A proposal for a new quality policy takes shape

By SDU Student Services, uddannelseskommunikation@sdu.dk, 3/21/2024

In the project seeking to revise SDU’s quality system for education programmes, the project team is now approaching one of the project’s major milestones: a proposal for a revised quality policy. In March and April, students, heads of studies and education-focused administrative staff across the faculties will have the opportunity to comment on the proposal before it is submitted for formal consultation before the summer holidays.

Benchmarks in the work

The quality policy sets out the goals and requirements for SDU’s work on the development and quality assurance of teaching and education programmes. The quality policy consists of a large collection of sub-policies, memos, principles and other framework documents that together describe the quality standard that e.g. study start, programme structure, evaluation and programme administrations must meet. 

The revision must retain all the parts of the quality policy that have worked well in supporting the work with education programmes. At the same time, the revision will adapt the quality policy to make it simpler, more meaningful, more development-orientated and with a greater focus on common approaches across SDU. Some of the suggested changes in the proposal are described below.

From ‘educational journey’ to ‘teaching, education and university’

A highly visible part of the proposal for a revised quality policy is that the number of sub-policies is reduced from eight to three, covering the areas of teaching, education and university, respectively.

The sub-policies will no longer be organised into the eight previous areas, which follow the student’s ‘educational journey’ from application and admission, through education and into a career after their graduation. Many have pointed out that this structure has never really provided the naturally coherent understanding of the field that it was intended to, and that it also doesn’t match a changing education landscape where, for example, education for people in employment will play a greater role.

The three sub-policies in the proposed revision are instead based on the student’s perspective and describe our goals and practices in three areas: Teaching (which covers the specific learning activities), education (which is the larger structures that set the framework for teaching), and the University (which in turn sets the framework for all teaching and all education programmes). This division should make it easier for students, lecturers, administrative staff and programme managers to navigate the quality policies.

Fewer framework documents, but more inspiration

Another visible change in the proposed revision of the quality policy is that the number of supplementary documents describing principles, guidelines and recommendations will be reduced. Many of these are made redundant because the new sub-policies contain the additional elements which previously had their own documents. A benefit of this is, for instance, that programme managers avoid having to navigate multiple documents to find study start goals.

On the other hand, the intention is to supplement the revised quality policy with a resource bank that, among other things, will provide help on how to work with specific challenges as well as examples of best practices from which to draw inspiration. 

Greater focus on values and development

The content of the new quality policy must be able to support the work on quality assurance and development of teaching and education programmes at least as well as the old policy, and a revised quality policy does not mean a relaxing of the requirements for this work and the documentation of it. However, the formulation of goals has a major impact on how meaningful the work is perceived to be and thus how well the policies are suited to support discussions in, for example, study boards and among persons responsible for courses.

In formulating the new goals and practice descriptions, the project group has therefore aimed for the text to make it clearer 

• that quality assurance and development work may have minimum standards, but not an end goal that can be ‘ticked off’ once achieved
• which goals and values for the programmes SDU commits to and why
• what practices are needed to realise the goals – and that stakeholders are involved in formulating how to work in practice to achieve the goals

The hope is that this approach, together with the other amendments, will create a quality policy that strengthens the sense of ownership in a mature quality system where there is already a high level of professionalism.

Next steps

In the next few months, the project team will involve stakeholders in preparing the proposal for a revised quality policy for the first of two formal consultations, which are expected to begin in early May. 

This will be a written consultation on proposals for new sub-policies and sub-goals – and study boards, teaching committees, heads of studies and programme managers, heads of department, department councils, academic councils, the University Council and local liaison committees will be invited to submit a consultation response. At the same time, the proposal will be posted openly on the revision project webpage, allowing other interested parties to comment. 

Would you like to know more?

• Read about the Quality Policy
• Read about the Revision Project
• Contact Project Manager Caroline Schaffalitzky, SDU Student Services