The Catalan scholar Armand Puig (La Selva del Camp, 1953), until now rector of the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià in Barcelona (AUSP), will occupy the presidency of the Agency for the Assessment and Promotion of the Quality of Universities and Ecclesiastical Faculties ( Avepro) over the next five years.
Pope Francis has entrusted him with the task of coordinating all the efforts that are made in favor of the quality of the centers and teachings of the universities and ecclesiastical faculties that are spread throughout the world. There are around 900 realities, counting the pontifical, catholic, ecclesiastical universities as well as faculties, chairs or research centers that add up to more than 10 million students distributed among the five continents, most of them religious. Other Christian-inspired universities such as the International University of Catalonia (UIC), Ramon Llull or Abat Oliba do not fall into this category.
Puig’s job will be to evaluate the quality of the studies at these 900 institutions, a requirement that Avepro sets as mandatory every five years. Puig affirms that this evaluation “is not done with an inquisitorial spirit but to improve quality” with the aim of reinforcing weak points. “They cannot be second-division institutions in terms of quality and excellence, but must be comparable to any other public or private university,†says Puig, who plans to start his new position on September 1.
The evaluation of the academic institutions directly dependent on the Holy See, also adhering to the Bologna plan, is carried out through questionnaires addressed to professors and teachers, self-assessment reports or external evaluation processes. Knowing if the continuous training of teachers is a priority, if the standards of dedication to study and research are maintained or if the interaction between teachers, religious or lay, from different studies and specializations fosters interdisciplinarity are some of the elements that the Avepro values ​​positively.
This last point is a priority objective for Puig, a professor of New Testament since 1981 at the Faculty of Theology of Catalonia, integrated into the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià , where he has served as rector since its foundation in 2015. “There must be a conjunction between the that one explains and the rest of knowledge and knowledge; a classroom cannot be an island, it must be a peninsulaâ€, graphically exposes the religious, who replaces the Polish Redemptorist religious Andrzej S. Wodka, at the helm for the last five years of an institution, which was created by the Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.
Another of Puig’s challenges in the position will be to work on a system of accreditations for the quality of studies and for research and teaching faculty. “Avepro needs to work on this point because it still does not have a system for granting accreditation, which is necessary for research projects that require financial aid; research grants require accreditation that certifies quality â€, she explains.
Puig is also committed to working to “connect” the first world institutions, which are better endowed financially, with more students and better teaching, with other more precarious realities. “We should not be governed by the competitiveness between ecclesiastical institutions but by the interrelationship; we are not here to fight against each other but to help each otherâ€, he explains.
With the new appointment, Puig will have to leave teaching in the Department of Sacred Scripture, which he has held since 1981, and the rectorate of AUSP. An institution to which he “deeply thanks” for allowing him to develop his contribution in the field of Biblical teaching and research. Among others, the coordination of the Biblia Catalana Interconfesional (1982-1993), the book Jesus, a biographical profile (Proa, 2004) or the research on the historical Jesus, the synoptic gospels, apocryphal literature, the Homilies d’ Organyà , the medieval Catalan biblical versions or the Sagrada FamÃlia basilica.
