Arqus Teaching and Learning Quality Commons

1. Student-centered and inclusive.
2. Research and innovation based.
3. Designed to be accessible.
4. Methodologically sound.
5. Oriented to the student’s learning processes
6. Grounded in context.
7. Focused on helping students develop competences and skills.
8. Dedicated to the development of society by addressing societal problems and their solutions.
9. Open to sharing knowledge and practices in an open and international context.

1. Align teaching and learning activities and assessments with the intended learning outcomes.
2. Design course syllabi based on research on higher education teaching and learning.
3. Apply pedagogical principles to specific teaching and inclusive learning environments.
4. Use digital tools and digital learning resources in an accessible, relevant and learning-enhancing way.
5. Engage students in active and cooperative learning.
6. Foster self-organized and self-directed learning.
7. Prepare the students to contribute to the transformation of society.
8. Use formative feedback to improve teaching and learning processes and environments.
9. Foster critical thinking.
10. Prepare for and appreciate student heterogeneity, develop inclusion as well as reflect on diversity.
11. Interact with different disciplines and work in synergy with colleagues in order to promote innovation in problem solving.
12. Reflect on their own teaching experiences.
13. React to student resistance and critique in a constructive manner.
14. View students as their partners in the joint process of learning.

1. Develop soft skills and confidence in their abilities.
2. Successfully complete their studies.
3. Be competent within their field of studies.
4. Be able to apply their knowledge in practical, real-world settings.
5. Be critical and reflective in their actions.
6. Apply their social and personal competences for (international) cooperation.
7. Be innovative and entrepreneurial, responding to the changing needs of an increasingly complex and evolving world of work.
8. Be able to learn independently during and after their studies.
9. Shape their professional goals and ways to reach them.
10. Develop resilience.

1. Institutions should have a policy for quality assurance in teaching and learning that is made public and forms part of their strategic management.
2. Institutions should assess teaching competences during hiring and promotion processes for teaching staff.
3. Institutions should support quality development and assessment of teaching and learning.
4. Institutions should ensure engaging teachers, students and administrative staff in the definition of good teaching practices.

Institutions supporting teachers should

5. Ensure that enough resources are devoted to support teachers as well as related staff (for example curricula committees, program managers) to enable excellent teaching.
6. Provide training on pedagogy and teaching methods for teachers and other stakeholders.
7. Provide training in curricula development to all interested stakeholders.
8. Support the development of evaluation methods that consider disciplinary specificities and students’ perspectives. The evaluation methods should also clearly support student learning and covering all phases of student “life cycle”.
9. Motivate teachers by sharing good practices, rewarding outstanding practices, and promoting the importance of teaching. This should also include funding of innovative projects.
10. Promote discussion and reflection about excellent teaching and learning, also engage external stakeholders and colleagues from international universities.
11. Offer resources (for example time and space) so that teachers are encouraged to reflect on their own teaching experiences.
12. Build up disciplinary and inter disciplinary knowledge about teaching and learning, share this knowledge, and ensure a continuous inter disciplinary dialogue.
13. Provide analytical tools and pedagogical advice for teachers to help them to be able to define their own quality criteria and define actions for improvement and innovation and make them active practitioners of quality teaching.
14. Ensure the development of links between the institutions’ teaching and research activities.
15. Encourage and support teachers to develop a self-reflexive and scholarly approach towards their own teaching.