Pope Francis has named Father Armand Puig i Tàrrech, 70, as the president of the Holy See Agency for the Evaluation and Promotion of Quality in Ecclesiastical Universities and Facilities (AVEPRO).
Pope Benedict XVI established AVEPRO in 2007 “to promote and develop a culture of quality within academic institutions that directly depend on the Holy See, and provide them with qualitative criteria that are valid at international level”—in other words, to help ensure that they comply with international regulations.
In his apostolic constitution on ecclesiastical universities and faculties (Veritatis Gaudium, 2018), Pope Francis wrote that “Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties, as well as the other institutions of higher education, are normally subject to evaluation by the Holy See’s Agency for the Evaluation and Promotion of Quality in Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties (AVEPRO).”
The Dicastery for Education explains:
AVEPRO works with academic institutions to define internal quality evaluation procedures for teaching, research, and services, through the development and use of adequate operational tools (guidelines, questionnaires, data bases, information networks, etc). Furthermore, it schedules external evaluation procedures for individual academic institutions, by organizing on-site expert visits.
The agency’s current goals are discussed in its 2021-25 strategic plan.
Father Puig i Tàrrech is rector of the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià (Barcelona). He is the author of Jesus: A Biography and Jesus: An Uncommon Journey Studies on the Historical Jesus. He succeeds Father Andrzej Wodka, CSSR, president of the Alphonsian Academy, as AVEPRO’s president; Father Wodka had been AVEPRO’s president since 2018.