Student and the quality of the University

At the University of Helsinki quality means expedient activity and high-quality results. Through quality assurance the University gains information it uses to develop its activity, teaching and student counselling, matters that are important to students.

The University of Helsinki will be audited in November 2007. The audit evaluates the quality assurance system. It does not take a stand on the objectives of the activity or the results as such, but assesses the processes and practices that are used to control and develop the quality of the activity. The audit report and the audit results will be published early 2008.

Students have an important role in auditing. During the audit the audit group, appointed by the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC), will interview students on matters such as feedback procedures, familiarity with the thesis criteria and organisation of student counselling. Students can, for example, be asked about the student counselling in their faculty and whether they know who is responsible for credit transfer.

Students can participate in quality work of the faculties by familiarising themselves with and commenting on the University’s or faculties’ operations manuals. The operations manuals are available in the University Alma-intranet or through the wiki-pages.

In addition, faculties have produced quality and evaluation pages and the following faculties have their own quality pages (in finnish):

Faculty of Pharmacy: www.helsinki.fi/farmasia/laatu/index.htm
Faculty of Arts: www.helsinki.fi/hum/laatu/index.htm
Faculty of Behavioural Sciences: www.helsinki.fi/behav/laatu/index.htm
Faculty of Science: www.valt.helsinki.fi/tiedekunta/index.htm

Student orientation and student feedback increase quality

At the University of Helsinki the principle of student orientation means that a student is an active and responsible actor and an opinion maker in the University community. The standards for successful teaching are learning quality and learning results. The principle challenges to take the students into consideration as individuals and diverse learners.

The quality of studying and the student’s legal protection are guaranteed by the openness of the study and teaching practices. These practices are documented and it is possible to give feedback about them. The educational objectives and evaluation criteria have to be reasonable and available for all the students. Public criteria, guidelines and procedures are used coherently in student evaluation. For example, the guiding principle for grading study attainments and examinations and for the examination board guides the practices concerning examinations at the University.

The student has a possibility to influence the quality of teaching through feedback collected in the departments. The systematising and development of the feedback practices is an essential development target in the development programme for teaching and studies (pdf).

The steering committees of the faculties and the student organisations offer ways for the students to influence. Student representatives and student union cooperation http://www.hyy.helsinki.fi have a strong tradition at the University of Helsinki.

All the administrative bodies have student representatives. The University Senate, faculty council, the departmental steering committees, preparatory committees and working groups all include student representatives.