Catholic University Rector in DRC Appointed to Vatican’s Scientific Council for Ecclesiastical Universities, Faculties

The other two appointed include Prof. Bénédicte Lemmelijn, dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of Louvain, and Prof. Emilio Marin, Vice Rector responsible for international cooperation of the Catholic University of Croatia.

Established by the late Pope Benedict XVI in September 2007 and linked to the Vatican, AVEPRO has the “duty is to promote and develop a culture of quality within the academic institutions that depend directly on the Holy See and ensure they possess internationally valid quality criteria.”

The Vatican agency “collaborates with all actors interested in the life and progress of ecclesiastical universities and faculties: the institutions themselves, the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Episcopal Conferences, all regional, national and international authorities, and all those who work in the various dioceses of countries in which ecclesiastical academic institutions are based.”

The agency also “collaborates with academic institutions in defining internal procedures to evaluate the quality of teaching, research and services, which is done through the development and use of appropriate operational tools”, including “guidelines, questionnaires, databases, information networks,” among others. 

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The Vatican agency has also the role of organizing “external evaluation procedures for individual academic institutions and arranges visits to them by experts.”

Additionally, AVEPRO is reportedly “developing guidelines to support the institutions in producing their strategic plan.”

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