1.
Sharing Practice in Enhancing
and Assuring Quality
speaq-project.eu
Language Network for
Quality Assurance
lanqua.eu
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only
of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use which may be made of the information contained therein.

2.
• Funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme, Erasmus Multilateral Action,
focus on Higher Education
• Two-year project with 11 partners
• Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (LLAS), University of Southampton, U.K. - coordinator
• Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck (University of Innsbruck), Austria
• Handelshøjskolen i København (Copenhagen Business School), Denmark
• Universidad de Deusto-Deustuko Unibertsitatea (University of Deusto), Spain
• Jyväskylän yliopisto (University of Jyväskylä), Finland
• Szegedi Tudományegyetem (University of Szeged), Hungary
• Università degli Studi di Trento (University of Trento), Italy
• Universidade de Aveiro (University of Aveiro), Portugal
• Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
• European Students Union (ESU)
• Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, U.K. – evaluator
• Built on the work of the LanQua Project (Language Network for Quality Assurance)
to extend and implement its QualityToolkit
SPEAQ Project
Anca Greere and Catherine Riley
LINQ, 17 May 2013

3.
• foster a culture of quality embraced by all actors
• encourage greater interaction between policy and practice
• ensure that everyone’s voice is heard
• develop QA tools which can be used and replicated by others
SPEAQ’s main aim is to connect three quality circles
to Share Practice and Enhance and Assure Quality
What are we trying to do?
Anca Greere and Catherine Riley
LINQ, 17 May 2013

4.
www.lanqua.eu
Quality Cycle
Anca Greere and Catherine Riley
LINQ, 17 May 2013
 Create an interactive
QA workshop
 Run focus groups
 Interview quality managers

5.
Question Student Teachers Admin Object
What is the price? Are there different
prices for different facilities?
X X Airplane
Hospital
When was it built/made and how
often is it checked/when does it
expire?
X X Airplane
Cake
Are there any statistics that stand
proof for safety/efficiency? Does it
respect international standards of
quality/safety/size?
X Airplane
Spanner
Ball
How is the producer rated in
comparison to other producers?
X Airplane
Bike
Race car
Cake
How difficult is it to use? X X Bike
What guarantees are being offered? X X X Bike
What does it bring new? How is it
different?
X Race car
Who checks it regularly – authorized
persons/experts? Is it certified by
authoritative bodies?
X X X Race car
Ball
How qualified is the staff? Are there
enough staff members?
X X X Hospital
Is the staff emphatic to the patients?
Is empathy a criterion to appraise the
staff?
X X X Hospital
How qualified is the management? X Hospital
Does it have the necessary
infrastructure for the services? Is this
up to standard?
X X X Hospital
Internet
Can anyone/everyone eat it? X X X Cake
Does it have the basic ingredients? X Cake
How well-balanced are evaluation
strategies?
X X Electricity
How can the service be paid for?
What methods are available?
X Electricity
Internet
Does it have a good customer
relations service?
Electricity
Internet
Is
innovative/personal/specific/confide
ntial data protected?
X Internet
How wide an area does it cover? X X Internet

6.
 PROJECTS
• Student mentoring system
• Better support for international students and staff
• More effective mechanisms for student feedback
• Increased impact of student evaluation forms
• Better streamlining of curriculum and standardisation of assessment
practices
• (Further) Development of communication channels to enable better
student-student, student-teaching staff and student-administrative staff
communication.
• Initiatives at administrative level (support of secretarial staff)
• Better focused promotion and marketing strategies
• Statistical analysis of the reasons underlying university drop-out
Quality needs identified
Anca Greere and Catherine Riley
LINQ, 17 May 2013

7.
speaq-project.eu

8.
What is next?
• maintain and further develop project outcomes at institutional
level
• extend tested procedures/mechanisms to elsewhere in the
institution
• compare and share with other EU partners
=> drive Quality Assurance and Enhancement processes
=> drive Quality Assurance and Enhancement policies
TO FOSTER THE QUALITY CULTURE

Anca Greere and Catherine Riley
LINQ, 17 May 2013

9.
Contacts
Center for Languages Linguistics and Area Studies (LLAS)
University of Southampton, United Kingdom
llas@soton.ac.uk
Dr. Catherine Riley
University of Trento, Italy
catherine.riley@lett.unitn.it
Dr. Anca Greere
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), United Kingdom
a.greere@qaa.ac.uk
www.speaq-project.eu
Anca Greere and Catherine Riley
LINQ, 17 May 2013