Quality Assurance (AQ - Alta Qualità, in italian) is the process through which universities, by their governing bodies and defined objectives, monitoring actions, and verifications, implement the quality policy and continuously improve educational offerings, research activities, and third mission initiatives.
The Italian AQ system is structured around the processes of self-assessment, evaluation, and accreditation, as defined by ANVUR in the guidelines of the AVA system. ANVUR annually provides universities, by June, with a "University Indicator Sheet" and a "Monitoring Sheet" for each active study program at the location in the reference year.
The annual monitoring and review, integral parts of AQ system for educational activities, are components of a periodic and planned process aimed at verifying the adequacy of the learning objectives set by the study program, the correspondence between objectives and outcomes, as well as the effectiveness of the study program's management. This process includes identifying the causes of any unsatisfactory results to implement appropriate corrective and improvement measures.
The pair "Annual Monitoring Sheet" (SMA - Scheda di Monitoraggio Annuale, in italian) and "Single Annual Sheet of the Study Program" (SUA-CdS - Scheda Unica Annuale del Corso di Studio, in italian) for a given academic year constitutes the respective annual self-assessment. The compilation of this documentation for at least three subsequent years, along with the Cyclical Review Report, allows external evaluators to verify the robustness and effective functioning of the study program's AQ system and the effectiveness of the actions taken to ensure it.