mission of the Quality Management and Support Service (SMAQ) as defined in its statues, is to promote, coordinate and disseminate within the University of Liège a culture of quality based on critical reflection and strategic planning.

This translates, in terms of activities, into five functions:

• Design and ensure the proper functioning of an institutional quality system
• Assist the entities in implementing the quality system in the context of their role
• Identify in the conclusions of assessments performed within the entities the transversal elements considered useful to institutional governance and communicate them to the authorities
• Promote the culture of quality at the University of Liège by communicating, in a transparent fashion, on the different elements of the quality system, by helping members of the university community to register in the framework and spirit of the institutional quality system, by initiating reflections and updates of practices tied to assessment, by proposing, designing, preparing, structuring, and supporting projects aimed at improving the quality of activities and functioning of ULiège and by being the engine of a community of practices within the institution
• Contribute to the visibility of ULiège by highlighting its expertise in terms of quality

The mission also includes:

• A policy: quality management is based on values that have been defined by the SMAQ from its inception: critical thinking, active participation, dialogue, transparency and planning of changes. These values, which guide the SMAQ in its action, are described in a document entitled “ The SMAQ, building on the values of the institution
• Methods and tools: the quality system is implemented primarily through periodic assessments (5-year periods) of the entities for training, research and administrative services These assessments constitute the quality assurance (QA) process
• Structures: the quality system is the responsibility of the Rector, who mandates the SMAQ for the implementation of the QA process. The SMAQ is operational insofar as it designs and applies the methodology to all types of entities. The SMAQ is a partner (see "other quality initiatives" -link) insofar as it provides logistical support and asks to be informed, even to serve in the decentralised bodies managing quality (quality committee of the agronomic faculty of Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, "Quality steering committee" of HEC-ULiège, School of Management of the University of Liège...)

Laboratory quality network at ULiège (RQLab)

OTHER QUALITY INITIATIVES at ULiège