3.1 Using the quality system in strategic management

Practices of quality work and steering go hand in hand

The Quality Policy contains the principles of quality work at UTU and it is available for the UTU community and stakeholders in the Quality Manual, intranet, and UTU webpages. The Steering Group for Quality managed the open preparation of the Quality Policy. The UTU Management Group was involved in the process and the Quality Policy was approved by the UTU Board in March 2022.

The Quality System, steered by the UTU management, consists of practices supporting high-quality activities including academic operational culture, steering, support services, and quality management. The documentation on the quality system is available on the UTU intranet and data systems. For stakeholders, the quality system and the quality procedures are described on the UTU website.

Steered by the University’s management system, the quality system consists of practices supporting high-quality activities and includes academic operational culture, steering system, support services, and quality management. Academic operational culture includes competent, responsible and ethical actions of all the members of the University community. It promotes high-quality performance in basic missions. Steering system includes strategic planning, annual planning, monitoring and reporting, evaluation and development. Quality management includes feedback systems, instructions, evaluations, audits, accreditations and rankings, promoting good practices, internal control and internal audit, risk and safety management and unit-specific quality systems. Support services include supporting the high-quality realisation of the University’s basic missions and producing and developing professional services and knowledge.

The quality of UTU’s activities is ultimately created with the competent, responsible and ethical actions of all the members of the UTU community. It is essential that the practices, support services, and quality management support and enable the personnel and students to use their expertise in full to carry out the basic missions

The Principles of Steering (approved by the Board) defines the UTU’s steering system and is based on the PDCA cycle. It includes strategic planning, annual planning, monitoring and reporting, and evaluation and development activities.

UTU community is actively involved in the strategic planning

The Rector is responsible for organising the preparation and revision of the Strategy and the Policy Programme. The whole UTU community is heard extensively in the preparation of the Strategy and the views of alumni and external stakeholders are actively mapped. The preparation process for the Strategy 2030 is presented in figure 15.

In April 2019 the Strategy workshop of the University Board was held, the first community survey to the university community was opened, the research council discussed the planning process for the new strategy and the steering group for strategic planning had two meetings. In May 2019 the University Board, the University Coll¬agiate Council, the Teaching and Learning Council, the steering group for quality and the advisory board of the university of Turku discussed the pl¬anning process for the new strategy. The strategy kick-off seminar and workshop for the entire University community were held. The second community survey to the University community was opened. The steering group of strategic planning had two meetings. In June 2019 the University Board discussed the pl¬anning process for the new strategy. The steering group of strategic planning had two meetings. Strategy questionnaire was opened for the alumnies of the University of Turku. In August 2019 the University Board discussed the pl¬anning process for the new strategy and the steering group for strategic planning held a meeting. In September 2019 the University Board's webinar on the first draft of the strategy 2021-2030 was held. Discussion session for the entire University community on the first draft of the strategy was held. The first draft of the strategy was opened for comments on the intranet. The steering group for strategic pl¬anning had two meetings. In October 2019 the University Board discussed the pl¬anning process for the new strategy. The third community survey to the University community was opened. Strategy workshop for the University community was held. The steering group for strategic pl¬anning had two meetings. In November 2019 the University Board discussed the pl¬anning process for the new strategy. The steering group for strategic planning held a meeting. Strategic actions circul¬ated for comments in the faculties, independent units, University Central Services, and Student Union. A meeting for key stakeholders on the draft of the strategy 2021-2030 was held. In December 2019 the University Board approved the Strategy 2021-2030 and the steering group for strategic planning had two meetings. In January 2020 the University Board approved the Policy Programme of the Strategy 2021-2030. In March 2020 an open strategy event for the university community was held.

The UTU management and Strategic Planning unit monitors the implementation of the Strategy regularly and reports the implementation to the UTU Board annually. The Policy Programme is regularly followed up on the operational level in faculties and departments. The dean is responsible for implementing the strategy in the faculty and the head of department in the department or corresponding unit. The steering groups and councils promote the implementation of the Strategy and Policy Programme, support the flow of information, and direct and monitor the UTU’s central activities and the quality of operations. The Strategy is updated if needed according to the changes in the operational environment. The Strategic Planning unit, led by the Director of Strategic Planning, coordinates both the strategy process and the quality work practices, which supports the complementary functions of steering and quality.

Preparation of the policy programme. The Rector is responsible for the overall strategic process and initiates the process. The University community is involved in the preparation by open invitation. Responsible persons and schedule are appointed for each measure of the Policy Programme. The Board approves the Policy Programme. Implementation of the policy programme. The Policy Programme is carried out in the daily operations of the University units. Monitoring and reporting of the policy programme. Strategic Pl¬anning unit coordinates the monitoring and reporting and compiles the results. University administration carries out the reporting on each Policy Programme measure. Academic staff is involved in the process. Qualitative and quantitative information is collected on each measure. Evaluation and development of the policy programme. The consolidated report of the measures is presented yearly to the University Management for evaluation. The University Management defines the potential areas of development. The progress and the development steps of the Policy Programme are reported to the Board, the community and other relevant bodies. The Policy Programme is updated based on evaluation if needed.

The strategic profiles in the UTU Strategy implement and advance multidisciplinary research and education in UTU Community. The profiles are reported yearly to UTU management. In addition, the Rector provides strategic funding every three years to strategically relevant research and education projects. The progress of the strategic funding activities is reported in the annual reports of the units and evaluated in the annual target negotiations held with the UTU management.

Annual planning follows the structure of the UTU strategy

The annual planning process is an important part of the steering system including all levels and units of UTU. The annual plan consists of the operational, personnel and financial plans. The operational plan follows the structure of UTU’s Strategy and it describes the main activities and areas of development of the units.

The unit’s activities of the previous year are reported in the annual report. The report follows the structure of the annual plan and it analyses the realisation of the planned activities. The annual reports of the units are utilised as information sources in monitoring the realisation of the UTU’s Strategy. The UTU management holds annual target negotiations with the faculties and independent units on the basis of the annual plans and reports. The management gives the faculties and independent units feedback based on the negotiations.

The feedback and monitoring systems of basic missions and support services are used as a part of the quality management. Activities are developed on the basis of feedback and the person giving the feedback is informed of the development based on the feedback.

The principles of steering at UTU include strategic planning, annual planning, monitoring and reporting and evaluation and development. Strategic planning includes the strategy, the policy programme and other policies as well as the agreement procedure with the Ministry. Annual planning includes the operational plan, the personnel plan, the financial plan and the annual target negotiations. The operational plan includes strategic framework, goals and actions in education, research, societal interaction and community. The personnel plan describes development needs in personnel structure, development of personnel competence and workplace well-being. The financial plan includes general and supplementary funding. Monitoring and reporting includes annual statistic and statutory reporting, annual reporting of operations, reporting of strategic funding and financial monitoring. Evaluation and development include monitoring, reporting and evaluating the strategy, feedback from the ministry of education and culture and revision negotiations, external audits and accreditations and feedback from the management (target negotiations).

Maintaining a common knowledge base is an important part of strategic and quality management. The produced and analysed knowledge includes internal and external data and information (Figure 18). With this knowledge, UTU intends to ensure an increase in the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of its operations, focusing on supporting decision-making and management.

The importance of strategic foresight work is recognised and this work is supported by a newly established development project in knowledge-based management organised in the Strategic Planning unit. The Vice Rector for partnerships and strategic engagement acts as the chair of the steering group for this project.

Follow-up information on the implementation of the strategy. Includes units’ annual pl¬ans and annual reports and monitoring Strategy’s Policy Programme. Indicator information includes education, e.g. degrees, student count and credits, research, e.g. publications and research funding, and personnel, e.g. full-time equivalents. Feedback information includes student feedback, e.g. course feedback and Bachelor’s degree feedback. Workpl¬ace well-being surveys and workp¬lace surveys. Assessments and accreditations. Partnership information includes Information from CRM system and coll¬aboration agreements. Financial information includes financial reports, financial statement information and information about facilities. Personnel information includes personnel competence, allocation of working hours and absences due to sickness. Foresight information includes operational environment analysis, mega trends, weak signals and competence need mapping/survey. Information contains University’s internal information and also comparative information from other universities and organisations (for example Vipunen) when possible.

The UTU Community is actively involved in the strategy process among other steering processes which supports the link between the everyday work and the UTU Strategy. The onboarding for the new members of UTU includes introduction to the strategy process and quality work (onboarding roadmap available on the intranet).

Strengths. Quality and strategy work are based on the Strategic Planning unit which supports their complementary functions. Open and participatory strategy preparation process in UTU community. Strong connection between University’s strategic planning and annual planning. Enhancement areas. Development of knowledge-based management. Development and usage of strategic foresight information. Increasing the effectiveness of the actions in the Policy Programme.