Lapland University of Applied Sciences 2017 audit report by The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC)

Quality policy

The Lapland UAS quality policy lays a foundation for common quality work. Everyone is responsible for the quality of his/her actions and makes sure to follow the common rules and guidelines.

The quality policy is based on the following principles:

• The management and supervisors of the university of applied sciences are committed to quality work and developing the operations.
• Our operations are based on taking account of the needs of our students and key interest groups and establishing partnerships worth their trust.
• We monitor the realisation of the strategic objectives in our operations.
• We regularly evaluate our operations. As part of the evaluation, we specify the development targets based on which we develop our operations.
• Our personnel are highly qualified and competent. Our partnerships support the development of competence and learning.
• Our operations are led by good governance and are properly documented.
• We deal with the feedback we receive in a responsible manner. The feedback lays a foundation for learning and developing the operations.
• We regularly take part in external evaluations.
• We inform our various interest groups regularly of the results of our operations.

Quality system

The Lapland UAS quality system supports the achievement of the principles of the quality policy by clarifying and developing the general procedures and processes of the university of applied sciences and the monitoring of the results essential to its operations. The quality system is based on the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) model.

The CAF model enables the understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships between strategies, processes and results. Using the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) cycle, on the other hand, illustrates the continuous improvement at all levels of the organisation and in all processes. The operations of Lapland UAS are based on enhancement-oriented evaluation that helps identify the strengths, good practices and development targets in the operations. Documents, process descriptions and instructions relating to the operations are available on the Lapland UAS intranet. Documents and instructions relating to studies can also be found on the Lapland UAS website.