QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCEDURES. Several of Sahlgrenska Academy’s programs have now made a great deal of progress with the new quality assurance procedures, which means that the university itself is assuming more responsibility for the quality assurance of its programs. To support this effort, a special quality assurance officer has been hired for placement in the Academy Office’s Education Department.
The Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) has essentially delegated the day-to-day work of ensuring educational quality to the higher education institutions themselves and is focusing instead on reviewing the institutions’ quality assurance efforts.
At the University of Gothenburg, quality assurance procedures are governed by the quality policy adopted by the Vice-Chancellor. The policy states that courses and programs annually are to implement continuous, internal quality assurance procedures. Every six years the programs also are to be subjected to external evaluation. According to the policy, quality assurance procedures are to be followed up and developed at the university-wide level as well through annual operation-level discussions and exchanges of experience in the form of university-wide workshops and seminars.
Part of the pilot
In the fall of 2016, the physiotherapy program was included as part of the pilot project for the external review process. Annelie Gutke and Susanne Rosberg, who at the time were responsible for the program at the first-cycle and second-cycle levels, made a major contribution by preparing documentation for the assessment panel in the form of course and program syllabuses and other relevant policy documents, analyses, reports and surveys. This documentation and a site visit resulted in a quality evaluation report from the assessment panel.
“Annelie and Susanne really did a super job,” says Eva Holmgren, who has taken on the role of program supervisor for undergraduate studies of physiotherapists at Sahlgrenska Academy. “It was an intensive effort because we were a part of the pilot, and it feels really good that we now have the results of the external evaluation as a basis for our continued quality assurance procedures.”
She adds that the quality assurance procedures have been time-consuming at times, and it is good to plan ahead before the period in which the reviews take place and also before the subsequent work, because that is when the work on the program side is most intense.
Overall good marks
In general the external evaluation gave the physiotherapy program good marks. The assessment panel noted in particular that the continuous quality assurance procedures at the institution are largely structured according to the assessment criteria and that the results of previous reviews have been converted into concrete development efforts. The students’ program evaluation and the program’s analyses of course evaluations were singled out as good tools for improvements. The assessment panel also suggested measures to be taken, such as clarification of the program syllabus and certain course syllabuses.
Quality assurance procedures with positive impact
Eva Holmgren maintains that quality assurance is a good way to govern one’s own activities and operations. For example, during the quality assurance procedures, the physiotherapy program has identified weaknesses in allocation of resources in daily work – shortcomings that previously resulted in an inability to implement measures as planned.
“As a direct result of our quality assurance procedures, we can now clarify our practices and conduct a review of our resources and who does what. I have high hopes that this will positively contribute to our work and to our program, the physiotherapy program,” says Eva.
The action plan to be adopted by the Council for Education
Based on the report of the external assessment panel, the program is now developing an action plan that will be approved and adopted by the Council for Education (UR).
The plan lists the program initiatives undertaken as a result of the external evaluation and the measures that are being implemented or will be implemented. A timetable for the individual measures also is included.
The physiotherapy program has received support in this respect from Jonas Branch, who recently was hired as a quality assurance officer in the Training Department at the Sahlgrenska Academy Office. He is an expert in quality assurance procedures and has been recruited to support educational programs dealing with quality assurance and quality development issues.
Support from the new quality assurance officer
“I’ll provide ongoing input on action plans, which then are established in the Council for Education. It’s also my job to follow up work on the action plans when they are implemented by programs,” says Jonas, who also reviews course syllabuses:
“I can be a support for programs that review their course and program syllabuses based on intended learning outcomes and examination formats. Among other things, I have recently led a curriculum workshop with the speech therapy program.”
The basic structure for quality assurance procedures at Sahlgrenska Academy was established by a group consisting of Frode Slinde, Kristin Falk and former Head of Education Office Eva Ronström. The team drew up templates that are now being tested in a real-life situation by several programs and that will be further refined.
TEXT AND PHOTO: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
