The Board of the University of Eastern Finland is responsible for the university’s quality principles and policies. The UEF Leadership Group is the steering committee for the university’s quality work and carries out management reviews at the university. The university’s rectors are responsible for quality work according to how the tasks have been divided between them.
The division of responsibilities for the quality system adheres to the division of responsibilities of the university’s leadership while being integrated into normal management procedures. The faculty deans, heads of departments and units, and directors of each branch of the University Services are responsible for the performance outcomes and quality of their own unit’s activities. The Faculty Council, the steering committees of each degree programme and the Research Council are important administrative bodies in quality assurance.
Everyone at the university is responsible for the quality and development of their own work and its outcomes, including teachers, researchers, administrative staff, support service staff and students.
Quality Group
The university’s quality work and its development are coordinated by the Quality Group, which comprises representatives from the university’s faculties, University Services, independent institutes, service centres and the Student Union. The Quality Group is chaired by the university’s director of administration, whose area of responsibility as the director of University Services includes quality management. The quality team’s rapporteur and secretary is the quality coordinator.
The tasks of the quality team are to:
- Acting as a group, develop, coordinate and support the operational side of the university’s quality work
- Act as an audit steering committee in FINEEC audits
- Acting as a group, carry out the preparatory work for quality management measures that require decision-making by the university’s leadership
The quality coordinator coordinates consistency with quality management principles and procedures in the practical, operational side of quality work in cooperation with the faculties and units and is responsible for the updating of university-level quality documentation, internal audits at the university and measures related to preparing for FINEEC audits. The University of Eastern Finland has two quality coordinators, one on each campus.
The faculties have appointed quality contact persons to act as leaders of the faculties’ own quality teams or groups and as contact persons for audits, for example. They are also responsible for preparations related to the management reviews of faculties in cooperation with the persons in charge of quality in the units.
The units have designated persons in charge of quality and the deputies, who coordinate the practical side of quality work in their units and are responsible for the updating of their unit’s quality documentation. Persons in charge of quality also participate in the preparatory measures for FINEEC audits.
The university has internal auditors, who represent various personnel groups and act as auditors in the university’s internal audits together with quality coordinators.
The faculties’ quality contact persons and persons in charge of quality and the auditors perform their duties in addition to their main job.
Staff and students participate in the university’s quality work, for example by providing feedback on the university’s activities, participating in the university’s administrative bodies and development projects, and taking part in the university’s audits. If necessary, the students also act as internal auditors, especially in the audits of units that concern them, such as the Student and Learning Services.
The faculty websites in Heimo contain information on the composition of each faculty’s quality team and the persons in charge of quality in the units.