School - Bergische Universität Wuppertal

48
Quality attack –
Bologna check 2010
The (at times heated) public
discussion of the Bologna reforms
that took place in Germany
last year prompted the
German University Rectors‘
Conference, together with the
Federal Ministry of Education
and Research and NRW’s Ministry
of Innovation, Science,
Research and Technology, to
appeal to the universities to
check conditions in the new
bachelor’s and master’s programs
introduced in conformity
with the Bologna Process.
Supported by the university’s
Quality Network for Study and
Teaching (QSL), UW students
and staff are currently working
on the development and improvement
of bachelor’s degree
programs.
At the beginning of 2010 a
comprehensive survey of
bachelor’s programs at UW
was launched with a view to
determining opportunities for
improvement and implementing
them as soon as possible.
Since fall 2008 the Rector’s
Office has been working intensively
in collaboration with the
7 UW faculties to revise and
renew the university’s quality
control system. The result is
a quality management model
that is decentralized across the
faculties, but whose targets
are defined, their implementation
monitored and effectiveness
evaluated in cooperation
with the central organizational
unit QSL. To further ease the
administrative burden on the
faculties a network of quality
moderators has been established
throughout all university
departments. Faculties may
also call on centrally held student
questionnaires and evaluation
data.
The newly established quality
management model enabled
UW to respond rapidly to pres-
sure from political sources in
the wake of last autumn’s nationwide
student protests. In
fact, only five weeks separated
the memorandum of NRW’s
University Rectors from the
start of the Wuppertal Bologna
check.
All seven faculties, with their
more than fifty bachelor’s
programs, set up quality commissions
comprising university
teachers, students and
representatives of the quality
network to evaluate the situation
in open dialogue and
frank communication, and to
propose and document measures
for the development of
the bachelor’s programs and
improvements to the examination
system. The Faculty
Boards and Student Representative
Committees were
then called upon to comment.
Finally, on ‘Study Day‘ in mid
May, an open discussion of the
recommendations took place,
covering all subjects. In line
with the proposals, concrete
changes and improvements
are due to be implemented in
UW bachelor programs by the
beginning of the coming winter
semester.
The Bologna check is a meaningful
instrument of quality
management that has a firm
place in the Wuppertal university
scene. Like the quality
management model itself, it
is characteristically decentralized
and relies on consistent
student participation. Specifically
this means comprehensive
course evaluations and
surveys of student opinion
(EVA-Quest), as well as ad hoc
departmental and individual
subject surveys; it also involves
student representation on
relevant commissions, with
the right to comment on proceedings
and participate, via
the relevant student bodies, in
their decisions; and it includes
open public discussion of the
recommendations on Study
Day.