The purpose of the audit of the quality assurance (QA) system of Laurea University of Applied Sciences was
1) to establish the qualitative objectives set by the higher education institute for its own activities,
2) to evaluate what procedures and processes Laurea uses to maintain and develop the quality of its education and other activities,
3) to evaluate whether the higher education institute’s QA works as intended, whether the quality assurance system produces useful and relevant information for improving its operations and whether it results in effective development measures.
The audit was based on the preliminary audit materials provided by Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Laurea) and anaudit visit that took place in Espoo on 5–7 October 2010.
The audit group states that as a result of long-term efforts, the strengths of Laurea’s QA system are its comprehensiveness, accessibility, transparency and extensive implementation. The objectives, including the sub-objectives, functions, actors and responsibilities of the quality assurance system are defined and documented in a clear manner. The system is very well organised and effective and promotes quality assurance. The utilisation of information produced by various evaluations in developing the activities has become an integral part of Laurea’s operating culture.
The staff are committed and motivated to participate in evaluations and to utilise the information obtained through them. Learning by Developing (LbD) has been adopted as a framework which combines the three basic tasks and the teaching staff are highly committed to it. The strategy, values and QA system steer the goaloriented operations and support creative development activities. The management is committed to the development of the activities and the QA system of the higher education institute. Thanks to the communal operating culture and effective QA system, the local units have been entrusted with extensive freedom and responsibility. The QA system is a tool used by Laurea’s entire staff and forms part of their everyday activities. Strong societal interaction and regular external evaluations help Laurea steer its activities towards strategically important areas.
The audit group indentified the implementation of the maintenance manual and service descriptions as well as the active tradition of development days as Laurea’s best practices.
The audit team presents the following development recommendations to the Laurea University of Applied Sciences:
•The Ministry of Education and Culture’s performance indicators are included as critical success factors and especially as their indicators. From the perspective of developing the activities, it might be appropriate to break down the higher education institute’s objectives into more concrete sub-objectives and to create more detailed indicators for their monitoring.
•The amount of information included in the QA system is extensive and it is still located in a number of different places. It is recommended that the information be reorganised to be user friendly and informative. To serve the further development of the QA system’s usability, information could be collated and grouped according to user profiles. This would speed up access to theinformation required.
•The quality assurance of the guidance on the LbD method still requires further development. The system does not search or identify information that would describe guidance activities or learning processes. The development of the LbD method isadvanced but in the future, the focus should be placed on developing practical teaching and guidance work in which the method is applied.
•The evaluation of learning and the development of evaluation has fallen behind the development of teaching based on theLbD method and is methodologically teacher-centred. In terms of the objectives set for feedback, evaluation and self-evaluation practices regarding learning and competences, the QA system should be further developed so that it produces more information on the achievement of the objectives set in the pedagogical strategy.
•The audit group recommends that the student feedback system, which in itself is comprehensive, be further developed so that questions on the content and the timing of feedback collection better follow the rhythm of studies. The procedures for responding to feedback and the development of a channel for anonymous written feedback should be paid attention to in thefuture.
•The documentation of stakeholder feedback is not systematic and neither its utilisation nor a development plan for it have been systematically documented. The audit group recommends that the processing of stakeholder feedback be made more systematic as a whole.
•The evaluation group recommends that the monitoring of the effectiveness of the QA system be made more systematic and likewise the achieved impact be more systematically communicated. A good starting point for this is the recently created quality guarantee and the maintenance manual practices.
In its meeting on 16 December 2010, FINHEEC decided, based on the proposal and report of the audit group, that the quality assurance system of the Laurea University of Applied Sciences meets the criteria set by FINHEEC.
Additional information:
Saara Lampelo, chairman, Vice Rector, saara.lampelo(at)turkuamk.fi,
Johanna Mattila, Senior Advisor, johanna.mattila(at)minedu.fi, 0400-529161
Arja Billund, Administrative Assistant, arja.bilund(at)minedu.fi (09) 1607 6913,