2005:31 R

Visit of inspection to Mid Sweden University in 2004

Planning

The visit

November 11 in Sundsvall

Annica Lindblom accounted for the work of the legal department, the purpose of the visit and how it was to be conducted. Thomas Lindstein described the activities of the university college and the organisational work involved in its transformation into a university. There had been enhancements at faculty level and educational and research issues were now dealt with in the same context. The powers delegated from the Vice-Chancellor to the Deans had been clarified and augmented. Departmental boards with collegial decision-making routines had been reinstated. Six profile areas had been established for research on the basis of the nature of research issues. The university college had 211 postgraduate students and was beginning to attract researchers from abroad, mainly in the field of forest fibres. Mid Sweden University College had four local campuses but this presented no administrative problems as an administrative network had been set up. For instance, personnel administration was divided across three campuses and had access to technological solutions such as video and telephone conferences. The range of programmes offered at the different campuses varied to some extent. Sundsvall had a large proportion of programmes in technology and the natural sciences. Östersund had the social sciences and some programmes in technology. At Härnösand teacher training and programmes in the humanities predominated. Örnsköldsvik mainly had programmes in the caring sciences. The number of places offered in technology and the natural sciences exceeded demand to some extent. The university college offered a wide range of distance programmes and was one of the leaders in this field with the second largest number of courses. Its student population totalled 14,500. It did not receive many students from abroad but has more outgoing exchange students than incomers.

This was followed by discussion of some of the responses submitted by the university college to the National Agency´s questionnaire.

Caroline Cruz and Marie Stern Wärn then visited the Registrar´s office to continue discussions with Carl-Åke Åström. Teresa Edelman met Erik Hedenström, who was responsible for postgraduate programmes. Annica Lindblom and Karin Lindforss visited the bureau for education and research and spoke to Susanna Öhman about enrolment questions. During the afternoon random checks were made at the Department for Information Technology and Media, during which all of the representatives met the Chairman, Christer Fröjdh, and the Head of Undergraduate Programmes, Lars Logenius. Christer Fröjdh described the work of the department. This is the largest of the University College´s departments with a staff of 190 and 1,600 students. It offers programmes in a number of different subject areas, including electronics, computer engineering, statistics, journalism, media and communication studies, informatics and archive and information studies. Its total expenditure is about SEK 140 million, of which SEK 65 million is devoted to undergraduate programmes. Programmes in media and communication studies attract the largest number of applications, in some cases more than ten for each place offered. The subject with the largest number of students is computer engineering, in which a wide range of single-subject courses are offered. Most research is undertaken in electronics. The department is divided into four large and two smaller sections, each with its head of section. The department is headed by a chairman together with a deputy chairman for undergraduate programmes, a deputy chairman for research and a senior administrator. The department has an undergraduate programme board and a research programme board to deal with strategic issues. The staff teaching different subjects submit proposals for syllabuses. The Chairman makes the final decision. Groups of supervisors have been established for the various postgraduate subjects. These also offer fora for quality assurance control in postgraduate programmes and make it possible to ensure that no postgraduate students are falling behind. After examination of the documentation, all the participants met for discussions on the basis of the observations made. ´

November 12, Östersund

Lars Nyberg described activities in the programme in tourist studies and how course evaluations are conducted.

After discussion of some additional questions posed by the National Agency in its questionnaire, a random sample of documents were examined.
Caroline Cruz then visited the department for student service. She met the head of the department, Kerstin Fackel and Eva Regnö, who is responsible for coordination for students with functional disabilities. They discussed the situation for functionally disabled students at the university college. Teresa Edelman, Karin Lindforss and Marie Stern Wärn visited the section for examination results and degrees and made random checks. The visit concluded during the afternoon with a follow-up meeting with Thomas Lindstein, Maria Nyberg Ståhl, Arne Wahlström and Susanna Öhman. Annica Lindblom and the members of her staff presented a summary of what had come to light during their discussions with the staff of the University College and their examination of the documents. Some issues were raised and discussed. Finally Annica Lindblom described how the inspection visit would affect the work to come.

Concluding phase