Evaluation of fields of study: humanities, business, technology and social sciences

05/2018–1/2020

The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre carried out in 2019 an evaluation of higher education in humanities, business, technology and social sciences.

Based on the evaluation the knowledge and skills provided by these fields of study are well in line with the needs of working life, however more attention should be given to multicultural competences and sustainable development. The needs for continuous learning, i.e., lifelong learning, also challenge higher education institutions to develop new operating models and contents in collaboration with working life.

The evaluation produced an overview of the current state of the educational provision and the competence-base and working life relevance of degrees in four fields of study. In the evaluation, the strengths and development needs of these fields of study were examined as well as their ability to develop the range of provision of education by taking into account the competence requirements of working life. The evaluations also included the continuous learning offered and implemented by the fields of study.

Almost all Finnish higher education institutions and a total of 680 degree programmes from the four fields in question participated in the evaluation.

Press release 23 Janauary 2020

Publications

• Entering working life with a high level of competence. Evaluations of higher education in humanities, business, technology and social sciences. The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre. Summaries 3:2020.

The evaluation reports include an abstract in English.

• Humanistisen alan korkeakoulutuksen arviointi [Evaluation of higher education in humanities]. The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre. Publications 1:2020.
• Yhteiskuntatieteellisen korkeakoulutuksen arviointi [Evaluation of higher education in social sciences]. The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre. Publications 2:2020.
• Tekniikan korkeakoulutuksen arviointi [Evaluation of higher education in technology]. The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre. Publications 3:2020.
• Kauppatieteiden ja liiketalouden korkeakoulutuksen arviointi [Evaluation of higher education in business]. The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre. Publications 4:2020.

Evaluation process and data

A wide range of data was used in the evaluation. The evaluation process and data collection are described in the figure below.