#Excellence in Action – fluent everyday life
Turku UAS aims at fluent and successful operations, which can be crystallized with the slogan #Excellence in Action. This means, for example, that
- we recognize the needs of our students, customers and partners and fulfil the given promises
- educate professional and versatile experts for working life together with our partners through our active development, innovation and research activities.
The quality of our basic tasks is developed according to the ESG, Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. The aim is to improve operations and make the development work visible in all activities. Our entire higher education community, staff and students alike, participates in the quality work.
Our success is evaluated yearly with the Excellence Trail, which follows the EFQM model. Self-evaluations help us to evaluate the realization of activities, results and development targets in line with our strategy, and initiate the planning of the operations for the following year.
The strategic plan is the most important document to steer the operations and choices at Turku University of Applied Sciences. The strategy for 2019–2031 has been created with an inclusive procedure together with students, staff and central cooperation partners.
Quality Management's European Dimension
Turku UAS’ quality system meets the national criteria set for the quality management of higher education institutions, and corresponds to the European quality assurance principles and recommendations.
The European higher education area, formed together with the Bologna process, ensures the comparability and transparency of higher education degrees and qualifications throughout the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). In order to enable the comparability of qualifications gained, it is important that the quality of the degrees is assured. The aim is to improve and secure the competitiveness of the European higher education (HEI). European higher education institutions are responsible for taking care of their quality management.
European Standards Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ESG)
The key goal is to contribute to the common understanding of quality assurance for learning and teaching across borders and among all stakeholders.
The standards and guidelines created by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) forms a set for both internal and external quality assurance procedures within EHEA.
The focus in internal quality assurance is to monitor and develop policies and practices related to learning and teaching, including the learning environment and relevant links to research and innovation in higher education, whereas external evaluation is a process carried out by another external party (agency or related) in relation to the HEI.
The ESG acts as a common frame of reference that guides both the HEI and external agencies in their efforts concerning quality management and its evaluation. The standard stresses official status of quality assurance in higher education institutions with emphasis on the importance of
- Policy for quality assurance
- Design and approval of programmes
- Student-centred learning, teaching and assessment
- Student admission, progression, recognition and certification
- Teaching staff
- Learning resources and student support
- Information management
- Public information
- On-going monitoring and periodic review of programmes
- Cyclical external quality assurance.
An audited Quality System
Turku University of Applied Sciences has been audited by the Finnish Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) and has been awarded a quality label in the year 2022, which is valid for 6 years. The quality system of Turku UAS fulfils the national criteria set for quality management of higher education institutions and the system corresponds the European quality assurance principles and recommendations of ESG.
Finnish legislation for HEI’s contains provisions obliging HEIs to participate in external evaluation of their activities and quality systems. The FINEEC’s evaluation is enhancement-led, which means to involve staff, students and stakeholders of the HEI in recognizing strengths, good practices and development areas in the HEI’s operations. The aim is also to support HEIs in achieving their own objectives, thus creating a premise for the continuous development of HEIs.
FINEEC is an independent evaluation agency, which is responsible for the evaluation of education in Finland.
- FINEEC is listed in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR).
- In addition, it is a full member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).
