Audit of the University of Oulu 2023

The University of Oulu has a well-established position and key role in its region – University of Oulu passed FINEEC audit

The University of Oulu (UO) passed the audit conducted by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC). The university received special praise from the audit team for its key role and well-established position in the regional knowledge, innovation, and competence creation ecosystem. UO’s commitment to promoting multidisciplinary learning and studies is strong.

The University of Oulu offers opportunities for multidisciplinary learning, studies, and research

At the University of Oulu, students are encouraged through various ways to take part in interdisciplinary studies and other interdisciplinary activities offered by the university. Multidisciplinarity adds value to the student experience and strengthens the relations between the degree programmes, the university community, and the university’s stakeholders. Research at the university is also interdisciplinary and is encouraged and enabled through research focus areas and networking within and outside the university.

In addition to multidisciplinarity, the university is strongly committed to furthering internationalisation. The university enhances the internationalisation opportunities of students through different means. However, according to the audit team, the university should promote more internationalisation opportunities for students by strengthening the visibility of international mobility windows and exchanges and by increasing the internationalisation of curricula.

The University of Oulu renews and sustains the vitality of the North Ostrobothnia region

The University of Oulu holds a key role and well-established position in the regional knowledge, innovation, and competence creation network. The university contributes significantly to the renewal and strengthening of the region of North Ostrobothnia.

The university’s Arctic strategy promotes research on the arctic region. The Arctic strategy and the strong research focus on sustainable development also strengthen the societal impact of the university. However, according to the audit team, the university could further strengthen the visibility of its Arctic research activities and its role in international research networks to make the most of the Arctic region’s research potential.

Staff, students, and external partners are involved in continuous improvement 

The current quality system of the University of Oulu has been updated in the spring of 2023, and it is connected to the university’s strategy. Staff, students, and external partners are involved in the quality system and continuous improvement according to the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle. The audit team recommends the university to collect and analyse data produced by the quality system in an even more systematic manner, to ensure the strategic enhancement of its activities.

– To support the proactive improvement of its activities, the university should improve the identification and use of internal and external information, says the chair of the audit team, Professor (emerita) Kerstin Norén from Sweden.

In enhancing education, the audit team recommends the University of Oulu to increase the utilisation of student feedback collected, provide students more feed forward on their learning and emphasise feedback on feedback.

The University of Oulu passed the audit conducted by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) and was awarded a quality label valid for six years. Passing the audit shows that the University of Oulu’s activities and quality system meet both the national criteria and the European quality assurance criteria for higher education institutions. The audit focuses on higher education institutions’ procedures for maintaining and enhancing the quality of education, research, and societal engagement. The audit criteria have been published in FINEEC's Audit manual for higher education institutions. The audits of higher education institutions’ quality systems were launched Finland in 2005.

The audit report is available on FINEEC’s audit platform.