Quality at NOVA IMS

NOVA IMS as an Organic Unit of the Nova University of Lisbon has built a legacy of excellence in education, research, and value creation over the past three decades. The aim is for this legacy to continue growing, establishing NOVA IMS as a reference in the field of Data Science and Information Management.

Our purpose of sustained and sustainable evolution will be continuously monitored through data collection and processing, organized into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) subject to periodic monitoring. These KPIs predominantly measure the quality achieved in various areas of intervention.

To fulfill its vocation, NOVA IMS has adopted various mechanisms for ensuring and managing quality in accordance with different benchmarks employed by evaluating entities, accreditors, and international rankings. However, we must not forget what is truly central to the best higher education institutions and NOVA IMS’ journey towards affirming quality: attracting excellent students, faculty, and researchers, along with support services provided by outstanding professionals. It is this human community, thriving in an agile, uncomplicated, vibrant, motivating environment, built on meritocracy and strong internal cohesion, that is encouraged to dream and implement those dreams with great intellectual and creative freedom. This strategic soul explains the success achieved in the past decades and serves as the driving force for future development.

Within this context and framework, the Internal System for Monitoring and Evaluating the Quality of NOVA (NOVA SIMAQ) has been developed at UNL and its Organic Units since the 2018/2019 academic year, following the benchmarks for internal quality assurance systems adopted by the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES).

Meritocracy is one of the core values of the organizational culture that characterize NOVA IMS, where the importance of proposing policies and recognizing merit measures has always been recognized through a set of actions that aim at permanently valuing the initiative, dedication, and results obtained by NOVA IMS (namely through the efforts of its students, employees, teachers, and partners).

In the pursuit of the policy of recognition of merit assumed as the central value of NOVA IMS, every year, an awards and diplomas ceremony (Commencement Ceremony) is held for different types of members of the NOVA IMS community. As a way to promote the commitment and quality of its teachers, researchers, employees, and Alumni, different types of acknowledgments are attributed, corresponding to the various dimensions of academic activity (Teaching, Research, Innovation), besides cases of lasting connection to NOVA IMS.

Additionally, all NOVA IMS employees and teachers perform their functions within frameworks that stimulate and recognize merit, through different types of evaluations, performance awards, and corresponding career progression systems.

The Quality Delegates, employees responsible for each service, are responsible for promoting the dissemination and implementation of Quality practices in the respective service, as well as ensuring that the section of the Procedures Manual relating to the respective service is updated.

The Institutional Research Office is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and sharing of NOVA IMS data relevant to quality assurance, management and planning, support to decision-making processes, and the operation of NOVA IMS.