The degree programmes in electronics and communications at the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering have been granted EUR-ACE accreditation
The European Accredited Engineer (EUR-ACE) standard, owned by the European Network for the Accreditation of the Engineering Education (ENAEE), is a respected European accreditation for engineering programmes. The accreditation aims to support the quality enhancement of engineering degree programmes and increase the international comparability and recognition of Finnish engineering degrees in the job market.
The Dean of the Faculty Jukka Riekki congratulates the degree programmes. "In recent years, we have significantly increased the number of study places available to meet the growing demand for ICT professionals. This accreditation demonstrates the quality of the Electronics and Communications Engineering degree programmes to potential new students and hopefully helps increase the number of graduates in these programmes."
The accreditation covers the Bachelor of Science (Technology) in Electronics and Communications Engineering programme, leading to a bachelor's degree, and the Master of Science (Technology) in Electronics and Communications Engineering program, leading to a master's degree. Two English-language Master of Science programmes, Electronics and Wireless Communications Engineering, were also included.
"The accreditation process was based on a self-assessment report and a two-day visit by the evaluation team. While producing the self-assessment report, we were pleasantly surprised by how broadly teachers and researchers value teaching and are committed to high-quality education. The evaluation team's visit included interviews, teaching demonstrations, and a tour of the teaching facilities. In total, about seventy people from the university staff, students, and stakeholders of the degree programme, such as companies and programme alumni, actively participated in the interviews," says Jari Hannu, the degree programme responsible.
"During the process, we identified our strengths and, of course, areas where we will invest even more in the future, which was one of the key objectives of the process."
The strengths of the evaluated programs included extensive cooperation with industry and resource allocation for teaching. For example, the teacher tutor system, where every new student gets a teacher tutor, received praise, as did diverse teaching and assessment methods and learning environments. Areas for improvement identified by the accreditation team included reducing the drop-out rate in the study programme and strengthening the position of the bachelor's programme as an independent degree programme.
The Education Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering Jari Iinatti considers the result excellent, indicating the programme's long-term and consistent development in quality and content.
"I want to express my gratitude to those responsible for the programme and everyone involved in its implementation. I am pleased that the initial step in external accreditation has been taken. In the future, we can expand a similar process to other study programmes within the faculty because quality assurance through external accreditation adds significant value. The faculty has strategically invested in education development in recent years."
The University of Oulu joined in Karvi´s pilot project, which develops the application of the international EUR-ACE standard for the accreditation of engineering degree programmes offered by Finnish universities. Karvi has been carrying out EUR-ACE accreditations in the field of technology in Finnish universities of applied sciences since 2014.