At Arts, we are working to develop long-lasting, high-quality academic regulations. In 2016, a review of degree programmes was carried out at Arts. This resulted in the introduction of a number of basic principles that help to ensure that the faculties' resources are used in the best possible way in the development of degree programmes. One of these principles is that academic regulations can only be changed after the first generation of graduates have completed the programme.
Work on academic regulations focuses on cohesion and progression in the degree programme, both in relation to academic cohesion between subjects and in relation to the students' ability to complete the degree programme. Particular efforts are being made to ensure variation in the forms of examination.
The academic regulations aim to ensure alignment between the qualification framework, qualification profile and the academic objectives of courses. There are also efforts to ensure alignment within the individual courses between purpose, academic objectives, teaching activities and forms of examination. Alignment between teaching activities and exams helps to ensure that the student workload corresponds to the ECTS weighting of the course. Read more about alignment here
The processes for academic regulations are organised such that the entire set of academic regulations, including all course descriptions, is produced in one process. This makes it possible to implement quality assurance of the above principles from the review of degree programmes, and to comply with requirements set out in ministerial orders and guidelines at both university and faculty level.
The vast majority of courses are included in the academic regulations, which means that the course descriptions in the academic regulations and the course catalogue are almost identical. The specific lecturer(s) and the language of instruction of the course offered have been added to the course catalogue. If academic regulations include elective courses, this is clearly described in the academic regulations, and there will be links to relevant pages in the course catalogue where the elective courses offered are described.
At Arts, we continuously work with the quality of academic regulations through organised processes ensuring that all relevant parties can be involved.
The specific development work on the content and structure of academic regulations is usually carried out in working groups with relevant academic representatives. The working group is supported administratively in the academic development work by, for example, the use of templates to ensure that the academic regulations contain knowledge and information that all users need. In addition, legitimacy and uniformity across the faculty's academic regulations are ensured.
A process for reviewing academic regulations often takes one to two years, and includes regular involvement of the Dean's Office, the school, CED, employers, the chair of external co-examiners and a special consultant (where relevant). As far as possible, students are involved in the process, either through degree programme boards or in working groups. The academic regulations are processed and submitted for approval, first by the degree programme board and subsequently by the board of studies, before the dean finally approves the academic regulations.
