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The University College of Southeast Norway

Strategy for Portfolio Development and Educational Quality at the USN 2017-2021

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Strategy for portfolio development and educational quality at the USN

The University College of Southeast Norway (USN) is a large

educational institution with a broad range of programmes at all

levels of higher education. The USN's portfolio of study

programmes shall be sustainable and steered by society's needs

for knowledge, expertise and quality through close interaction with

society and businesses.

Students are offered an innovative learning environment with high expectations

regarding knowledge, skills and general competencies. The USN's study programmes

combine practice-relevant training with knowledge about global challenges and

perspectives from the forefront of international knowledge.

BASIS FOR OUR GOALS

Society's needs

Externally, the USN's value and visibility are largely linked to the quality of our

graduates, and thus the quality of the educational programmes that equip and prepare

them for a rapidly changing employment market. In the future, employers will attach

importance to new forms of knowledge and generic skills that can be used to solve

problems, be effective and change rapidly, and which are also innovative and can be

adapted.

The main challenge for the USN is how we internally address the role that education

plays in society with proactive, innovative and comprehensive measures for

developing the educational quality of our programmes, with targeted incentives,

initiatives and career paths and through strategic management.

Portfolio development

The USN shall ensure that all the College's study programmes are financially and

academically sustainable and are of high quality. Through clear educational leadership,

the USN will work systematically to ensure that the College has sufficient breadth and

a clear profession-oriented academic profile with robust and sustainable programmes

of a high calibre. The management of the USN's portfolio of study programmes, which

is based on a strategic approach and an overall assessment of needs and demand, the

College's social mission, and academic and financial sustainability, will be decisive for

the College's further development.

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Educational quality

At the USN quality is defined through seven dimensions, highlighting various different

aspects of quality in higher education. Performance indicators will be developed for

each quality dimension.

1. Learning outcomes: The overarching goal of the work to improve quality is for students

to achieve the predetermined learning outcomes. Factors included in the other quality

dimensions will affect the students' achievement of the learning outcomes. Learning

outcomes as a discrete dimension of quality refer to the acquisition of academic knowledge

and the specific learning outcome formulated for the programme or course.

2. Relevance: The work designed to improve quality shall strengthen the relevance of the

programme so that it meets society's needs and the employment market's requirements.

Students shall develop knowledge, skills and general competencies that will help them to

renew the professional and civic life they will become part of and to master a society and

employment market in change.

3. Admission quality: This is linked to the students’ ability and qualifications to study

when they are admitted to a programme. Quality work will include providing good

information about the programmes, targeted recruitment work, guidelines for applicants,

the admission and reception of new students and the College's work on integrating new

students into the learning environment and providing good follow-up during their first

year.

4. Framework quality: Framework quality encompasses financial resources, organisational

structures, infrastructure (e.g. libraries, ICT and digital technology, laboratories),

administrative support services for students and good information during the course of

study. Framework quality also includes the students' psychosocial learning environment.

5. Programme quality: Programme quality is about how individual programmes of study

are designed to ensure that students achieve the defined learning outcomes. The

programmes must be in line with the USN's overarching strategy and have relevant

connection to the College's R&D activities. Study programmes must be coherent and

demonstrate good progression. The content, teaching methods, learning methods and

forms of assessment shall be designed in line with the learning outcomes.

Internationalisation at home and abroad is also a key element of programme quality.

6. Teaching quality: In the work undertaken to ensure good quality teaching, learning

shall be an active process for the students that promotes reflection and independence.

The work on quality is intended to ensure that students are met with a warm, innovative

learning environment and with high expectations regarding their knowledge and skills.

The quality work shall facilitate varied teaching and learning methods and assessment

methods that help to ensure that on completion of their studies the students have

achieved the desired learning outcomes.

7. Competence: Educational quality depends on the academic and pedagogical

competencies of the subject teachers. The quality work shall ensure that subject teachers

have competence in the use of ICT in teaching and use ICT and digital technology in

teaching, learning and assessments. The quality work shall promote research-based

teaching. This requires that the teachers are familiar with international research and are

themselves active researchers or affiliated with a research environment. The quality work

shall facilitate strengthening communication skills and shall

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ensure that teaching is based on up-to-date research on how learning occurs

and how teaching quality can be improved.

Digitalisation

Digitalisation is a strong driver of change that has revolutionised the methods used

by knowledge organisations to create, manage, process, analyse, communicate,

distribute and collaborate on information. These structural changes are happening

very rapidly, and many of the jobs that will be available in 2020 do not exist yet, but

it is these jobs that we have to educate our students for.

The digitalisation of higher education is about how information and communications

technology (ICT) can be used to make higher education more accessible, adaptable,

better suited to academic development and socially relevant. The USN's digital focus

provides opportunities for better teaching and dissemination by creating new arenas

for interaction, knowledge sharing and collaboration. The digital evolution also

creates space for a more creative approach in teaching at the College, and it is vital

for ensuring that the students, after completing their education, will have the

necessary knowledge, and not least the ability, to apply their knowledge in the

workplace.

Goal 1

Develop the portfolio of study programmes

strategically and sustainably in line with

society's needs for knowledge and expertise

It is important that the USN engages in clear educational management in order to

ensure high quality, coherence and continuity in the College's portfolio of study

programmes, as well as defining clear priorities.

MEASURES:

The model for management of the study portfolio ("the SEFØ model") will be

used for assessing the USN’s study portfolio on strategy, sustainability and future

priorities. In this context

“study portfolio” means all the various study programmes offered over time.

"Management of the study portfolio" encompasses the strategies, guidelines and

criteria that are used as a basis for the development, continuation and any

phasing out and discontinuation of programmes of study.

• Strategic importance: Assessment of the business sector's and

society's needs for workers and the regional and national division of

labour.

• Demand: Assessment of post-study educational trends and applicants’

demands. All programmes of study should have a reference group with similar

programmes for the assessment and evaluation of each other's programmes.

• Academic sustainability: Assessment of the total quality based on the

USN's seven quality dimensions: relevance, framework quality, programme

quality, learning outcomes, teaching quality and competence.

• Financial sustainability: Assessment of the relationship between

the programme’s income and costs.

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Goal 2

The USN's courses shall have high international quality and

an inclusive learning environment

It is important that the USN has high ambitions on behalf of its students, uses student-

active learning methods and integrates students in the academic community.

MEASURES:

• All employees in teaching posts at the USN must have basic pedagogical

competencies and teaching expertise. The USN will make arrangements to

ensure that all academic employees have these formal competencies within

five years and are offered continuing education.

• Learning shall be a student-active process that promotes reflection and

independence.

• Students shall be active participants in the academic environment and take

responsibility for and manage their own learning. Students are an

important learning resource for each other and shall actively participate in

the teaching of their peers.

• Teachers facilitate, guide and support students in their learning processes.

Teachers promote student learning processes by providing constructive

feedback.

• The USN will introduce a peer review system for its programmes of study.

• The USN will develop a merit system that helps to ensure that good

teaching is rewarded.

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Goal 3

The USN's graduates have in-depth

knowledge of their subjects,

interdisciplinary understanding and an

international perspective

It is important for the USN that all educational programmes place knowledge,

experience and values in an interdisciplinary and international context.

MEASURES:

• Research-active employees shall participate in teaching at all levels.

• The educational programmes shall convey recognised relevant and

up-to-date research-based knowledge from national and international

sources.

• The students shall be involved in RDI work.

• All study programmes must clearly place the core subject areas in an

international perspective, use international research as part of the curriculum,

and include academic staff from partner institutions in teaching, supervision

and RDI.

• All degree programmes shall pave the way for an international learning

environment and reciprocal student exchanges through their own mobility

windows in the study programmes, agreements with a sound academic basis

and English semester programmes.

• The USN shall encourage reciprocal exchanges of employees of varying

durations and, in addition to internal financing, make active use of

scholarships, external financing and incentive funding for employee mobility

that helps to strengthen and assure the quality of the subject areas'

international collaborative relations in respect of teaching, supervision and RDI.

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Goal 4

The USN's courses of study shall strengthen the use

of ICT in order to ensure increased access to

learning, develop flexible forms of learning and

improve the students' learning outcomes

It is important for the USN that all students are offered activating and varied forms of learning

and assessment, using digital technology.

MEASURES:

• All academic employees at the USN will receive training in and shall make

greater use of ICT and digital technology for teaching, learning and

assessment in order to develop relevant and varied forms of teaching and

assessment.

• The USN shall further develop the Teaching Learning Center (TLC) as a

support service and facilitator for the development of digital forms of

teaching and assessment in particular and guidance in teaching skills in

general.

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Goal 5 The USN shall strengthen the interaction between students and

and work

The USN's courses of study shall be closely aligned with the needs of society

and the business sector and be regarded as a central provider of knowledge

and driver of growth and development.

MEASURES:

• The USN will take steps to ensure that the employment market and society

are accessible arenas of learning for our students in their educational

pathways.

• The USN will strengthen the quality and capacity of the practice field for our

programmes.

• The USN will explore the opportunities available for offering work

experience as part of several educational pathways.

• The USN will make arrangements in order to be able to offer international

work experience in collaboration with overseas partner institutions,

organisations and companies.

• The USN will facilitate the increased use of project work and Bachelor's and

Master's theses linked to working life on their educational pathways.

• The USN will develop an alumni network for students and increase

knowledge about and contact with the employment market by developing a

careers service.

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