CEIPA’s QS Stars journey: Building trust through global standards

Why QS Stars?

The decision to undergo the QS Stars audit was rooted in CEIPA’s ambitious long-term strategy. Between 2018 and 2030, the university set out several strategic pillars: sustainability, innovation, high quality, and leadership. “CEIPA recognises that its organisational culture must understand the importance of carrying out permanent self-evaluation and self-regulation processes that allow it to identify its strengths and, more importantly, its opportunities for improvement,” said Dr. Mazo.

For CEIPA, QS Stars was never the endpoint. As Dr. Mazo put it:

“Participation in QS Stars does not represent the end of a process, but rather the beginning of a path.”

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The audit experience

CEIPA had already achieved success with national quality processes, including High-Quality Accreditation for 84% of its academic programmes. But QS Stars marked the institution’s first international-level audit.

The experience was both rigorous and collaborative. “The directors, the auditors, and the QS Stars team stand out for their professionalism, their permanent and timely support, and especially the process and taking the necessary time to understand the particularities of our institution and be able to evaluate and audit the institution rigorously and comprehensively as required by the process,” said Dr. Mazo.

The preparation phase was equally transformative. CEIPA engaged in knowledge transfer across all teams, simulated results, and carefully curated evidence. Despite initial doubts, the process became a source of pride:

“This process allowed us to identify and realise many institutional strengths. However, the most important thing is that it led us to reflect on aspects that were necessary to strengthen in terms of implementing new initiatives that allow us to have greater results while enhancing our documentation, data-collecting process, and accountability to our community.”

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Strategic impact

The audit reinforced CEIPA’s mission to become recognised as a leader in educational innovation and societal impact. “Participating in the QS Stars audit allows us to achieve this through the support of an ally which helped us identify strong and weak aspects of the institution to be improved and benchmark our institution with high-quality institutions around the world,” said Dr. Mazo.

By aligning QS Stars performance indicators with CEIPA’s own objectives, the institution has been able to create more targeted initiatives and strengthen its long-term strategy.

Recognition across key dimensions

CEIPA’s four-star achievement included top ratings in Employability, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Good Governance, Social Impact, and Online Learning — areas that directly reflect the university’s strengths and commitments. “Having obtained such good results in these areas is a source of great pride for the institution and should be a source of pride for its general community of students, alumni, and professors, among others,” said Dr. Mazo. From pioneering virtual education in Colombia for over 20 years, to advancing social impact through research and partnerships, CEIPA has shown leadership in fields that matter not only to academia but also to society. As Dr. Mazo emphasised: “This assessment affirms the importance of comprehensive coherence between the higher purpose of CEIPA and its daily work, between the values of the institution and how its collaborators and other communities reflect these as great ambassadors.”

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Advice for other institutions

Drawing on its own journey, CEIPA offers advice to peers considering QS Stars:

“Recognise that participating in QS Stars marks a beginning on a permanent path towards excellence… Recognize that these processes will bring with them much learning, and participating in them helps the institution not to get out of our comfort zone but to expand our comfort zone by learning new things and implementing new improvement initiatives.”

Dr. Mazo also stressed the importance of leadership, commitment, and dedicating resources to ensure success.

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