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Challenges of Quality Assurance in Finnish higher education Prof. Jussi Välimaa. Institute for Educational Research University of Jyväskylä, Finland. I European Contexts: the Bologna Process. the dynamics of standardization / homogenisation
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Challenges of Quality Assurance in Finnish higher educationProf.Jussi Välimaa Institute for Educational Research University of Jyväskylä, Finland
I European Contexts: the Bologna Process • the dynamics of standardization / homogenisation • emerging competitive horizons for academic basic units • different perspectives to which academic personnel can orientate their efforts in relation to the mission of the university (global, national, local)
II Finnish Context: Confidence vs. Control • starting point: success in global educational markets • basic tension: evaluation as an instrument for development vs. accreditation of Quality Assurance (QA) Systems • Nordic traditions (equality & confidence) vs. Global competition (quality control) • -> FINHEEC will audit Institutional Quality Assurance Systems both in Polytechnics (or Universities of Applied Sciences) and in Universities by 2010 (Välimaa 2004)
III Quality Assurance in Finnish Higher Education Institutions • Polytechnics are more advanced in the creation of quality assurance systems • they have (a forced) tradition to do it (licenses to operate based on institutional evaluation processes) • Polytechnics are oriented to teaching
Universities lack both of these elements: • weak traditions in creating QA systems • advanced QA systems in research • -> confusion on how to do it in teaching and management activities • great variation among universities & basic units
Quality assurance system assessed by the unit heads (N=235) Scale: 1=strongly disagree…. 5=strongly agree (Ursin 2006)
The present state of the QA system at the basic unit and the university, % (Ursin 2006)
Great variation among universities and their basic units related to: • 1) institutional traditions & • 2) disciplinary cultures • Main challenge in the institutional level: the creation of institutional quality assurance handbooks
IV Challenges of QA in Teaching Activities • evaluations are normal routines in all universities • notion: evaluation (often) equals to a feedback questionnaire filled by a student
Main Challenges: • 1. How to combine evaluation activities with the improvement of teaching • from the processes of evaluation to the structures of quality assurance ? • The role of underlying assumptions of teaching and learning in quality assurance-thinking: • behaviourist vs. constructivist ideas? (Ursin 2005)
2. How to improve university teachers’ pedagogical skills and qualifications • Pedaforum from the early 1990s • activities & structures (teaching development units) in all universities • -> pedagogical training courses & programmes • academic (research-based) career ladders • -> need for changes in legislation (?)
3. How to manage disciplinary-based variation in the definitions of teaching, teaching development & quality assurance • -internal (disciplinary & academic) vs. external (control oriented) criteria in quality assurance • The creation of a moderate understanding concerning the basic concepts (quality, assurance, teaching)
4. Confidence vs. Control? • quality assurance system: the instrument of control or improvement? • -> ownership of the institutional quality assurance systems • -> disciplinary sensitivity (not a strict standardised model) • -> flexible system (allows innovations)
References • Ursin, J. (2005) Introducing Internal Quality Assurance into Finnish Universities –The Case of teaching and learning • Ursin, J. (2006) Lisäbyrokratiaa vai aitoa kehittämistä? Laadunvarmistujärjestelmä ainelaitoksen arjessa. Esitelmä Korkeakoulutuksen kohtauspaikalla 18.4.2006 • Välimaa, J. (2004) ‘Three Rounds of Evaluation and the Idea of Accreditation in Finnish Higher Education’, in Schwarz, S. & Westerheijden, D.F. (eds.) Accreditation and Evaluation in the European Higher Education Area.Dordrecht: Kluwer, 101-126.