Benchmarking project of biomedicine degree programmes in Nordic universities

Transcription

1 HEALTH BIOSCIENCES DEGREE PROGRAMMES ON THE LANDSCAPE OF NORDIC BIOMEDICAL EDUCATION (Terveyden biotieteet koulutusohjelmien sijoittautuminen pohjoismaiseen biolääketieteen koulutukseen) Benchmarking project of biomedicine degree programmes in Nordic universities FINAL REPORT 1. Benchmarking target and aims The major aim of the project was to find out how the health biosciences degree programmes at the Universities of Turku and Eastern Finland are situated on the landscape of Nordic higher education of biomedical sciences. The goal was to promote the quality management of skills and learning results achieved during the degree education of health biosciences. The project aimed to describe, map and compare the content and development needs of biomedical degree programmes in Finnish and other Nordic universities. Mapping included the analysis of study content, evaluation of the development of scientific and professional skills and best practices in thesis supervision and evaluation. This project was part of the activities of the Nordic network of universities providing degree programmes in biomedical sciences. Network members are Universities of Bergen, Copenhagen, Eastern Finland, Turku and Karolinska Institutet. All the partners have previously had extensive research collaboration and that was now widened to cover also undergraduate education. One of the most important aims of this project was to develop new forms of collaboration in education to further promote common goals in increasing the quality and competitiveness of university training of biomedicine in Nordic countries. This project was carried out together with University of Eastern Finland. 2. Project activities: network meetings and benchmarking visits A: Meetings of the Nordic Network Bergen The collaboration efforts of the Nordic Biomedical education network were launched with the internationalisation funding of University of Bergen. The first official network meeting was organized in Bergen in August Aims of this introductory meeting were to get to know the partners and their programmes and discuss about different collaboration possibilities, including Erasmus, Nordplus and joint Nordic MSc degree. Importantly, the content and the structures of the participating degree programmes were introduced and compared. Mutual interests in enhancing the quality of education were clearly identified and the meeting succeeded well in forming a solid basis for the initialisation of closer and more concrete collaboration. Turku Next network meeting was held in Turku in October 2013, as an immediate follow-up meeting for Bergen. During the meeting it was decided that the joint MSc degree is not yet pursued, but it was agreed that Erasmus+ agreements will be compiled immediately and official NordPlus network status will be applied in the next call for applications in early

2 In addition, the very important part of the meeting was intensive work in thematic groups to reflect essential concepts in quality control, core competences and concepts of teaching, which were all major aims of this reported benchmarking project. 1) Quality control of the Master s degree programmes - grading criteria of joint courses/studies - grading the thesis work: criteria, process, people involved - development of quality control instruments: tools to measure student opinions, external and internal evaluations 2) Core competence in molecular medicine - what skills are needed to be able to conduct a research project and master s thesis - which (type of) courses should be included here, which soft skills needed - how the different programmes can benefit from each other by means of collaboration - joint student projects 3) Nordic Master Creative Minds - changing the concept of teaching no more resources spent for teaching basic skills but rather creating personal study progamme for each student. During Turku meeting the student representatives of the participating universities prepared and developed their own ideas of ideal forms of collaboration within the network, including joint courses, easier student exchange and virtual learning platform. Student meeting in Turku In January the student representatives (one from each partner university) met again in Turku to further develop the idea of virtual learning platform, including the content, budget, administration etc. During the meeting they consulted the representative of University of Turku IT-services who is expert in Moodle development. Students also planned the content for the first intensive course of the network, Summer School with training in generic research skills, and finally presented the outcome of the meeting to the teaching staff at UTU programme. Stockholm, Arlanda Karolinska Institutet organized one day intensive meeting at Arlanda airport in early February. The aims of the meeting were to: 1) prepare the application to get a NordPlus network status for the consortium, and 2) design the first intensive course to be held on Seili Island in Turku archipelago in August. As a result of this meeting, the application to NordPlus was submitted, including the funding application for intensive course, 1 st NordBioMedNet Summer School, Omics in Drug Screening and Discovery. The NordPlus status for Network in Biomedicine, called NordBioMedNet was granted in June and the funding application for Summer School was also successful. Turku During the intensive course, 1 st Summer School of NordBioMedNet, in Turku archipelago, the consortium representatives had a short meeting with other course teachers to discuss about the content for the virtual learning platform, NordBioMed.Net, and to design a feedback questionnaire for the intensive course. Each partner received a home work to list courses available for all the partners (either virtual or contact teaching) and start thinking about courses for NordBioMed.Net. 2

3 Turku To evaluate the outcomes of the 1 st Summer School, to continue the development of the virtual learning platform and to start planning the next intensive course, the consortium had a one day meeting in Turku at the end of October. NordBioMed.Net portal was decided to be extended also to 2-3 actual webpages, acting as coverpages for the portal. Their content and layout was discussed and each partner will now provide information about exchange and courses available for students on the pages. Student feedback from the 1 st Summer School (also attached) was presented by one of the course tutors Susanne Vainio, and encouraged by the very good feedback, the consortium decided to have 2015 Summer School again in Seili with only minor modifications to the course topic and lecturers. Thereby the effects of suggested improvements will be easier to observe and analyse. B: Benchmarking and teaching visits and their outcomes Professor Morten Johnsen at University of Turku Professor Morten Johnsen from University of Copenhagen did a 2-day visit in Turku in September He taught master level students how to analyse and evaluate scientific articles. The visit included two lectures and a preliminary assignment. University teacher Terhi Heino at Karolinska Institutet University teacher, PhD Terhi Heino participated in the teacher exchange and visited KI three times in November and December During her visits, she was teaching on the Molecular Medicine course in the Biomedicine BSc programme at KI. She gave lectures and evaluated students in small group sessions of a seminar assignment, which she herself had formulated. She furthermore participated in course assessment by compiling and marking an exam question. Her visits had a positive impact on both institutes by enabling the exploitation of substance knowledge as well as exchange of good teaching practices. The collaboration will be continued next year by similar teacher visits. University teacher, docent Kaisa Ivaska at University of Bergen The hosts of the visit were Prof. Marit Bakke, Karl Johan Tronstad and Maren Stallemo. The aim of the visit was to learn about practices and teaching modules in the Master's Programme in Medical Biology since University of Bergen has experience on an international Master s programme. The hosts emphasized the careful selection of recruitment criteria for international students. They also shared their positive experiences on large (25 credits) project-type course modules. Such courses may also be tailored for international student to ensure that they have adequate skills to participate in the advanced level studies. Bachelor programmes in biomedicine were also discussed. University of Bergen is currently lacking a bachelor programme and they were interested in UTU experiences. During her visit Ivaska participated on a Career Day, were alumni are invited to present alternative career options for the students. The day finishes with networking and the day was entirely organized by the students. University of Turku has also had ready-made career days for bachelor students, but UTU could have an additional day also at the Master s level and give the organising responsibility for the students. It would give experience on organizing a small event and encourage contacting potential employers. Ivaska also met the last year students and had a lesson for them on peer-review. At University of Bergen a voluntary peer-review process has been introduced in the Master s thesis. This idea could easily be copied to Turku as well, although it would require a more structured writing process for the Master s thesis. 3

4 Professor Ullamari Pesonen at University of Copenhagen The host of the visit was Professor Jacob B. Hansen. He is responsible for the curriculum of the MSc programme in Molecular Biomedicine. The programme has been very popular and managed to recruit applicants with high scores in the application process. The aim of the visit was to discuss the application process and practical issues in organizing the multidicipline teaching in the curriculum. Also the different teaching methods were compared and discussed. Professor Hansen explained the general structure of the curriculum, and prof. Pesonen had a change to follow the teaching during 4 lectures. Pesonen also interviewed Professor Morten Johnsen who is the founder of the programme, Dr Rasmus K. Petersen, lecturer, and a student Minna Tiirikainen who is originally from Kuopio. The main issues discussed with all of the persons were the strengths and challenges of the programme as well as personal opinions of the interviewees. The academic year is divided in 4 blocks which all give 15 ECTS in sections of 5/10/15 ECTS courses. The 9 week block is divided in certain positions which are available for courses. This system is very clear and part of this could be adapted in our schedule as it makes the planning easier especially with the elective courses. The pedagogical skills and methods used in the lectures were not so much different from Turku programme curriculum, but the main difference was on the practical work where they seem to have more extensive experimental courses than in UTU. Also the thesis project is longer, which may help the students to work in the companies since usually longer projects are easier to find outside University. Teachers from UEF at Karolinska Institutet, April 2014 Four teachers, Anitta Mahonen, Sanna Ryhänen, Marko Pietilä and Jorma Palvimo from Kuopio Biomedicine did an Erasmus teacher exchange visit to Karolisnska Institutet in April. Both the Bachelor and Master programmes of Biomedicine were thoroughly introduced during the visit. KI has introduced tuition fees for master students outside EU. Thus, it was particularly interesting to hear the first hand experiences about the international student recruit. Recently KI has also changed the teaching language of the bachelor programme from Swedish to English, and thus they have now international intake open for both levels. In Sweden even the Swedish students have to apply separately to the master level, and thus the master level studies are not so dependent on the bachelor studies as in Finland. Thus, the Swedish system clearly gives better possibilities to recruit international students with different backgrounds to the master studies. It would be extremely important to be able to restrict the time used for masters in two years. The usual reason for the delayed graduation is the overly extended thesis project. The master thesis project (30 ECTS) in KI is organized so that all the students do it during the last spring term of their master studies, and thus everybody graduates at the end of the spring. This has been made possible by clear and strict instructions, by introducing midpoint evaluations and by giving clear roles to supervisors and examiners. As a result of this benchmarking, the instructions and practices of KI thesis project will now be adopted to the Finnish biomedicine education. Professor Lars-Arne Haldosén at University of Eastern Finland The head of Biomedicine programme of KI prof. Lars-Arne Haldosén spent three days in Erasmus teacher exchange in Kuopio. Communication skills are in a very important role in KI biomedicine programme and also in Kuopio. Haldosén taught scientific illustration by giving a poster making workshop for biomedicine students. During the visit there was a good opportunity to discuss about Biomedicine education. In KI there has been a lot of discussion in different workgroups, about the skills needed in future job markets and prof. Haldosén informed us about the current opinion on the subject 4

5 and what kind of measures they are going to take. During the visit the benchmarking project of introducing the KI system in to UEF masters thesis practices was also finalized. C: Kuopio-Turku meetings (KuTu) In addition to extensive interaction and development of novel ideas within the whole Nordic network, the Finnish programmes in Universities of Eastern Finland and Turku have had their own meetings to evaluate and improve biomedical education on Finnish scale, and to identify topics and themes where both prorammes could benefit from increased collaboration. Programme teachers and first year students have met regularly in 2-day events, where teachers have concentrated on curriculum development related issues, and students have had their own programme with topics related to professional development and working life skills, including career planning, coaching with job applications etc. Students and teachers in Turku, First student and teacher meeting was held on Seili island at the Archipelago Research Institute of UTU. Approximately 20 students from both universites participated. Topics for students included 1) discussion about the sense of community (yhteisöllisyys), which was moderated by cancellor of education, doctor of pedagogics, Kalevi Kaipio, 2) and guidance how to write a good job application by MSc, HR Specialist Matti Laaksonen from Orion Pharma. Meanwhile teachers had their own meeting where collaborative projects were planned and discussed. Students and teachers in Kuopio The meeting was held in Viitakko Course Center at Tuusniemi. There were 16 students from Turku and 25 from Kuopio. The programme for students included lectures about personal and professional development. The lectures were given by invited quest speakers who represented both large and small size private drug and diagnostic companies. Students were encouraged to give feedback about their experiences of the first year of studies, and to think what kind of professional skills they should be taught them during their studies. Students were also asked to do a modified SWOT analysis about biomedical education. This analysis has now been analyzed in detail and the results will be used as a base study for the next meeting of the Advisory board of Kuopio and Turku programmes. Summary of the analysis as attachment. Next meeting for students and teachers will be organized in May 2015 in Turku. Teacher meeting in Turku During this benchmarking project, programme teachers had an additional 2-day meeting in Turku in the beginning of October to summarize the main project achievements and to discuss how to implement the best learned practices in the most efficient manner. It has become obvious that joining the forces and resources of the two programmes would lead to signficant improvement in the quality and versatility of biomedical education in Finland. Listed below are the most important outcomes of KuTu-collaboration: 1) As a result of KI benchmarkings, the Karolinska model for Master s thesis practices (supervision, guidelines for student, evaluation etc.) will be introduced in both UTU and UEF programmes. This thesis reform will be one of the major outcomes of this project. 5

6 2) UTU and UEF continue to develop web-based courses together. These courses will also be offered for the NordBioMedNet network. One joint university teacher has been recruited (costs shared btw UTU and UEF) for this development task. He will also be responsible for the content production for NordBioMed.Net portal. The first offered course will be Bioinformatics in Drug Development, and it is intended for MSc students. 3) The programmes will use joint admission for studies starting in Student selection will be made by a common admission committee with members from both programmes. 4) Joint advisory board will also be established for the programmes. It has members from central interest groups: experts outside academia who work in bio/pharma industry or public sector with regulatory authorities. 5) To extend the collaboration even further, the programmes have decided to start preparations for establishment of a first joint Finnish lower university degree (BSc/LuK) in the field of biomedicine. 3. Summary of the achievements Strengthening the Nordic collaboration As a result of intensive collaboration during the first year of operation, the Nordic partners have: established the NordBioMedNet network which has received a NordPlus-network status for student and staff mobility made Erasmus+ agreements for student and staff mobility organized the first intensive course (1st NordBioMedNet Summer School: Omics in Drug Screening and Discovery) established a virtual learning platform NordBioMed.Net Development of courses and virtual education together To combine the forces in organising education, UEF and UTU have: hired a teacher (Marko Pietilä) who is responsible of developing content for the virtual platform for UEF and UTU and for the entire Nordic network (NordBioMed.Net) started to develop internet-based courses together: o Bioinformatics in drug development, in collaboration with Universities of Eastern Finland and Tampere o Bioentrepreneurship course where Turku School of Economics has been the principle organizer o Course on disease model pathology, developed in UTU, where WebMicroscope (virtual microscopy) is utilized Student involvement To really get into the core of the matters, extensive student involvement has been implemented throughout planning the network activities, both for the first intensive course and for the virtual platform, which was developed practically entirely based on the student demand. Master s level students from Nordic network themselves planned the portal functions in a meeting which they independently organized and where they invited teaching staff and IT-experts. First year students of UTU and UEF 6

7 also performed a SWOT analysis based on their study experiences. This will serve as a valuable source of information when planning the future development of biomedical education in Finland. Quality management and harmonization of Master s thesis Best practices in Master s thesis according to KI model, containing guidelines for students and supervisors, and also evaluation criteria, will be taken into use immediately in UEF and UTU, and the aim is to further develop this harmonization of thesis process to cover the whole Nordic network. Joint admission and advisory board for UEF and UTU Starting in 2015 admission, a joint admission process for biomedical sciences degree programmes in Kuopio and Turku will be launched. Chair of the committee will be professor Jorma Palvimo. A joint advisory board for UEF and UTU programmes has been established. It includes representatives of the central interest groups: experts outside academia who work in bio/pharmaindustry or public sector with regulatory affairs 4. Future aims First joint lower university degree, BSc in Biosciences in Finland. Because both UEF and UTU programmes are small, establishing a joint degree (or a double degree) would help to create critical mass in the biomedical education in Finland. We strongly believe that recruiting new students would thereby get significantly easier, as the interest towards the programmes would increase with wider visibility. Joint degree would also improve the quality of education and enable savings, because e.g. the courses with visiting experts would serve simultaneously both universities. As its best, it could even lead to significant decrease in the duration of studies with the help of common intensive courses during the summer (Summer Schools according to the NordBioMedNet model). Next aims of the NordBioMedNet network common curriculum development; including clearly defined mobility windows planning and execution of exchangeable teaching modules, virtual and contact teaching courses, intensive courses development of common quality assurance protocols for teaching and learning; including both common evaluation criteria (direct continuation for the work started with UTU and UEF with thesis practices) and exchange of examiners mentoring programme to expose student for international contacts exploring the grounds for future joint Nordic Master s degree programme in Biomedicine The funding period of this project has been extended to spring During the following months few more teacher and staff benchmarking trips will be organized (Terhi Heino -> KI, Sanna Soini and Eeva Rainio -> Bergen) and NordBioMedNet spring meeting will be held in Copenhagen. To start the planning of a virtual NordBioMedNet bioethichs course, the professors and teachers of medical ethics from UTU, UEF and KI will meet in January. The consortium will compile a follow-up report at the end of the funding period. Attachments: Student feedback from KuTu 2014 and Summer School