© wydział zarządzania uw 2008 quality of education – system approach. faculty of management,...

© Wydział Zarządzania UW 2008

Quality of education – system approach.Faculty of Management, Warsaw University

Krzysztof [email protected]

Faculty of ManagementWarsaw University

© Wydział Zarządzania UW 2008 www.wz.uw.edu.pl

Quality of education – system approach

Importance of quality for Faculty of Management

System approach to quality

Study organization

Course delivery

Evaluating lecturers

Infrastructure and environment

Conclusions


Development directions of Faculty of Management (2005-2008)

Academic research– Promotion to 1st governmental research category (2006)

Management education– No. 1 in MBA rankings, record number of candidates (2007)

Relations with environment– Career Office, Business Council, managerial training

Infrastructure– New buildings in Służewiec part of Warsaw and new equipment

www.wz.uw.edu.pl


Quality of education

Key element of Faculty’s strategy– Particularly important due to the increased number of students– Starting point for international accreditations– Requirement of partners (enterprises and foreign universities)– Way of guaranteeing good working conditions for lecturers and

acquisition of useful knowledge and skills by students Accreditation projects (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA) Co-operation with partner universities (USA, EU, Asia) and

delivery of education projects financed with EU funds


Problems related to the quality of education

Varying experiences of students and lecturers The scale of activities requires standardization Intensive competition from non-public business schools

– Conditions of study, rules for awarding diplomas, forms of instruction, international partners, accreditations, support for student activities

– Intellectual property theft, „buying” candidates, lecturers and unique study programs


AACSB accreditation

AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business)– The largest and best known international association of business

schools– Detailed requirements – in our region, only 2 member schools

from Leipzig (Germany) and Ankara (Turkey)– Joint MBA program with accredited partner, University of Illinois– 7-years accreditation project– Challenge – and potential benefits





Study organization

Course delivery



Conclusions


From strategy to processes

Strategy and objectives as the basis for quality project– Strategy Team, Business Council

Formalization of processes– Quality of Education Team– Responsibilities extending beyond control and raporting– Feedback looks: identifying problems and causes, learning and

organizational improvement


Need for formalization

Formulation of tacit rules– e.g. responsibilities of study director, rules for preparation of

course curricula and study plans, work of IT system coordinators, booking multimedia projectors, …

Implementation of optimized solutions– e.g. student surveys, study visits (hospitation), evaluation of

lecturers Problem of excessive formalization?

– but required by international accreditations


Quality assurance rules

25 pages, 50 paragraphs– Detailed document, adjusted to specific needs– Resulting from several months of work by several persons

elements of positive feedback– Broad representation of the Faculty in the authoring team– Publicly available document– Regular reviews of the document and change control procedure

modifications may be promosed among others by students, graduates and employers

Quality Team has to analyze every proposal and document the decision





Study organization

Course delivery



Conclusions


Study programs

Significance: dynamic changes in management science due to changes in the global economy

Annual reviews of programs Sources of change proposals

Study director – analysis of competitive programs Chair Directos – analysis of lecturers’ competencies Students representatives – collecting suggestions from students Education Committee – analysis of governmental requirements,

accreditation protocols and surveys Graduates, employers, foreign partners


Study programs

Change proposals can be submitted by anyone– formal requirements (including justification)

Every proposal has to be analyzed by the Education Committee

– annual reports from the program review – including explanation for every rejection of proposals

No external reviews of study programs– due to intense competition in the education market


Course scheduling

Challenge due to the increase scale– solutions convenient for students – e.g. courses scheduled for

several hours in a row, without excessively long intervals Institutional conditions

– assigning individual responsibility for course delivery– procedures for staffing and scheduling courses– regular analyses of individual courseloads


Study organization

Responsibilities of Study Directors– control of course outlines – possible external reviews and

requests to modify the contents– legitimate means of influencing lecturers– reporting obligation

quantitative indicators such as: percentage of passed/failed, number of students per seminar group, time needed to complete master thesis, etc.


Student admissions

Adjusted to legal requirements, available infrastructure and lecturers

– different from private schools– detailed rules, restricting the admission decisions

number of admitted students dependent on the number of available bachelor/master thesis supervisors (x maximum number of students per seminar)

dependence on the forecast availability of classrooms





Study organization

Course delivery



Conclusions


Ethical standards for lecturers

Examples developing knowledge, skills and attitudes of students respect for students self-development (knowledge and skills) not criticizing other lecturers in the course of lecturers use of third-parties for solving conflicts with students documenting participation of students in research projects not charging students with obligations, that are not related to coursework

or university regulations


Course delivery

Rules for publishing exam requirements and course materials

Protection of intellectual property Rules for communication

weekly consultation hours, e-mail, websites


Evaluating students

General evaluation principles clear criteria, impartiality, no conflicts of interest lecturers define evaluation criteria independently and respect similar rights

of other lectuers ways of dealing with informal pressures

Evaluation process prior exam requirement setting rules for demonstrating grade exams recommendation to score exams using standardized scales





Study organization

Course delivery



Conclusions


Student surveys

Fedback for lecturers and basis for continuous improvement

– results of individual surveys not used to reward or punish– interpretations incorporate external variables (number of

students, course hours, possible conflicts, return rates)– based on experiences from past surveys, administered by

student council


Student surveys

Standard form Questions include student’s self-assessment of

involvement in the course Distributed via computer system USOS Additional surveys evaluating co-operation with thesis

supervisors (bachelor and master seminars)


Student surveys

Data processing and analysis– cooperation with student council– data from computer system USOS– substantial workload...– ...but benefits for students: publication of results

Publication rules– no aggregation (incommensurability ofresults)– results published with return rates (indicating representativeness)


Student surveys

Feedback– opinions used to improve education

results of surveys passed to lecturers poor results – discussion with supervisor repeated poor results for the same course, based on the same criteria –

discussion with dean, written action plan– use of results in periodic evaluation of lectuers

review of results from several years no direct linkage between results of individual surveys and lecturer

evaluation (students should not be treated as „clients” by lowering the requirements, some courses are „less interesting” than others by definition)


Student rights spokesman

Lecturer appointed by dean in co-operation with student council

Solving problems of students– regular consultation house– receiving anonymous comments from students– reacting to severe infingements of quality principles based on

well-defined procedures– preparation of annual reports


Peer support

Consisting in lecture visits by peers (hospitation) Objectives: improvement of education, not evaluation Obligatory for all lecturers (also experienced professors) Education methods in management evolve

– new knowledge delivery forms, use of case studies, teaching analysis and decision, simulations of consulting projects


Peer support

Rules for lecture visits– Dates agreed in advance– Participation of direct supervisor and another person, delivering

the same or similar course– Discussion after the visit and completion of report form– Lecturer signs the form or rejects the conclusions – in such

cases, additional lecture visit by dean is foreseen





Study organization

Course delivery



Conclusions


Support for student activities

Faculty of Management financially supports various extracurricular activities – and insists on accountability

– student circles and organizations– student council– career office– business incubator– academic seminars


International co-operation

Increasing international activities– Global MBA and International Business Program– exchange of students and lecturers within EU programs and

bilateral agreeements Need to set objectives and control execution

– exchange is not an objective per se– desired type of partners (prestige, target countries, joint

initiatives)– review of agreements and actual conditions of exchange


Administrative support

Formal definition of obligations in education process– Administrative Director– IT Manager– Marketing Manager– USOS Co-ordinator– Library Manager


Infrastructure

Classrooms, multimedia equipment, computers, software, photocopiers, access for disabled

Example of library: stimulating own initiative– Library manager collects course outlines and lists obligatory and

supplementary readings (estimated no. of students per 1 book in the library, price of book) as starting point for discussion with lecturers and library budget planning





Study organization

Course delivery



Conclusions


Conclusions

Quality linked to strategic objectives of the Faculty Use of best practices of other schools and firms, as well as

accreditation requirements Solution developed by Team, representing varying groups

of interests Complex dependencies – no straightforward answers Possible modifications of the current rules – foreseen by

the rules

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