National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation

The National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain, ANECA, is a autonomous body whose aim is to provide external quality assurance for the Spanish higher education system and to contribute to its constant improvement through evaluation, certification and accreditation.

Spanish legislation in Spain establishes that official university degrees must undergo external evaluation processes by ANECA at different stages. In first stage, prior to the implementation of the degree, ANECA, through their VERIFICA procedure evaluates the design of the degree. Once the degree has been implemented, ANECA monitors the development of its implementation, through the MONITOR procedure. Finally, there is a third stage, in which, once the degrees have completed their implementation, they must undergo a cyclical process of renewal of their accreditation in order to maintain their status as an official degree. 

In 2013, ANECA partnered with the Institute of Engineering of Spain (IEE) to jointly apply for the right to apply the EURACE label to accredited programs.  All programs in Spain with the EURACE label are considered to have been accredited by ANECA and IEE.  More information about IEE is available here.