The objective of work at Health in this area is to be able to provide degree programmes deeply rooted in research-based expertise, and based on the latest knowledge within the area.
At Health, we work to provide research-based education under three headings:
Read more in the memo on research-based education and the knowledge base of degree programmes at Health, AU
Most of our teaching for students is delivered by active researchers employed at the university. This is how we ensure that our degree programmes are anchored in the research environments.
Each department has a formal organisation structure for teaching and degree programmes. This organisation structure contains a clear division of responsibilities that supports the research base. You can see the roles and responsibilities at the departments on the "Organisation of quality assurance" page.
When employing academic staff and part-time lecturers, we base work on a common set of criteria. We also have clearly formulated guidelines for who may teach and act as examiners at Health. Both these measures contribute to ensuring the research-based and knowledge-based foundation for our degree programmes.
Research-based teaching means that students are taught about:
The latest research findings
The theory and scientific methods of subjects
In order for students to acquire skills and independent competencies at the right level, degree programmes must comprise a wealth of activities that give students an opportunity to participate in, and independently work with, different parts of the scientific process.
We give professional Bachelor’s an opportunity to work independently with various aspects of development-oriented work. In the coming years, we will strengthen research integration.
In the coming years, we will also develop our degree programmes to ensure that our students acquire strong digital competencies. This will first be through preparatory actions across the faculty, followed by actions centred around development of the core curriculum for degree programmes.
The guidelines must:
Health departments have regularly approached us with a wish to extend the circle of people who were allowed to teach and act as examiners, and in December 2013 the guidelines were revised for the first time. Most recently, the Forum for Education at Health revised the guidelines in March 2021.
We assess the knowledge base of our degree programmes at the annual status review meetings for Health's degree programmes and in the five-yearly degree programme evaluations.
Assessment of the knowledge base takes outset in the following:
Staffing plans document the proportion of teaching by researchers/knowledge base on the degree programmes, and the head of department is responsible for the plans. The head of department is responsible for drawing up a staffing plan for the degree programmes provided by the department.
AU has decided that the proportion of teaching hours where a member of academic staff is present is an indicator of the proportion of teaching performed researchers. How the indicator is more precisely defined and calculated, as well as the threshold values for satisfactory quality (green), quality requiring attention and discussion of possible measures (yellow) and quality that is critical and where concrete measures should be taken (red) can be seen from the data packages in Power BI.
As part of the five-yearly degree programme evaluations, the head of department prepares a report to ensure systematic follow-up on the research base of the degree programme. The report contains a status review of the research base, a reflection on the connection between research environments and degree programme elements and a strategy for the proportion of teaching by researchers on the programme. Read more on the "Quality assurance processes" page.
