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To make sure that things are getting better all the time - The internal quality assurance system at Uppsala University

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.

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To make sure that things are getting better all the time - The internal quality assurance system at Uppsala University

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  1. 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

  2. The City of Uppsala

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. Research • 4,000 teachers and researchers • 5,000 academic publications per year • (1500 in the Thompson ISI database) • 400 doctorates per year

  6. Nine Faculties • Theology • Law • Medicine • Pharmacy • Arts • Languages • Social Sciences • Educational Sciences • Science and Technology

  7. Research Profiles • The Multi-Cultural Society • Peace, Democracy and Human Rights • Welfare and Health • Drug Development • Neurodegeneration and Neuroregeneration • Public Health Disorders • Materials Science • Mathematics and Computing Science • Educational Sciences • Sustainable Energy • Biological Diversity and Evolutionary Biology • Biotechnology • Genomics/Function Genomics • IT • Bioethics

  8. 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

  9. Conferment Ceremony • 400 doctorates per year

  10. Walpurgis Night - the Last Day of April

  11. Ekonomikum

  12. Centre for Evolutionary Biology - EBC

  13. Geo Centre

  14. English Park Campus. Centre for the Humanities

  15. Centre for Mathematics and Information Technology

  16. Uppsala Biomedical Centre - BMC

  17. The Ångström Laboratory

  18. The Rudbeck Laboratory

  19. The Old Forum - Gamla torget

  20. Teacher Training

  21. ”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

  22. 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

  23. ”Matrix organisation” - Rectors seminar • PhD ICT Equality Quality External Culture and • educ. Relations traditions • Univ. XXXX • Man. • Dom. XXXX • Facult. XXXX • Depts. XXXX • • A rectors advisor appointed for each area • • University management and rectors advisors meet regularly for Rectors seminar

  24. 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

  25. 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

  26. Examples of quality projects at the various levels in the university Central level Alumni evaluations Course evaluations Evaluation of PhD studies External IT auditOn-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

  27. 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

  28. 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.

  29. SAUNA - a Program to Rejuvenate Uppsala University SAUNA stands for Strategic Austerity at Uppsala for New Advances

  30. 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

  31. The SAUNA Process September 2000 August 2001 SAUNA I SAUNA II SAUNA III Comments from students Advisory panels Reports from the disciplinary domains: • Helsinki • Edinburgh • Berkeley • Dissertations • Publications • Exams • Savings • Initiatives

  32. The Sauna Process - August 2001 • Feed-back from the advisory panels • Comments from the students • Consultations with University management The Rector’s proposal

  33. The Sauna Process • Discussions within the University • Feed-back to the Rector • The University Board approves the proposals? September - October 2001

  34. 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

  35. 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

  36. 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

  37. 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

  38. 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

  39. 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

  40. 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

  41. Allocation of Funds for Renewal A grand total of MSEK 50 per year

  42. New Initiatives Grand total: MSEK 50 per year ICT and educational development Multidisciplinary research

  43. 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

  44. Summary of Research Initiatives Examples of multidisciplinary research: • Medical Law • Cultural Analysis • Pharmaceutical Materials Science • Financial Mathematics

  45. 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)

  46. 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

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