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5) Name of the HEILaurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland
6) Person completing the questionnaire, position and contact details Please add any other staff (position) who help you completing the questionnaire. Outi Kallioinen, development director
Ratatie 22, 01300 VANTAA, FINLAND tel. +358 400 887922
7) Number of students of the institution (full time equivalent students) 7200 (full time equivalent)
8) Proportion of Bachelor/Masters/Doctoral degress/ Other degrees offered (use figures and %) 18 Bachelor programmes (15 Finnish and 3 English), 6820 students, 94.7 %
6 Master programmes (5 Finnish and 1 English), 210 students, 2.9 % (Master programmes started on a permanent basis in 2006 in Finnish universities of applied sciences)
specialization studies (30 cr), 13 programmes, 170 students, 2.4 %
9) Full time equivalent number of teaching staff and number of teacher-to-student ratio 284 lecturers, teacher-to-student ratio 26.2
10) Business/management: 692 students
11) In case the list above is irrelevant to your institution, please use the comment box below to show specific breakdown of students using your own classification.
All figures include Bachelor- and Master-programme students (specialization studies are not included in these figures)
Culture: 40 students
Social and Health Care: 765 students
Natural Resources: 60 students
Natural Sciences, Information technology: 165 students
Hospitality Management: 180 students
12) Does your institution select the students? Please specify at which level
Our university selects the students for all programmes. Normally there is first a paper selection based on certificates, work experience, etc. and then we invite students for tests and interviews. There are no psychological tests in the selection process.
13) What are the main commitments of the institution aimed at enhancing the quality of its teaching?
1 is high 4 is low
Initial recruitment process of teaching staff 1
Continuing education for faculty 1
Institutional policy design, monitoring and implementation 1
Programme design, programme monitoring and implementation 1
Student evaluation (i.e. evaluation, achieved by the students, of the programmes or of their learning
Professional development to pedagogy (pedagogical tools, teachers behaviour and attitudes) 1
Funds to promote motivative teaching 3
Prize endowment for 'good' teachers or remarkable QT initiated by teachers 3 Support to organisations, management of programmes at teachers level 1 Support to organisation, management of programmes at institutional level (departmental or institutional level) 1 Support to teaching and learning environment (libraries, computing facilities, virtual learning environment...) 1 Support to students(eg. councelling service, career advice, mentoring, students associations...) 1
Feedback loop of the QT initiatives on the teaching experience 1
Support to student learning (initiatives helping students to work efficiently) 1 14) Additional comments?
In Laurea's personnell programme the policy for teaching and teacher development is stated. Development discussions are carried out annually. All 284 teachers have the development discussions with their degree programme leaders and the above mentioned issues are taken into discussion regularly. We also evaluate working atmosphere bi-annually and leadership surveys are carried out annually.
Our student feedback system has been buil over the past 10 years and we carry out annually first phase, middle phase and graduation feedback surveys. The feedback committee designs, follows and develops these questionnaires and the results are analysed at unit level and degree programme level by the degree programme leader and the staff.
15) IMPORTANT: What is (are) the specific QT initiative(s) your institution woud like to address particularly through this questionnaire (1 to 3 QT initiatives):
Please specify:
1. VALUES, PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGY AND COMPETENCE-BASED CURRICULUM IMPROVING QUALITY AND RELEVANCE OF TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
16) Is your institution accredited or externally adjudged in relation to quality assurance or enhancement at institutional level?
Yes (0)
17) Additional comments?
Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC) works for the Ministry of Education and carries out various types of external evaluations(e.g. nominations for centers of excellence in training and education for universities of applied sciences and nominations for centers of excellence in regional development for universities of applied sciences). All Finnish higher education institutions' quality assurance systems will be audited by 2010.
In 2005 Laurea was nominated by the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (www.kka.fi) as one of the four centres of excellence in training and education for 2005–2006. This nomination was based on our innovative pedagogical model LbD (Learning by Developing). According to the evaluation committee showed highg quality innovative activity, which met the various quality criteria by FINHEEC either well or in an excellent way (Salminen & Kajaste 2005, 80). Laurea has also been twice nominated as a center of excellence in regional development among universities of applied sciences.
Laurea's quality assurance system will be audited in autumn 2010.
18) When has the most recent accreditation or evaluation occured at institutional level and at programme level?
During 2007 there was an international evaluation on our LbD-model (see Vyakarnam et. al 2008). You will find the report also from our web-page.
http://www.laurea.fi/net/fi/05_Julkaisutoiminta/02_Raportit/MAKING_A_DIFFERENCE._A_Report_on_Learning_by_Developin g__Innovation_in_Higher_Education_at_Laurea_University_of_Applied_Sciences./B26.pdf
19) What body carries out the accreditation or the external quality assurance or enhancement process at institutional level?
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We meet annually the representatives from the Ministry of Education and discuss the overall results and targets of our university.
Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC) works for the Ministry of Education and carries out various types of external evaluations(e.g. nominations for centers of excellence in training and education for universities of applied sciences and nominations for centers of excellence in regional development for universities of applied sciences). All Finnish higher education institutions' quality assurance systems will be audited by 2010.
20) Other additional bodies?
For the international LbD-evaluation we invited the members to the evaluation team: Dr. Shailendra Vyakarnam from Cambridge University, Dr. Katalin Illes from Anglia Ruskin University, Prof. Anette Kolmos from Aalborg University and Mr. Thomas Madritsch from Kufstein Polytechnic.
21) What are the main methods used to accreditate or to adjudge the institution in relation to quality assurance or engagement?
1) Self-evaluation + peer review:
The entire evaluation system is built in the quality assurance system with systematic, annual methods. Laurea is a value-driven university with three main strategies steering its operations: r&d-strategy, regional development strategy and pedagogical strategy. For these three strategies' implementation we have designed a strategy implementation plan with detailed, critical success factors (1. R&D and regional development, 2. Learning by Developing, 3. Education process, 4. Quality assurance and 5. Competence management). The quality assurance system is built on these success factors.
As a part of our quality assurance system we use also self-evaluation and peer review.
We use annual self-evaluation on various themes. This year each campus (8 different campuses around Uusimaa region)performs self-evaluation on innovation process. Stake-holders and students are also invited to participate in these evaluation sessions.
This year we are also carrying out a evaluation with Hamk University of Applied Science. The focus in this cross-evaluation is in the Strategy and Management process.
22) 2) Other additional main methods used?
In quality assurance system we also have annual bench marking events. This year bench marking events were focused to guidance and tutoring and the best practices were presented in a one-day seminar.
23) Other addditional bodies?
Working life partners are invited to curriculum evaluation seminar annually.
For a new curriculum we ask for external statements for approval before the president of our university accepts the new curriculum.
24) What are the main methods used to accreditate programmes? 1) Self-evaluation + peer review:
Degree programme level evaluation is carried out on a continuous basis by the degree programme leader. We have a real-time tool for following up student performance etc.
In the annual curriculum seminars we use self-evaluation according to specified criteria.
25) What is the scope covered by the accreditation or the process in relation to quality assurance or enhancement (on teaching aspects only)?
1 is high 4 is low
Academic content of programmes 1
Recruitment process of teaching staff 1
Human resources policy 1
Pedagogy 1
Facilities for teaching and learning 1
Quality assurance set up by the institution to support quality teaching 1
26) Additional scopes covered?
On degree programme level we also evaluate:
impact in regional development
integration of teaching, r&d and regional development acquisition of generic working life competences development of learning environments development of competence evaluation
27) Has your institution recently required a private accreditation or evaluation (labelisation, etc) at which level?
LbD-evaluation was a privat evaluation initiated by our universities own will and idea.
28) In your country, to what extent does your institution have the freedom or the autonomy to.... 1 is high 4 is low
Design the programmes 1
Implement the programmes 1 Assess the outcomes of the programme 1
Recruit teachers 1
Discretion to reward the teachers 1
Assess the teachers 1
29) Does your institution (or part thereof) assign certain teachers to specific classes or specific levels (eg. at an introductory level)?
We have lecturers (requirement is Master-degree) and principal lecturers (equivalent to academic university professors, requirement is Doctor-degree or Licentiate-degree)
30) Do external regulations/guidelines oblige or expect new recruited teachers to be trained initially or on continuing education?
In the law it is stated that lecturers in universities of applied sciences should pass teachers pedagogical studies (60 cr) within three year's time from the beginning of the employment. At Laurea 88.4 % of teachers have passed this examination.
Page 3 (13 Points)
31)
* Introduction: profile and context of the institution * Origin and initial steps of the QT initiative * Functioning of the QT initiative
* Extension and sustainability of the QT initiative
* Progress monitoring and assessment of the QT initiative * Synergy of the QT initiative
* Additional comments (optional) * Confidentiality and further issues
32) What is the initiative?
Describe the QT initiative and give examples: QT initiative of Laurea:
VALUES, PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGY AND COMPETENCE-BASED CURRICULUM IMPROVING QUALITY AND RELEVANCE OF TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION
Laurea University of Applied Sciences in the larger Helsinki metropolitan area with its 8000 students and 500 of staff is undergoing an important process of change. Laurea is a value-driven university with three main strategies steering its operations: r&d-strategy, regional development strategy and pedagogical strategy.
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Laurea‟s operations are steered by its strategic intent, which is to be an acknowledged and international university of applied sciences in innovation activities by 2010. In terms of regional development, „acknowledged‟ refers to the newly established professional Master-programs in the Finnish dual system in higher education. Acknowledged also means that Laurea is one of the active players in innovation activities and regional development in producing new knowledge and competence as well as in carrying out applied research and development work serving regional development in accordance with the quality criteria set for the European Higher Education Area. In terms of international relations, Laurea also enriches its area of operation with international networks, r&d-programs and top-level expertise, thus promoting internationalisation in the larger Helsinki metropolitan area. In terms of innovation, Laurea strengthens and fosters the innovation capacity of its area of operation and creates favourable conditions for the birth of innovation.
In the Helsinki metropolitan area with its multiple players, Laurea‟s strategic choice in the region is to participate
consciously in development programmes that bring various players together. Laurea participates in all the numerous Centre of Expertise and Regional Centre Programmes in its area of operation. Several reports have been published in Finland looking at the challenges and opportunities faced by the country. Regional competitiveness and welfare depend on the region‟s ability to create and make use of new information. The Helsinki metropolitan area is characterised by a wealth of players and development strategies. According to the vision expressed in the Regional Plan of Uusimaa Province, “by 2025, Uusimaa will be the most competitive, the safest and the most enjoyable metropolitan region in northern Europe”. This could be considered a common vision for the whole area of operation. (Laurea 2005.) These new contexts and visions of the region also create challenges for renewing and improving the teaching and learning methods and this was one of the reasons why Laurea‟s pedagogical strategy was renewed this year.
Laurea‟s strategic choice as a university of applied sciences is to integrate its three main tasks (r&d, pedagogy and regional development) into each other. The main strategic aims for Laurea‟s regional development work, as listed in the latest regional development strategy are: 1) supporting metropolisation; 2) reinforcing cluster development; 3) bringing about effective innovation; and 4) increasing the internationalisation of regional development work. These perspectives are embedded in the r&d-strategy and in the pedagogical strategy. In this multidimensional strategic playground with huge challenges it is extremely important that our university‟s value basis is solid and coherent.
VALUES IN STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
The special position and role of the Finnish universities of applied sciences and their purpose and value in the society is based on the widespread societal impact which emphasizes their ethical and societal responsibility in education and civilisation / edification tasks. Therefore it is not insignificant what kind of societal value purposes this education enhances. The societal service task does not just mean adapting to the current values, circumstances and demands. Universities of applied sciences should also be active change agents promoting good working life, good society, good environment and good life. The ethical dimension permeates the whole university. (Lampinen & Nummela 2004, 11.).
Universities of applied sciences in Finland are to construct the good for their operational environment and from this perspective it is essential to define the values on which the good is constructed. The mutual core values for higher education institutions in democratic societies are freedom, equality and social justice, which can also be rooted in Dewey‟s concept of democratic school.
STRATEGIC VALUES AS DRIVERS
In Laurea the basis for strategic leadersip and all operation is founded on the five core values which were decided in a collaborative process in the year 2000:
- student and customer focus - reliability
- working as one community, openness and co-operation - social responsibility
- innovativeness
Laurea‟s new pedagogical strategy is also based on these core values which are all expressed in the introduction of the pedagogical strategy.
Student and customer focus
Student and customer focus means among other things that the students are considered as the most important interest group of Laurea and they should be placed in the center. The Finnish National Higher Education Evaluation Council took this into account in their positive feedback in 2005 as they nominated Laurea as one of the four centres of excellence in training and education for 2005–2006 (Salminen & Kajaste 2005). In regional development work also the meaning of other interest groups grows rapidly because in Laurea‟s pedagogy they are in a more active and important role in producing quality learning for all parties, i.e. students, working life representatives and our own personnell.
However, student and customer focus does not mean „over-caring‟ or patronizing because all our students are adults from whom we can expect own active role and self-directiveness in their learning processes and professional growth process. And this also means special attention to the guidance system so that the student really is in the focus point.
Reliability
Reliability in practical operations means that our university‟s official tasks are being taken care of in a realiable and professional way according to the law. Reliability also includes our students‟ equal and fair treatment. Laurea is a reliable university, where the student has a real possibility to develop into highly qualified, research oriented developer and expert in his/her own field. In that sense the learning outcomes in our curricula are very important and we are in the middle of
developing also the competence evaluation methodology. As an integral part of our quality assurance system (appendix 2) we have an extensive student feedback system. The logics of our quality assurance system is that we have three main strategies, strategy implementation plan for 2007-2009 with success factors and a quality assurance system based on these success factors.
Reliability is clearly emphasized as we produce e.g. quantitative data for decision makers, ministry of education, our owners, etc. There won‟t be any trust unless we are a realiable partner to our interest groups, both external and internal. Himanen (2004) points out that everything is built on trust and then there can be the enriching community with great passion to achieve something. Also the student guidance and councelling is based on trust and reliability which is a challenge for us . Reliability as a value has a clear effect on the students‟ well functioning learning processes.
Working as one community, openness and co-operation
Working as one community, openness and co-operation as Laurea‟s values are the core elements, with which the quality learning is enabled in the LbD-model. This brings special challenges to how we as an organisation can grow towards being an even better one community, where students are equal, dialogic partners instead of traditional objects for teaching. Authenticity and partnership from the LbD-model and networking-competence from our generic competences are strongly built on this value basis.
Among the five core values this is the value that expresses the authentic heartbeat of our university (see more in
Sergiovanni 2005). Without the strong sense of one community, real openness and cooperation we are nothing but buildings and structures, hollow shells. Values-driven management is the key to glue pieces together and bring different aspects into a fruitful and open dialogue, to produce constructive organisational culture.
Social responsibility
Guidance to social responsibility is part of Laurea‟s „bildung‟ or civilisation tasks as a professional university. Without social responsibility there cannot be any societal cohesion created or maintained and therefore it is of utmost importance that every student from Laurea could have a personal view of his/her own role in producing societal cohesion. In our generic
competences especially ethical competence, reflection competence and globalisation competence have learning outcomes that are well linked to this theme.
Personally I would say that guidance to social responsibility is one of our most challenging tasks in high quality learning. There we operate already in areas with factors to which we as a university cannot very much effect (e.g. students‟ biographies and other external factors). But we do have the means to build students‟ self-esteem and self-conscientiousness. With values-driven strategic leadership in e.g. teacher training we can have impact on these issues. This autumn we started for the second time a PD Transformational Teacher -program (40 cr) for our teachers in cooperation with Tampere University, Research Center for Vocational education.
Innovativeness
Innovativeness as a value means especially that Laurea constantly adds value to its operational environment a proactive and future oriented researcher and developer. Laurea‟s operation is labelled by innovativeness and production of innovations and innovative experts for working life. In the center of innovativeness is the whole organisations‟ special desire and ability to be renewed. In the professional growth of our students and as part of high quality learning the value of innovativeness is expressed in practical and evaluable learning outcomes in innovation competence. In innovation competence there are learning outcomes for three levels: personal competence level, organisational development level and social reform level. Each Bachelor-student should reach at least the personal competence level in all of our generic competences.
By 2010 Laurea‟s strategic intent is to be an acknowledged and international university of applied sciences in innovation activities. In the field of innovations we have a lot of strategic decisions made which will enhance our intent to come true. Strategically Laurea strengthens and fosters the innovation capacity of its area of operation and creates favourable conditions for the birth of innovation.
The strategic principles are also evident in our innovation platforms, which are described in figure 3 (Pedagogical strategy 2007). The values are especially discussed in the dialogue with the operational environment and the eventual partners in r&d projects and programs. These modern innovation platforms create new challenges for our teachers especially in networking-competence and in the learning and guidance activities in the transdisciplinary Mode 2 knowledge creation process (Gibbons et al .2000).
PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGY AND COMPETENCE-BASED CURRICULUM
The starting point of Laurea‟s pedagogical strategy is our strategic intent for 2010. All our operations are managed
strategically to this direction. In these dynamic changes in the larger Helsinki metropolitan area it was crucial that we renewed and updated our pedagogical strategy. The strategy process was a strongly collaborative endeavor which was integrated in
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the development work of our pedagogical model, Learning by Developing (LbD) and in the curriculum reform during the years 2004-2006.
In 2005 Laurea was nominated by the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (www.kka.fi) as one of the four centres of excellence in training and education for 2005–2006 (Salminen & Kajaste 2005). This nomination was based on our innovative pedagogical model LbD. According to the evaluation committee showed highg quality innovative activity, which met the various quality criteria by FINHEEC either well or in an excellent way (Salminen & Kajaste 2005, 80).
In Laurea‟s pedagogical strategy the dimensions of LbD are stated and explained. This model transfroms teaching in a profound way and it is a great opportunity and challenge for our entire personnell. It changes the role of the teacher to be more as a colleague, co-learner, coach and development partner. This also changes the role of the student to be a junior colleague and equal cooperation partner with the teacher and the working life representatives which are also part of the learning processes. Our learning environments are also undergoing a change to be able to better meet the challenges of this pedagogical model where there are no more so much of traditional lectures with a teacher speaking in front of a traditional classroom but instead more like modern team offices with good access to knowledge and information sources and other modern equipment needed. This means that we are also changing our leadership towards shared transformational and visionary leadership in an expert organisation instead of running a school in a traditional way.
Our competence-based curriculum reform took place during 2004-2006. In the pedagogical strategy there is a short outline of the curriculum‟s basic principles. More information you can find from our web-site www.laurea.fi , where there is a
publication about the curriculum process (Kallioinen, O. 2007a). As a part of our quality work the generic competences of the curriculum are also compared to the national and European competence definitions (Kallioinen, O. 2007b).
Based on our quality assurance system (expertise managements) we are piloting also a personal self-evaluative measuring tool with a workname „Transformative Teacher in LbD-model‟. It consists of eight dimensions with five statements in each and the results are discussed in the annual development discussion with the teachers. Using this tool we can steer the
competence development of teachers to better meet the requirements of Learning by Developing –model and achieve our strategic intent. The preliminary results of using this tool are promising.
In Laurea we are doing a lot of innovative and ambitious work in the field of teacher development, higher education pedagogy, regional development and research and development. We believe that our pedagogical strategy and competence-based curriculum with various teacher development practices would be worth benchmarking for others as well and most of all during this IMHE process we could ourselves learn a lot more and be able to develop our activities even further. In this brief initiative we have tried to give a condensed perspective into our university‟s strategic tools in producing quality and relevance in teaching and defining the best development steps for teacher development.
REFERENCES
Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P. & Trow, M. 2000. (first ed. 1994). The new production of knowledge. The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. London: Sage.
Himanen, P. 2004. Välittävä, kannustava ja luova Suomi. Katsaus tietoyhteiskuntamme syviin haasteisiin. Tulevaisuusvaliokunta. Teknologian arviointeja 18. Eduskunnan kanslian julkaisu 4/2004.
Kallioinen, O. 2007a. (ed.) The Competence-based Curriculum at Laurea. Laurea Publications B 25. Laurea University of Applied Sciences.
Kallioinen, O. 2007b. Laurea‟s generic competences compared with European competence definitions. A paper presented at the European Educational Research Association‟s conference in Belgium, Ghent, September 19-21, 2007.
Lampinen, O. & Nummela, P. 2004. Ammattikorkeakoulun eettiset ulottuvuudet ja haasteet. Teoksessa Ammattikorkeakouluetiikka. Opetusministeriön julkaisuja 2004:30. Ministry of Education, publication 2004:30.
Laurea 2005. Proposal to become a regional development centre of expertise. Application for the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council.
OECD. 2004. OECD Territorial reviews Helsinki, Finland. Volume 2003. Number 30. April 2004.
Pedagogical strategy 2007. Laurea University of Applied Sciences.
Salminen, H. & Kajaste, M. (ed.): Laatua, innovatiivisuutta ja proaktiivisuutta. Ammattikorkeakoulujen koulutuksen laatuyksiköt 2005–2006 . Korkeakoulujen arviointineuvosto 3:2005. FINHEEC. Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council.
Sergiovanni, T. J. 2005. Strenghtening the Heartbeat. Leading and Learning Together in Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
33) What was the origin of the QT Initiative? Internal (stragtegy, new types of teaching) (0)
External (law, regulation, quality assurance process, accountability...) (0) 34) Comments
External reason: Ministry of Education has asked all universities of applied sciences to produce a pedagogical strategy and this 2007 pedagogical strategy is Laurea's second.
Internal reason: Our new pedagogical model required us to renew our pedagogical strategy 35) Who prompted the QT initiative within the institution?
Teachers as a team (0)
Leadership at school or faculty level (0) Decision-making bodies (0)
36) Has the QT initiative...
Been implemented for less than 3 years (0) 37) How would you describe the QT initiative?
Experimental yes Established yes 38) Does it aim at:
Enhancing the quality of the teaching (0) Assessing the quality of the teaching (0) Helping teachers to teach efficiently (0)
Rewarding teachers that commit themselves to QT (0) Affecting teachers career progression (0)
39) What is the level of concern regarding the objectives of the QT initiative? 1 is high 4 is low
For the Institution 1 For teachers 1 For students 1
40) Is the QT initiative locally implemented(within a faculty or a department or at lower level)?
Our pedagogical strategy is implemented at all levels and it is transforming the teaching and learning culture. This challenges especially also the leadership.
41) Is the QT initiative disseminated (over several departments, faculties or concerns the whole institution)? It is an overall concept of our core pedagogical ideas and objectives in enhancing student learning and transforming teachership. The core values are in a central position of all operation.
42) What is the exact timeline of the QT initiative?
This is a large-scale process to implement the new pedagogical ideas and the new strategy. It all started a few years ago and the process is going on at the moment.
The teacher development PD programme is for the years 2007-2008 and the Transformative Teacher self-evaluation tool for our teachers has just been launced.
43) Who is dedicated to the project (position, type, number of staff concerned) and how is it done? All degree programme leaders (11 persons) act as pedagogical leaders and with their staff they are involved in this. All Laurea staff (480 persons at the moment, out of which 280 lecturers) are involved with the pedagogical strategy in one way or another.
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chairperson for the Laurea pedagogical team of five members. The pedagogical team is taking care of the general guidelines in developing pedagogy and implementing the pedagogical strategy.
44) Does your institution have a specific body/committee/postholder that centalises or monitors or coordinates the support to the QT initiative?
As the development director I'm among other issues in charge of the pedagogical process of our university and I am the chairperson for the Laurea pedagogical team of five members. The pedagogical team is taking care of the general guidelines in developing pedagogy and implementing the pedagogical strategy.
45) What is the target audience of the QT initiative?
The target audience represent the beneficiaries, those who are directly concerned and involved by the QT initiative
1 is high 4 is low New teachers 1 Current teachers 1 Bachelor students 1 Master students 1 Doctoral students Administrative staff 3 Leaders of the institution 1
Employers 2
46) Other target audiences?
working life partners in the various development projects
r&d partners
external higher education networks and colleagues
47) How many people have attended and which departments have participated (as beneficiaries) in the QT initiative so far?
All staff in the pedagogical strategy
18 lecturers in PD programme for teachers
All teachers for the self-evaluation tool Transformative teachership
48) If individual teachers have been launching their own QT initiative, to what extent does the institution support, monitor and/or reward these initiatives?
The teachers have freedom to develop pedagogy in their contexts and it is supported by their leaders. The best practices are presented regularly to other staff as well, especially within the new pedagogical model.
49) To what extent the QT initiative has enhanced or clarified the linkage between research activities and teaching activities in the institution?
This pedagogical strategy integrates teaching, r&d and regional development really efficiently. 50) Is there a willingness of the institution to extend the QT initiative?
The staff is undergoing this phase of change. The vast majority is willing but there are still some traditional teachers who have difficulties in changing their attitudes and behaviour.
51) How has the institution extended, disseminated or permeated the QT initiative in-house?
The pedagogical strategy was written in a process where everybody had the chance to comment and send suggestions. The strategy was then discussed in many meetings and development seminars at the practical level of everyday teaching, guidance and learning. The staff has taken this strategy as their own.
52) What are the major challenges the QT initiative promoters will have to anticipate, or had to anticipate, in order to succeed?
The major challenge is the traditional teaching culture and the traditional teacher identity.
53) In what ways, does your institution encourage discussion of the impacts and the appraisal of the efficiency of the QT initiative?
Our organisation is famous for its active discourse. 54) How is the QT initiative funded?
special external money, internal resource, amount... within our normal budget.
55) How does your institution foresee the next steps for the future of the QT initiative?
In the implementation of the pedagogical strategy the next steps are especially in competence evaluation and development of learning environments.
56) Additionally, what could be done to lead the QT initiative to greater success?
The students should be oriented to studies using more efficiently this new pedagogical strategy in every campus 57) What are the mechanisms/indicators implemented by the institution to follow-up on the progress of the QT intiative?
The critical success factors are in our strategy implementation plan for 2007-2009. We assess annually the results in these success factors and decide about development procdures.
58) What is measured when assessing or monitoring the QT initiative?
The strategy implementation plan is in translation at the moment and I will send it to you as a separate attachment within two weeks time.
59) The people who are in charge of the implementation of the QT intiative, who are they accountable to? To their leaders.
60) Who are responsible for taking stock of the QT intiative's progression and of it's outputs? 1) The people in charge of QT implementation?
Laurea management board is in charge of the progression.
61) What criteria did your institution chose to evaluate the success of the QT intiative? Please give examples of the criteria.
Transforming the teaching culture encompasses our whole area of operation.
Laurea‟s critical success factors have five dimensions:
2.1 Research and development and regional development 2.2 Learning by Developing (LbD)
2.3 The educational process 2.4 Quality control
2.5 Competence management
Each dimension contains indicators with which the achievement of critical success factors is evaluated. Below are the indicators for each dimension.
2.1 Research and development and regional develop-ment • Operating plan
• Development of innovation partnerships
• Internationalisation of regional development and R&D initia-tives • International experts at Laurea and in the region
• Entrepreneurship
• Innovations (industry usability assessments, SME sector)
• Publications in strategic areas • Man-years spent on research • Project-based theses • Learning through R&D
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• Research and development funding structure
2.2 Learning by Developing (LbD)
• Development and dissemination of the operating model • Quality of instruction and tutoring
• New teaching philosophy
• Development of learning environments • Virtual studies
• Feedback from practical work placements
2.3 Educational process • Attractiveness
• Young students coming from vocational education • Degree completion rate
• Accumulation of studies • Average completion time • Employment rate
2.4 Quality control
• Quality Control Handbook • Internal audits
• Curriculum evaluation
• International evaluation of LbD model in 2008
• Assessment for centre of excellence in education in 2008 2.5 Competence management • Management • Staff development
62) Please give examples of yardsticks or standards to be reached example in 2.1
Project-based theses
The proportion of project-based theses out of all theses will exceed the Ministry of Education‟s target in 2009.
2007 Laurea‟s project-based theses 79.2%
2009 Ministry of Education‟s target 80.0%
example 2.2
Feedback from practical work placements
The average grade received by Laurea‟s practical work place-ment in student feedback exceeds the Finnish average.
Feedback from graduands (OPALA questions: average grade):
Question 1. Sufficient guidance was provided during the place-ment. 2005 Laurea 3.0 All UASs 3.0
Question 2. The work tasks received during the placement sup-ported my learning. 2005 Laurea 3.3 All UASs 3.3
example 2.3
Accumulation of studies
The proportion of students who complete 45 credits or more per year exceeds the Finnish average and should be at least 65% by 2009.
Proportion of students who complete 45 credits or more out of total number of students (not including first-year students) (individ-ual-based report produced for Statistics Finland).
2005 > 45 cr/year Laurea 56.6% All UASs 59.2% Based on student data from 2004-2005 academic year
2007 > 45 cr/year Laurea 58.0% 2008 > 45 cr/year Laurea 62.0%
2009 > 45 cr/year Laurea 65.0% Ministry of Education‟s target 65%
All these target figures are assessed and analysed annually.
63) To date, what are the main consequences for the teachers and the students of the QT initiative? It has enhanced collaborative working climate and strengthened our value basis in a practical way.
64) Could you give examples of tools or practices that ensure the coherence amongst the various QT intiatives that many occur simultaneously?
This initiative is the heartbeat of our university and it effects everything.
65) Could you give examples of impact of the QT intiatives that concern other domains than solely teaching (eg. on teachers mobility, on research activities...)?
Our pedagogical strategy has strong effects on e.g. library services, student offices, learning environments, etc. 66) Within the institution, how is the QT intiative articulated with other initiatives undertaken by other departments, by senior decision-making bodies, by committees and by other individuals?
They are all reflected to this initiative
67) Outside the institution, how is the QT intiative articulated with other initiatives undertaken by other departments, by senior decision-making bodies, by committees and by other individuals?
Our university is often bench marked for its proactive ideas and practices in the higher education institutions. Also the innovation system actors are strongly linked with Laurea staff.
68) Could you give examples of how your institution makes sure that the QT initiative is articulated with the strategy or the key objectives of the institution?
It can be reflected from the various surveys (leadership, working atmosphere, student feedback, strategy implementation plan, etc.)
69) Is the QT initiative part of, or, an incentive, to build a 'quality culture' in your institution? Yes, very much so.
70) Is the QT initiative part of the promotion of the institution? Yes.
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71) Please add your comments?
The time run out because I have to rush to a meeting. It took me 3.5 hours to complete one QT initiative.
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72) Would you permit reference to your institutional illustrations in the report? Yes (0)
73) Would you allow the institutional illustrations to be quoted in the report or in an annex? Yes (0)
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74) Would you like the institutional illustrations to be part of the annex of the report on the IMHE-OECD website?
Yes (0)
75) Would you like to be contacted to have further discussions on the topic? Yes (0)
76) Comments?
Please feel free to contact me if necessary.
77) Would you like to participate in the in-depth analysis for the second phase of this project? Yes (0)
