Audit of the University of Vaasa 2024

FINEEC conducts an audit of the University of  Vaasa. A two-day audit visit at the University of Vaasa is carried out 25-26 September 2024. The audit report is to be published in December 2024 on FINEEC’s digital audit platform.

The audit is conducted by the following audit team:

• Professor Tatjana Volkova, BA School of Business and Finance, Riga, Latvia (chair)
• Professor Hans Gruber, University of Regensburg, Germany
• CEO Siamäk Naghian, Genelec
• Doctoral researcher Kateryna Suprun, Tampere university, Finland.

The purpose of the audit is

• to evaluate whether the quality work in the HEI meets the European quality assurance standards,
• to assess whether the quality system produces relevant information for the implementation of the strategy and the continuous development of the HEI's activities, and whether it results in effective enhancement activities,
• to encourage internationalisation, experimenting and a creative atmosphere at HEIs, and
• to accumulate open and transparent information on quality work at Finnish HEIs.

The focus of the audit is on the procedures used by the HEI to maintain and enhance the quality of its activities.

The FINEEC audits cover all the core duties of the HEI, that is, education, research, and societal engagement. The strategic development of HEIs is supported in the audit by offering HEIs the possibility to select one of the evaluation areas. The optional evaluation area chosen by the University of Vaasa is the management of the portfolio of study programmes.

Benchlearning is one of the methods applied in the audits. The benchlearning partner of the University of Vaasa is Jönköping University and the benchlearning target is international student recruitment.

The enhancement-led approach is applied in the audits. The goal of enhancement-led evaluation is to involve staff, students, and stakeholders of a higher education institution (HEI) in recognising strengths, good practices, and enhancement areas in the HEI’s activities. The aim is also to support HEIs in achieving their own objectives, thus creating a premise for the continuous development of HEIs.