Transcript Roadmap
Quality Assurance System in the Finnish Higher Education 3LUC Espoo 8.2.2007 Anna-Kaarina Kairamo [email protected] Quality Assurance in the Finnish Higher Education Elements: • National higher education policy (Ministry of Education – e.g. Bologna process) • National evaluation ( FINHEEC), e.g. – Evaluations of higher education institutions: • audits of quality assurance systems of higher education institutions • evaluations for the accreditation of the polytechnics – Programme and thematic evaluations – Accreditation of professional courses offered by higher education institutions – Nomination of Centres of Excellence in HE • Higher education institutions' own quality assurance procedures and mechanisms 2 Centres of Excellence in university education Nominated by FINHEEC • Centres of excellence in university education 20072009 – 2 at TKK (out of 20) • Universities of excellence in adult education 20072009 – – – – Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration Jyväskylä University Helsinki University ofTechnology Turku University 3 University’s own quality assurance, case TKK • Everyday process development • Development of QA system • Nomination of Centres of Excellence in teaching – 3 internal Centres of Excellence • Evaluation of departments, units, certain themes (with help of external bodies, e.g. FINHEEC, EUA, former CRE) – E.g. Evaluation of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 4 Quality Audits • Quality is one of the focal development areas in the formation of the EHEA (Bologna process, • In Finland improvement of QA by auditing the quality assurance systems of HEIs (universities & polytechnics) • To ensure by Quality Audits: - international credibility - continuous improvement of operations in HEIs • European standards and guidelines included in the model (http://www.enqa.eu/files/ENQA%20Bergen%20Report.pdf) 5 Objectives (by FINHEEC) • Support the HEIs in their quality assurance activities and improvement of operational quality • Promote dialogue on quality assurance and interaction between HEIs and their stakeholders • Collect and publish best practices in QA and promote their dissemination • Audits as a development-oriented evaluation, which has strong traditions in Finnish evaluation practice • Evaluate the QA system in terms of the audit criteria • Determine whether the HEI passes the audit or needs to undergo a re-audit 6 Procedure • Schedule – 2004 -2005: the planning phase with two pilot audits – by 2011, all Universities and Polytechnics audited – HEI audited in 6-year cycles • Auditing targets and criteria – 10 auditing targets – the ENQA standards for QA applied – Method • QA documentation + site visit by a review team public report • the method is documented in the Audit Manual • Based on audit, FINHEEC draws a conclusion: – the HEI will pass the audit, or, – due to shortages in its QA, the HEI will be subject to a reaudit. 7 Auditing targets (1) 1. Objectives and overall structure and internal coherence of the QA system 2. Documentation, including the formulation of quality policy and the definition of of procedures, actors and responsibilities 3. Comprehensiveness of the quality assurance – a) Degree education – b) Research/R & D – c) Interaction with and impact on society, contribution to regional development – d) Support and other services (such as library and information services, career and recruitment services and international services) – e) Staff development 8 Auditing targets (2) • 4. Participation of staff, students and external stakeholders in QA • 5. Interface between the QA system and management/steering • 6. Relevance of, and access to, QA information within the HEI • 7. Relevance of, and access to, QA information for external stakeholders • 8. Efficiency of QA procedures and structures and their effect on the development of activities • 9. Use of information produced by the QA system as a tool for quality management and enhancement in education and other activities • 10. Monitoring, evaluation and continuous development of the QA system 9 • Audit Manual http://www.kka.fi/pdf/julkaisut/KKA_406.pdf • FINHEEC http://www.kka.fi/ 10