Transcript PowerPoint-presentation

To make sure that things are getting better
all the time
The internal quality assurance system at
Uppsala University
Bo Sundqvist
Uppsala University
Talk given at the 2nd Conference on Internal quality assurance at
higher education institutions, November 30, 2006, Bern
The City of Uppsala
Uppsala University
6,000 employees
- about 4,000 of them teachers
and researchers
Education and research in
nine faculties
Three Disciplinary Domains
- Arts and Social Sciences
- Medicine and Pharmacy
- Science and Technology
Turnover: 0.43 M €
- 60 % of which for research
and graduate education
Education
40,000 undergraduate students
20,000 FTE
More than 40 programmes of study
1,800 single subject courses
2,500 graduate students
Student exchange programs with
400 universities in 40 countries
Research
4,000 teachers and researchers
5,000 academic publications per year
(1500 in the Thompson ISI database)
400 doctorates per year
Nine Faculties
Theology
Law
Medicine
Pharmacy
Arts
Languages
Social Sciences
Educational Sciences
Science and Technology
Research Profiles
•
The Multi-Cultural Society
•
Mathematics and Computing Science
•
Peace, Democracy and
•
Educational Sciences
Human Rights
•
Sustainable Energy
•
Welfare and Health
•
Biological Diversity and
•
Drug Development
•
Neurodegeneration and
•
Biotechnology
Neuroregeneration
•
Genomics/Function Genomics
•
Public Health Disorders
•
IT
•
Materials Science
•
Bioethics
Evolutionary Biology
Nobel Laureates
Allvar Gullstrand - Physiology and Medicine 1911
Robert Barany - Medicine 1914
The Svedberg - Chemistry 1926
Nathan Söderblom - Nobel Prize for Peace 1930
Manne Siegbahn - Physics 1924
Arne Tiselius - Chemistry 1948
Dag Hammarskjöld - Nobel Prize for Peace 1961
Kai Siegbahn - Physics 1981
Conferment Ceremony
400 doctorates per year
Walpurgis Night - the Last Day of April
Ekonomikum
Centre for Evolutionary Biology - EBC
Geo Centre
English Park Campus. Centre for the Humanities
Centre for Mathematics and Information Technology
Uppsala Biomedical Centre - BMC
The Ångström Laboratory
The Rudbeck Laboratory
The Old Forum - Gamla torget
Teacher Training
”To make sure it is getting better all the time”
•
Quality is created in faculties and departments mainly by
teachers and students
•
The central strategies and initiatives must encourage and
reinforce a culture of quality enhancement
•
The university managements´and in particular the rectors
engagement are essential for a well-functioning quality
system
•
An active student union is important in work with quality
issues
•
Some pressure from the outside like that from the National
Agency helps
Some demands from the National Agency
Quality audits at all universties and university colleges between 1995
and 2002
Quality assessments of all subjects and programs between 2001 and
2008
Evaluations with focus on specific aspects , e.g.
student influence, internationalisation
For 2007-2013 both audits and assessments
The National agency is not concerned with research
”Matrix organisation” - Rectors seminar
PhD
educ.
ICT
Equality Quality
Univ.
Man.
XXXX
Dom.
XXXX
Facult.
XXXX
Depts.
XXXX
External Culture and
Relations traditions
•
A rectors advisor appointed for each area
•
University management and rectors advisors meet regularly for Rectors
seminar
Aspects of the internal quality assessment
system at Uppsala University
The nine faculties are responsible for the quality and quality
assurance in education and research
Decisions in the University board on a long term policy for quality
enhancement in education and research
An action plan for central initiatives in quality enhancement is
decided each year by the rector
Central unit for quality and evaluation headed by the rectors
advisor on quality
A central quality committee with representatives from the various
domains and the students with the rector as chairman
Aims and objectives for the unit for quality
and evaluation
•
Policy work together with the central quality committee
•
Implementation of the annual action plan
•
Support and consultative work to faculties, departments and
programs
•
Follow and take part in the national and international discussion on
quality assurance in higher education and research
Examples of quality projects at the
various levels in the university
Central level
Alumni evaluations
Course evaluations
Evaluation of PhD studies
External IT audit
On-line publication documentation system (OPUS)
Faculty level
Follow up of Evaluation of PhD studies
Follow up on national education program evaluations
Analysis and development of new resource allocation models
Dept level
Program and subject-course evaluations
To make sure that faculty further develope their skills
as teachers, researchers and managers
Experiences of the National Agencys
projects 2001-2006
Positive effects and conclusions:
• UU has been successful
• The National Agency has highlighted some important
national problems like subjects with few students and lack of
recources for education in general
• Useful for departments:
- the self evaluation
- the site visit
- the internally implemented alumni evaluations
Negative effects and conclusions:
• A heavy burden for departments
• Lack of clarity of aims
Earlier experiences as a dean from an
exercise in the Faculty of Science and
Technology
In 1995 the Faculty of Science and Technology was
faced with at cut of 10% in the public grants for
research. A project with the name BOT ( Cure in
English) was started which asked departments to
propose cuts of 15 % and proposals for new
initiatives on a basis of competition on the 5% level.
The scienctific results for the last 5 years were
documented. Panels of 10-15 distinguished scholars
at Cambridge and Caltech evaluated the proposals.
The dean with the support of the faculty board made
a decision on savings and reallocations based on the
external advice six months later.
The panels also gave important comments and
advice on the working procedures at the Uppsala
Faculty of Science and Technology.
SAUNA
- a Program to Rejuvenate
Uppsala University
SAUNA stands for Strategic Austerity at Uppsala for
New Advances
Our Challenge
Long-term government savings provide less scope for renewal
We must ourselves allocate means for long-term rejuvenation
This calls for new priorities
Together we will show that we can accomplish this
The SAUNA Process
September 2000
SAUNA I
August 2001
SAUNA II
Reports from the
disciplinary domains:
• Dissertations
• Publications
• Exams
• Savings
• Initiatives
SAUNA III
Comments
from students
Advisory
panels
• Helsinki
• Edinburgh
• Berkeley
The Sauna Process - August 2001
Feed-back from the advisory panels
Comments from the students
Consultations with University management
The Rector’s proposal
The Sauna Process
September - October 2001
Discussions within the University
Feed-back to the Rector
The University Board approves the proposals?
Duties of Professors
The professors should take part in undergraduate education
Organize undergraduate education so that freshman students will
encounter professors, especially in initial courses
Reallocate faculty funding so that promoted professors can devote at
least 10% of their time to pursue their own research
Recruitment of Teachers/Researchers
The recruitment process is reviewed in order to achieve a substantial
reduction of the time between the posting and the filling of a position
Search groups should be used by all faculties
Outstanding individuals are more important than persons with the
“exact” credentials
Publication Patterns
The value of publishing a scientific article is dependent on the
readership and prestige of the journal
The disciplinary domains and the faculties must annually report what
has been published and where
They must also strive to employ this information as one of several
bases for the allocation of resources
Pedagogic Development
The resources for pedagogic development at the Development and
Evaluation Unit should be coordinated with Uppsala Learning Lab
A new unit is to be created to coordinate the development of the use
of ICT for educational innovation. This unit will also coordinate the
SAUNA projects that concern the use of ICT in undergraduate
education
Chemistry Resources
The Faculty of Science and Technology, the Faculty of Medicine and
the Faculty of Pharmacy are all carrying out education and research in
chemistry
A coordinating body is to be established with the task of contributing
to the coordination of educational programs and courses, recruitments
and procurement of equipment
The Arts and Social Sciences
The Arts and Social Sciences have the largest number of faculties of
all disciplinary domains
One common faculty would enable a better coordination of the
administrative resources
A commission is to be appointed with the directive to investigate the
feasibility and the value of a change in organization
Faculty of Education
Very limited funds are available for research today
Funds for research in teacher education are to be transferred to the
Faculty of Education from the other disciplinary areas
The funds are to be allocated when the Faculty Board has submitted
a strategic plan for the research in the area
Allocation of
Funds for Renewal
A grand total of MSEK 50 per year
New Initiatives
Grand total:
MSEK 50
per year
Multidisciplinary
research
ICT and
educational
development
Summary of Research Initiatives
Research in
Human rights
Peace and Conflict Studies
Democracy
Public Health in Humanitarian Assistance
Center for Infection Biology
High performance computing
Summary of Research Initiatives
Examples of multidisciplinary research:
Medical Law
Cultural Analysis
Pharmaceutical Materials Science
Financial Mathematics
The Sauna Process
The process should be repeated in a few years
The work should be coordinated with HSV’s assessment of the quality
assurance work
No earlier than 2005, when the present proposals have been
implemented and can be assessed
(The new rector has initiated a new evaluation of research)
Future directions
Undergradute and PhD education should be bench-marked with that at
other international research universities
The follow up processes should be further developed
As examples: Bibliometry should be used to follow the production of
scientific papers and recommendations from the SAUNA panel are not
implemented fully in some faculties
The coupling of research and teaching shold be further developed and
monitored
A more active quality work still needs to be developed at the department
level