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Quality at NOVA IMS

Topo Qualidade

Quality at NOVA IMS

The continued path of NOVA IMS' success over more than three decades is based on an unequivocal, determined, and persistent focus on quality. Quality of everything we do and the successive challenges taken in the fields of teaching, research, third mission, as well as of support services, in alignment with a strategic direction recently adopted for 2019-2022, guided by our collective intent and identity, to which is associated a signature that should serve as a watermark for everything we want to do more and better: "From Data to Value".

Nova's Internal Quality Monitoring and Evaluation System

NOVA IMS, as an Academic Unit of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, takes its vocation to contribute in a pioneering and leading way to the conversion of data into value ("From Data to Value") through Data Science and Analysis, by an integrated and properly articulated commitment to teaching, research, and third mission initiatives.

The successful evolution of NOVA IMS can also be followed through a careful analysis of the time evolution in about 30 KPIs, targeted for periodic monitoring, being in its broad majority indicators of the quality achieved in the different fields of NOVA IMS' intervention.

In order to fulfill its vocation, several quality-assurance and management mechanisms have been adopted at NOVA IMS, according to the different benchmarks used by global rating, accrediting, and ranking agencies. And it without forgetting in any case, what is genuinely central to the best higher education institutions and also in the journey of affirmation for the quality of NOVA IMS: the attraction of great students, teachers, and researchers, accompanied by support services provided by great professionals; a human community that through an agile, uncomplicated, vibrant, motivating environment, based on meritocracy and a strong internal cohesion, is encouraged to dream and fulfill dreams in a context of great intellectual and creative freedom. This is the strategic soul of quality at NOVA IMS; it explains the success achieved in the last decades and is the engine of its continued future development.

It is within this kind of context and framework that the NOVA Internal Quality Monitoring Evaluation System (NOVA SIMAQ) has been developed at UNL and its Academic Units, since the 2018/2019 school year, following its accordance with the standards for the internal quality assurance systems set by the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES).

The aim is to establish an integrated quality management system for the multiple activities developed at NOVA IMS, always focused on converting data into value ("From Data to Value"), covering, in particular, the following nuclear domains: Teaching and Learning (EA); Research and Development (I&D); Interinstitutional and Community Collaboration (CI&C); Internationalization (INT); Value Creation (CV):

Incentives to Excellence

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.

SIMAQ Organizational Structure at NOVA IMS


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.

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Teaching and Learning

The Evaluation of Teachers and Curricular Units by students has been implemented at NOVA IMS since its foundation, more than 30 years ago. Additionally, there are mechanisms for the regular monitoring of the functioning of the study programs and curricular units, through the great proximity between teachers and students, regular dialogue maintained between student representatives and Coordinators of Study Programs, the Pedagogical Council, the Student and Faculty Support Offices, and the NOVA IMS Board of Directors.

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Research and Development

MagIC - Research Center in Information Management occupies a central position within NOVA IMS in the scope of Research and Development (R&D). The NOVA IMS research center is a multidisciplinary research unit, existing since 1998. It is financed and evaluated by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT is the Portuguese national funding agency for science, research, and technology), having obtained the result of Very Good in the last evaluation cycle.

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Interinstitutional Collaboration and Partnerships

AD NOVA IMS (Association for the Development of the Higher Institute of Statistics and Information Management) plays a crucial role in the strategy of inter-institutional collaboration, interaction with society, and achievement of the NOVA IMS third mission.

NOVA IMS has been diversifying its activities within the so-called "Third Mission" of Higher Education, promoting and establishing partnerships with companies, universities, and other institutionss. These partnerships are diverse in nature and cover areas related to NOVA IMS' scientific, pedagogical, and institutional development.

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Internacionalization

The quality levels and results achieved by NOVA IMS have allowed reaching increasing levels of internationalization.

NOVA IMS was the first institution in the Iberian Peninsula to join iSchools, an international organization that brings together leading universities in the research and teaching of information sciences.

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Institutional Documents

Read the Documents and Regulations related to Quality in NOVA IMS here.

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Compliments, Suggestions and Complaints

We appreciate your contribution to the improvement of our services, through compliments, suggestions or complaints.

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