According to the legislation in force:
- Royal Decree 861/2010, of 2 July, which modifies Royal Decree 1393/2007, of 29 October, establishing the ordination of official university teaching in Spain, (article 27 bis);
- Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, for access to an official doctoral programme it shall be necessary for the candidate to hold an official Spanish degree, or equivalent, and a university master's degree. (article 10);
The initial accreditation of official Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees must be renewed periodically from the date of their verification or from the date of their last accreditation. In the case of Bachelor's Degrees, before the En el caso de los títulos de Grado, within six years; in the case of University Master's Degrees, within four years; and in the case of Doctoral Programmes, every six years.
Royal Decree 534/2013, of 12 July, establishing the calendar in which the renewal of such official degrees. In the case of Universities from the Community of Madrid, it is the responsibility of the Fundación para el Conocimiento Madrimasd to carry out the assessment process for the renewal of the accreditation of official degrees, in accordance with the assessment protocols for this purpose. (See Guide for the Renewal of Accreditation). The main objective of the accreditation renewal process is to verify whether the results of the degrees are adequate and guarantee an appropriate continuity of the teaching of them until the next accreditation renewal. These results will focus on the verification of the acquisition of the competences by students, on the mechanisms for assessing the acquistion of these competences that the university has developed and on the analysis of the evolution of the results achieved, among others.
The accrediatation renewal of the official bachelor's and master's degrees is divided into the following phases:
- Self-assessment report: the University describes and evaluate the situation of the title according to the established criteria and guidelines. The result is the self-assessment report.
- External visit: A group of external evaluators for the degree evaluated (Board of experts), appointed by the Foundation, analysis the self-assessment report and visits the centre/s where the degree is taught. The aim is to comparte the information gathered and make an informed assessment concerning the criteria and guidelines. The result of this phase is the External visit report (IVE).
- Application for the renewal of accreditation: the Community of Madrid will publish the rule in which the administrative procedure for the accreditation renewal of the official Bachelor's and Master's degrees of the Universities of Madrid and their affiliated centres and to fix the deadline for the submission of applications.
- Final evaluation: The Foundation's evaluation and accreditation Committee shall assess the Self-assessment and External Visit Reports and together with the rest of information available shall issue a favourable or unfavourable report for the accreditation renewal indicating in this case the asopects that must necessarily be modified with the aim of obtaining a favourable report. The university will be able to make allegations to this Report within 20 calendar days and once the allegations (or the Improvement Plan presented) have been studied, the Evaluation and Accreditation Committee will issue a Final Report (FI).
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During the Phase of the External Visit all parts integrated in the degree are invited to participate and provide their vision in the design, development and results of it. For this, the University will provide the following
OPEN HEARING FORM TO FACILITATE THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE DEGREE'S STAKEHOLDERS DURING THE EXTERNAL ACCREDITATION VISIT (access the form)