Title of publication
Audit of the University of the Arts Helsinki (Taideyliopiston auditointi)
Authors
Hanna-Leena Pesonen, Antti Huntus, Julia Rapo, Rasmus Vuori, Mirella Harri & Mira Huusko. University of the Arts Helsinki self-assessment report (eds.) Riikka Mäki-Ontto & Alina Savolainen.
The Higher Education Evaluation Committee’s decision
The University of the Arts Helsinki passed the audit on 30 August 2024.
The Quality Label is valid until 30 August 2030.
The audit team’s evaluation of evaluation areas I-III
I: HEI creates competence: good level
II: HEI promotes impact and renewal: good level
III: HEI enhances quality and well-being: good level
HEI as a learning organisation – evaluation area chosen by the University of the Arts Helsinki
Ecological sustainability
Theme and partner for benchlearning
Theme: Staff wellbeing at work
Partner: Hanken School of Economics
Key strengths and recommendations
Strengths
- The University of the Arts Helsinki has a strong commitment to supporting students’ growth as artists, which is reflected in the emphasis in teaching and guidance. Teaching supports students’ growth as artists already during their studies.
- The university has a strong and bold culture of experimentation. The university community has the will and courage to tackle societal challenges. The staff, students and alumni of the university are broadly networked and prominently involved in public debate.
- The university has a good understanding of its development areas and is taking action to tackle them. The university has a collegial quality culture based on dialogue and a good capability for self-reflection.
- Ecological sustainability is the university’s strategic focus area, which is integrated throughout its education, research and artistic activities.
Recommendations
- Joint educational activities, internal student mobility, sharing of good practices as well as a sense of community should be further strengthened between the academies.
- The university’s strategic goals for societal impact need to be sharpened and more clearly articulated both to the surrounding society and to the university’s staff. The social advocacy of staff should be better recognised and more detailed information on social advocacy work should be collected and used throughout the university.
- Strategy implementation needs to be more focused, prioritised and streamlined to reduce staff workload.
- The continuity and management of the promotion of environmental sustainability should be ensured when the development project focusing on the topic comes to an end.