Prof. Peter J. A. Reusch (chair of commission)
Prof. Jānis Vucāns
Dr. Juris Maurinš
Evaluation of the Doctoral Study Programme
Total Quality Assurance
at the
Riga Technical University RTU
in September 2009
Report of the Committee
The report is based upon:
• The self-evaluation report of RTU downloaded from AIKNC
• Site visits in Riga on 11th / 12th of September 2009 – discussions with staff, graduates and students
Structure of the report
1. Fundamental introductory remark
2. Recommendation
3. Goals and core structure of the programme
4. Results in general
5. Questionnaire
6. Appendix – participants of meetings
1. Fundamental introductory remark
The evaluation of this study programme took place in a time of changes and all participants are not well prepared for these changes.
AIKNC introduced new rules for the evaluation of study programmes according to ENQA standards, but AIKNC does not show what programme managers really should do. Programme managers need guidelines and good samples. AIKNC should organize workshops to develop guidelines how to apply the concepts of qualification levels, learning outcomes, knowledge, skills and competencies.
ENQA standards are not applied for study programmes at RTU – as far as RTU programmes are described at AIKNC.lv . So the programme manager of the Doctoral Programme in Quality Assurance followed the practices at RTU. The courses in this study programme were not developed and not described according to ENQA.
Regarding the Doctoral Programme in Quality Assurance it is not only a problem, that learning outcomes of courses are not described. For all courses a classification of course contents is missing. We need descriptions of courses that show what is really executed at ph.d. level – and how it is implemented. The courses of the study programme are described in an isolated way. For all courses there is no description of the preconditions delivered from other courses and no description what a course delivers to other courses.
2. Recommendation
The evaluation committee recommends the reaccreditation of this study programme for 2 years.
The committee highly recognizes the programme – but the programme has to be improved fundamentally to meet the requirements of EU standards and Latvian standards in higher education. The know-how for improvement is at RTU, but time and resources are needed to do it in a serious way.
Latvia needs higher education in quality management – and this programme can support economical and human development in Latvia.
3. Goals and core structure of the programme
The doctoral study programme “Total Quality Assurance” is provided by the Institute for Quality Engineering (IQE) at Riga Technical University, Faculty of Transport and Mechanical Engineering. The graduates of the programme are obtaining the degree “Doctor of Engineering Sciences”.
The doctoral study programme Total Quality Assurance is developed in accordance with legislative acts and regulatory documents of the Republic of Latvia.
The doctoral study programme Total Quality Assurance is the high end module in a series of study programmes on Total Quality Management at RTU – starting with bachelor and master studies. The programme wants to ensure acquisition of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary transversal knowledge, competencies and skills.
Core courses of the programme are:
A. Mandatory courses
1. Probability Theory and Statistical Methods for Engineering
2. Condition Monitoring of Machines
B1. Mandatory optional courses
1. Production Process Stochastic Analysis
2. Sustainable Development of Technical Systems
3. Machine and Process Quality Assurance and Management
4. Statistical Mechanics of Surfaces
5. Dynamic Analysis, Optimisation and Synthesis of Machines
4. Results in general
There are 3 students (1 2nd year, 2 1st year) enrolled in this study programme and for each of these students at RTU they shape an individual approach based on preconditions and individual expectations. That is fine – and it is probably the only way to run such a programme.
On the other side there are these courses mentioned above.
It is not clear how these mandatory or mandatory optional courses are managed for these individual students.
In such a case only a good description of learning outcomes can help. And the study process must be organized in way that these learning outcomes can be reached for each student in an individual way. Today there are no descriptions of learning outcomes.
The description of learning outcomes must be developed in a way that the qualification level of a ph.d. programme becomes visible.
Today there is no information available, how this programme will reach ph.d. level. Even in the discussions during the site visit most questions of the experts could not be answered.
There are questions regarding the strategy of this study programme at RTU. After bachelor and master programmes in quality management, RTU offers a ph.d. programme in quality assurance. Quality assurance is just a small part of quality management. So the ph.d. programme offers a specialization in a narrow area. That´s fine – the questions is, is that really what they need at RTU – and is that an opportunity for a reasonable number of students in the future.
In the self-assessment report they compare the RTU programme with a programme at NTNU in Trondheim. The NTNU approach is totally different and opens new areas for the ph.d. students – areas beyond the classical core fields of quality management. The NTNU approach seams to be more attractive for students – even in Latvia.
In the RTU approach it remains open what a ph.d. student can learn after a master in quality management for example. A ph.d. programme in such a case must really go very deep into quality assurance, otherwise it is not an appropriate programme after a master in quality management.
The experts met 7 students – some of the programme discussed here some from previous programmes.
In the discussion with the commission not all students were able to communicate in English – especially students from previous ph.d. programmes failed.
5. Questionnaire
6. Appendix – participants of meetings
Questionnaire
for Evaluation Commission Experts
(Supplement to the joint report of the commission)
It is recommended to evaluate each of aspects listed below by a mark according to the following scale and to add a short comment. In case of negative evaluation (mark 1) the comment is compulsory. It is recommended to add short description about each quality aspect: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is possible to leave without mark a question, about which expert is not competent. The filled in questionnaire expert must add to the reports - individual and joint
Evaluated higher education institution and study programme:
Doctoral Study Programme in Total Quality Assurance at Riga Technical University RTU
Commission: Peter J. A. Reusch, Jānis Vucāns,. Juris Maurinš
The date of site visit: 11./12. September 2009
The scale for the assessment:
4 (excellent), 3 (highly satisfactory), 2 (satisfactory), 1(unsatisfactory)
I The assessment of study programmes
(6 main aspects and 14 questions)
I Aims and objectives
1. Possibility to understand, to reach and to control the aims, objectives and learning outcomes defined by the study programme. Assessment: 1.5
Comment: Learning outcomes are not describes in the documents submitted to AIKNC before the site visit. During the site visit for 2 isolated courses preliminary definitions of learning outcomes were discussed. But this is just a starting point to improve the design and the documentation of the whole study programme. Learning outcomes must be described with respect to qualification levels. For all courses of the study programme the preconditions of a course must be described (contribution of other course) and the contributions to other courses.
II The content and organization of the studies.
Assessment: 2.3
2. Compliance with the aims and objectives defined by the study
programme, with Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the
European Higher Education Area, accepted by European Association for
Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA Standards and
Guidelines), with the requirements and recommendations of the
European Union, and with the regulations of the Republic of Latvia.
Assessment: 2
3. Consistency of the study programme and its parts with the demands to
create the common European education space, including the comparison
with at least two study programmes from EU countries.
Assessment: 2
4. Qualification and professionality of the academic staff members.
Assessment: 3
III Assessment of teaching and learning.
Assessment: 2.6
5. Modern methodology of teaching, a clear statement of results to be
expected, problem solving, use of computers, internet, audiovisual and
multi media equipment.
Assessment: 2
Comment: All students at RTU have access to the Moodle e-learning platform. Some lecturers submit contributions through Moodle. Students do not submit their contributions through Moodle so far. Chats and groups organized by students themselves are not used within Moodle so far – in this study programme.
More important than Moodle for the students seems to be the web portal WWW.KWALITATE.LV offered by the institute for quality management.
6. Counselling and guidance for students, academic supervision and
consultations of the teaching staff, increasing of the students' motivation
to study.
Assessment: 3
7. Methods to assess the knowledge, skills and attitudes, their objectivity
use to improve the studies.
Assessment: 3
IV The management and support of the studies Assessment: 2.8
8. Respect of the principles of democracy, clear definition of the relations
among representatives of the administration, academic staff and students;
Assessment: 3
9. Cooperation with other higher education establishments, research
institutions, international organizations; exchange of staff and students
with other higher education establishments.
Assessment: 2.5
Comment: Cooperation with other institutions is fine. Exchange of staff and students is at a very low level.………
10. Methodological, informational and technical resources and facilities
of the study programme.
Assessment: 3
Comment: The number of books available for students seems to be very small. There is access to the EBSCO database. ………
V Research (creative) activities of the staff and the students
11. Involvement of the academic staff and the students in the research
(creative) activities, up to date character and connection with the content
of the study programme.
Assessment: 2.5
Comment: Involvement of the staff in research is unequal. Very few dominating staff members.
VI Quality assessment and mechanisms to ensure it
Assessment: 3
12. Annual self-assessment of the study programme, evaluation of the
strengths and weaknesses, changes, plans and possibilities for the
development, continuously action of the system of self-evaluation and
quality improvement. Compliance of the internal quality assurance
system with ENQA Standards and Guidelines.
Assessment: 2
13. Perspectives (potential possibilities) of successful work of graduates
according to their qualification.
Assessment: 3
14. Opportunities to continue studies, and financial guarantees in the case
of closure of the programme, its re-organization and other changes.
Assessment: 4
Prof. Peter J. A. Reusch (chair of commission)
Evaluation of the Doctoral Study Programme
Total Quality Assurance
at the
Riga Technical University RTU
in September 2009
Individual Report
The report is based upon:
• The self-evaluation report of RTU downloaded from AIKNC
• Site visits in Riga on 11th / 12th of September 2009 – discussions with staff, graduates and students
Structure of the report
1. Fundamental introductory remark
2. Recommendation
3. Goals and core structure of the programme
4. Results in general
5. Questionnaire
1. Fundamental introductory remark
The evaluation of this study programme took place in a time of changes and all participants are not well prepared for these changes.
AIKNC introduced new rules for the evaluation of study programmes according to ENQA standards, but AIKNC does not show what programme managers really should do. Programme managers need guidelines and good samples. AIKNC should organize workshops to develop guidelines how to apply the concepts of qualification levels, learning outcomes, knowledge, skills and competencies.
ENQA standards are not applied for study programmes at RTU – as far as RTU programmes are described at AIKNC.lv . So the programme manager of the Doctoral Programme in Quality Assurance followed the practices at RTU. The courses in this study programme were not developed and not described according to ENQA.
Regarding the Doctoral Programme in Quality Assurance it is not only a problem, that learning outcomes of courses are not described. For all courses a classification of course contents is missing. We need descriptions of courses that show what is really executed at ph.d. level – and how it is implemented. The courses of the study programme are described in an isolated way. For all courses there is no description of the preconditions delivered from other courses and no description what a course delivers to other courses.
2. Recommendation
The evaluation committee recommends the reaccreditation of this study programme for 2 years.
The committee highly recognizes the programme – but the programme has to be improved fundamentally to meet the requirements of EU standards and Latvian standards in higher education. The know-how for improvement is at RTU, but time and resources are needed to do it in a serious way.
Latvia needs higher education in quality management – and this programme can support economical and human development in Latvia.
3. Goals and core structure of the programme
The doctoral study programme “Total Quality Assurance” is provided by the Institute for Quality Engineering (IQE) at Riga Technical University, Faculty of Transport and Mechanical Engineering. The graduates of the programme are obtaining the degree “Doctor of Engineering Sciences”.
The doctoral study programme Total Quality Assurance is developed in accordance with legislative acts and regulatory documents of the Republic of Latvia.
The doctoral study programme Total Quality Assurance is the high end module in a series of study programmes on Total Quality Management at RTU – starting with bachelor and master studies. The programme wants to ensure acquisition of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary transversal knowledge, competencies and skills.
Core courses of the programme are:
A. Mandatory courses
1. Probability Theory and Statistical Methods for Engineering
2. Condition Monitoring of Machines
B1. Mandatory optional courses
1. Production Process Stochastic Analysis
2. Sustainable Development of Technical Systems
3. Machine and Process Quality Assurance and Management