University of Lapland passed FINEEC’s audit – sense of community and regional influence the university’s strengths

The University of Lapland passed the audit conducted by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC). The audit team particularly appreciated the university’s communal atmosphere and its effective activities in the region. Students have been considered in the management and quality systems and are offered opportunities to participate in the activities of the university community.

Students are involved in the development work and the management system

The University of Lapland has a communal culture in which students and teachers develop the university together. Students have been actively considered in the management and quality systems, and they are offered wide variety of opportunities to participate in the activities of the university community. Teachers discuss teaching actively between themselves and receive peer support from each other. The development of teaching is also visible as versatile forms of implementation. The Degree Programme in Art Education is particularly diverse, combining artistic activity with growing into the role of a teacher and project work.

Teachers at the university receive support and training in the development of digital pedagogy. However, the audit team would have liked to see training in higher education pedagogy organised more systematically. The student feedback system and the model of continuous learning must also be further developed.

The University of Lapland is an important actor in the region

Regional stakeholders value their cooperation with the University of Lapland. The university is an important actor in the region and conducts network cooperation especially in the Arctic region. However, according to the audit team, the effectiveness of stakeholder cooperation must be improved with more systematic setting of objectives, more regular contact, and more regular collection of feedback data. The university must also communicate more actively about their work and research it conducts and support researchers’ activity in communication.

– Especially the university’s external communications must be enhanced systematically by means of modern multimedia and by taking advantage of the expertise of the entire university community, comments the chair of the audit team, Academic Rector Tapio Määttä from the University of Eastern Finland.

The university’s quality system has been developed over the long term

The monitoring and evaluation data is utilised in the university’s management and quality systems and the documentation of quality is successful. The personnel also understand the link between their work and the university’s objectives. The quality system has been developed comprehensively over the long term.

Although the university has invested in the development of its personnel, it still needs to further develop the career models for teachers and its international recruitments. Practices related to equality should also be further specified to better familiarise both the personnel and the students with them.

The University of Lapland 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 Lapland’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, which it uses to maintain and enhance the quality of education, research and societal interaction. The audit criteria used in the audit have been published in FINEEC’s Audit manual for higher education institutions. Finland launched the audits of quality systems of higher education institutions in 2005.

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

For further information, please contact

• Tapio Määttä, Academic Rector, Chair of the audit team, +358 50 5751589 tapio.maatta(at)uef.fi
• Mira Huusko, Senior Evaluation Advisor, Audit project manager, +358 29 533 5565, mira.huusko(at)karvi.fi