Unique quality dialogue brings programme managers together

By Tina Ellehuus Larsen, tila@sdu.dk, 8/18/2022

The programme reports are produced in collaboration between the teaching committees and the programme management, and this year saw yet another positive and constructive dialogue among the participants, which will help to ensure a positive development of the Faculty’s programmes in the years ahead. 

- In my view, the common feature of the progress meetings has been the positive spirit in which they have been conducted. The meeting is a unique opportunity to delve into a single programme in a joint effort between the local and faculty programme management. The participants approach it with resourcefulness and bring great suggestions for actionable items to the table, says Vice Dean Poul Nielsen.

Poul Nielsen also emphasises that the programme reports have shown that the programmes have many different challenges:

- I find that we discuss very diverse matters relating to each programme. Some programmes delve deeply into challenges with drop-out rates, while others focus more on careers, recruitment to the programme or something else entirely. The Faculty’s strategy of focusing on non-core competences is also becoming apparent at the meetings, and as Vice Dean, I am, of course, very happy about that.

Senior Consultant Gitte Toftgaard Jørgensen is the administrative coordinator for the programme reports. She does not see a common trend either, but she does mention two education programmes that have similar challenges but choose to overcome them differently:

- In Computer Science, one of the key areas of focus is the students’ expectations of the programme before commencing their studies. The programme is therefore concerned with how it can intensify, but also adapt, its recruitment activities in upper secondary schools. Biology, on the other hand, will examine how the programme markets itself so that students’ expectations are more realistic.

According to Poul Nielsen, the programme reports help to put the quality policy into practice at the Faculty:

- The programme reports are part of the quality policy practised at the Faculty of Science. At our progress meetings, we are often praised for being very action-oriented and that the matters discussed add value to our programmes. The programme reports also give us a holistic view of a given programme, both at undergraduate and graduate level, which enables us to discover where specific programme elements interact.

The teaching committees of the departments play an important role in the preparations for the progress meetings, including preparing SWOT analyses for their programmes. In addition to the SWOT, participants receive a follow-up on the 2020 action plan, key figures, student surveys and satisfaction surveys prior to the progress meetings. All of this forms the basis for the dialogue that will lead to a new action plan for each programme in the run-up to the next programme reports in 2024.

Head of Studies Finn Kirpekar plays an important part in the progress meetings:

- As Head of Studies, the progress meetings really help me gain an insight into what is happening on the individual programmes right now. I also really appreciate discussing the Faculty’s programmes with the people in charge of a given programme, and being able to challenge them with my outside perspective. I also believe that personal meetings are important to me as Head of Studies, as it’s easier to have a constructive dialogue with people I know if, for example, I spot something that needs to be fixed later on. Finally, the progress meetings provide an opportunity to identify issues that are common to several programmes and therefore best addressed at faculty level.

All programmes must now draw up their own action plans before the Faculty’s programme report is ready on 1 November 2022.

Read more about our work with education quality at the Faculty of Science here.