Quality of education – system approach. Faculty of Management, Warsaw University

1. Quality of education – system approach. Faculty of Management, Warsaw University Krzysztof Klincewicz kklinc@gmail.com Faculty of Management Warsaw University

2. Quality of education – system approach • Importance of quality for Faculty of Management • System approach to quality • Study organization • Course delivery • Evaluating lecturers • Infrastructure and environment • Conclusions www.wz.uw.edu.pl

3. Development directions of Faculty of Management (2005-2008) • Academic research • Promotion to 1st governmental research category (2006) • Management education • No. 1 in MBA rankings, record number of candidates (2007) • Relations with environment • Career Office, Business Council, managerial training • Infrastructure • New buildings in Służewiecpart of Warsaw and new equipment www.wz.uw.edu.pl

4. Quality of education Key element of Faculty’s strategy Particularly important due to the increased number of students Starting point for international accreditations Requirement of partners (enterprises and foreign universities) Way of guaranteeing good working conditions for lecturers and acquisition of useful knowledge and skills by students Accreditation projects (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA) Co-operation with partner universities (USA, EU, Asia) and delivery of education projects financed with EU funds

5. Problems related to the quality of education Varying experiences of students and lecturers The scale of activities requires standardization Intensive competition from non-public business schools Conditions of study, rules for awarding diplomas, forms of instruction, international partners, accreditations, support for student activities Intellectual property theft, „buying” candidates, lecturers and unique study programs

6. AACSB accreditation AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) The largest and best known international association of business schools Detailed requirements – in our region, only 2 member schools from Leipzig (Germany) and Ankara (Turkey) Joint MBA program with accredited partner, University of Illinois 7-years accreditation project Challenge – and potential benefits

7. Quality of education – system approach • Importance of quality for Faculty of Management • System approach to quality • Study organization • Course delivery • Evaluating lecturers • Infrastructure and environment • Conclusions www.wz.uw.edu.pl

8. From strategy to processes Strategy and objectives as the basis for quality project Strategy Team, Business Council Formalization of processes Quality of Education Team Responsibilities extending beyond control and raporting Feedback looks: identifying problems and causes, learning and organizational improvement

9. Need for formalization Formulation of tacit rules e.g. responsibilities of study director, rules for preparation of course curricula and study plans, work of IT system coordinators, booking multimedia projectors, … Implementation of optimized solutions e.g. student surveys, study visits (hospitation), evaluation of lecturers Problem of excessive formalization? but required by international accreditations

10. Quality assurance rules 25 pages, 50 paragraphs Detailed document, adjusted to specific needs Resulting from several months of work by several persons elementsof positive feedback Broad representation of the Faculty in the authoring team Publicly available document Regular reviews of the document and change control procedure modifications may be promosed among others by students, graduates and employers Quality Team has to analyze every proposal and document the decision

11. Quality of education – system approach • Importance of quality for Faculty of Management • System approach to quality • Study organization • Course delivery • Evaluating lecturers • Infrastructure and environment • Conclusions www.wz.uw.edu.pl

12. Study programs Significance: dynamic changes in management science due to changes in the global economy Annual reviews of programs Sources of change proposals Study director – analysis of competitive programs Chair Directos – analysis of lecturers’ competencies Students representatives – collecting suggestions from students Education Committee – analysis of governmental requirements, accreditation protocols and surveys Graduates, employers, foreign partners

13. Study programs Change proposals can be submitted by anyone formal requirements (including justification) Every proposal has to be analyzed by the Education Committee annual reports from the program review – including explanation for every rejection of proposals No external reviews of study programs due to intense competition in the education market

14. Course scheduling Challenge due to the increase scale solutions convenient for students – e.g. courses scheduled for several hours in a row, without excessively long intervals Institutional conditions assigning individual responsibility for course delivery procedures for staffing and scheduling courses regular analyses of individual courseloads

15. Study organization Responsibilities of Study Directors control of course outlines – possible external reviews and requests to modify the contents legitimate means of influencing lecturers reporting obligation quantitative indicators such as: percentage of passed/failed, number of students per seminar group, time needed to complete master thesis, etc.

16. Student admissions Adjusted to legal requirements, available infrastructure and lecturers different from private schools detailed rules, restricting the admission decisions number of admitted students dependent on the number of available bachelor/master thesis supervisors (x maximum number of students per seminar) dependence on the forecast availability of classrooms

17. Quality of education – system approach • Importance of quality for Faculty of Management • System approach to quality • Study organization • Course delivery • Evaluating lecturers • Infrastructure and environment • Conclusions www.wz.uw.edu.pl

18. Ethical standards for lecturers Examples developing knowledge, skills and attitudes of students respect for students self-development (knowledge and skills) not criticizing other lecturers in the course of lecturers use of third-parties for solving conflicts with students documenting participation of students in research projects not charging students with obligations, that are not related to coursework or university regulations

19. Course delivery Rules for publishing exam requirements and course materials Protection of intellectual property Rules for communication weekly consultation hours, e-mail, websites

20. Evaluating students General evaluation principles clear criteria, impartiality, no conflicts of interest lecturers define evaluation criteria independently and respect similar rights of other lectuers ways of dealing with informal pressures Evaluation process prior exam requirement setting rules for demonstrating grade exams recommendation to score exams using standardized scales

21. Quality of education – system approach • Importance of quality for Faculty of Management • System approach to quality • Study organization • Course delivery • Evaluating lecturers • Infrastructure and environment • Conclusions www.wz.uw.edu.pl

22. Student surveys Fedback for lecturers and basis for continuous improvement results of individual surveys not used to reward or punish interpretations incorporate external variables (number of students, course hours, possible conflicts, return rates) based on experiences from past surveys, administered by student council

23. Student surveys Standard form Questions include student’s self-assessment of involvement in the course Distributed via computer system USOS Additional surveys evaluating co-operation with thesis supervisors (bachelor and master seminars)

24. Student surveys Data processing and analysis cooperation with student council data from computer system USOS substantial workload... ...but benefits for students: publication of results Publication rules no aggregation (incommensurability ofresults) results published with return rates (indicating representativeness)

25. Student surveys Feedback opinions used to improve education results of surveys passed to lecturers poor results – discussion with supervisor repeated poor results for the same course, based on the same criteria –discussion with dean, written action plan use of results in periodic evaluation of lectuers review of results from several years no direct linkage between results of individual surveys and lecturer evaluation (students should not be treated as „clients” by lowering the requirements, some courses are „less interesting” than others by definition)

26. Student rights spokesman Lecturer appointed by dean in co-operation with student council Solving problems of students regular consultation house receiving anonymous comments from students reacting to severe infingements of quality principles based on well-defined procedures preparation of annual reports

27. Peer support Consisting in lecture visits by peers (hospitation) Objectives: improvement of education, not evaluation Obligatory for all lecturers (also experienced professors) Education methods in management evolve new knowledge delivery forms, use of case studies, teaching analysis and decision, simulations of consulting projects

28. Peer support Rules for lecture visits Dates agreed in advance Participation of direct supervisor and another person, delivering the same or similar course Discussion after the visit and completion of report form Lecturer signs the form or rejects the conclusions – in such cases, additional lecture visit by dean is foreseen

29. Quality of education – system approach • Importance of quality for Faculty of Management • System approach to quality • Study organization • Course delivery • Evaluating lecturers • Infrastructure and environment • Conclusions www.wz.uw.edu.pl

30. Support for student activities Faculty of Management financially supports various extracurricular activities – and insists on accountability student circles and organizations student council career office business incubator academic seminars

31. International co-operation Increasing international activities Global MBA and International Business Program exchange of students and lecturers within EU programs and bilateral agreeements Need to set objectives and control execution exchange is not an objective per se desired type of partners (prestige, target countries, joint initiatives) review of agreements and actual conditions of exchange

32. Administrative support Formal definition of obligations in education process Administrative Director IT Manager Marketing Manager USOS Co-ordinator Library Manager

33. Infrastructure Classrooms, multimedia equipment, computers, software, photocopiers, access for disabled Example of library: stimulating own initiative Library manager collects course outlines and lists obligatory and supplementary readings (estimated no. of students per 1 book in the library, price of book) as starting point for discussion with lecturers and library budget planning

34. Quality of education – system approach • Importance of quality for Faculty of Management • System approach to quality • Study organization • Course delivery • Evaluating lecturers • Infrastructure and environment • Conclusions www.wz.uw.edu.pl

35. Conclusions Quality linked to strategic objectives of the Faculty Use of best practices of other schools and firms, as well as accreditation requirements Solution developed by Team, representing varying groups of interests Complex dependencies – no straightforward answers Possible modifications of the current rules – foreseen by the rules