Quality and innovation in Higher Education: Code of Good Practices

Abstract

This project started as an initiative of a group of university teachers, trying to fulfill the quality requirements requested by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for the university system. During two years, they developed a Code of Good Teaching Practices for the Technical area, which intends to achieve excellence teaching competences and to meet quality criteria. The authors decided to elaborate the Code based on a “mixed model”, using diverse standards with the aid of different guides and models. Now several improvements should be implemented. The main idea is the introduction of the concept of innovation. The paper shows several standards widely used in the entrepreneurial environment that could be adapted to the lecture rooms and discusses their integration in the previous Code. Their application will allow extracting ideas for improving traditional working methods. In this way, they can be considered as a tool or an element for innovation in Higher Education. The final Code of Good Teaching Practices won't be specific to a particular engineering subject or degree, so it could be used by other university teachers.