In 2019, the President decided to describe and, if necessary, supplement the quality assurance system for research at Stockholm University. One reason that strongly contributed to this decision is that the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) has been commissioned to evaluate the higher education institutions' quality assurance system for research. This entails evaluating components such as the organisation and governance of higher education institutions, external review of research activities, conditions for researchers, gender equality and collaboration. A major focus of UKÄ's evaluation guidelines is placed on the need for external review. UKÄ will evaluate the work at Stockholm University – however it is not yet clear when this will take place. The work on the quality assurance system for research is led by former Deputy Presidents Anders Karlhede and Astri Muren. Within the administration, the responsibility lies with the Office of the President and the analyst Jonas Gurell.
Dialogue secures and drives quality
A new component in the quality assurance system, consisting of quality dialogues on research with indicator reports as the basis for discussion, is currently being developed at the university. The basic idea is to make better use of existing information from external reviews of research instead of introducing additional information. Extensive evaluations are conducted into the university's researchers and research in connection with grant applications, publications, recruitments, promotions and dissertations. Thus, there is already a comprehensive peer-based system for quality assurance of research and a large amount of data to assess. The university wants to avoid creating new burdensome work tasks for its researchers and instead make maximum use of already completed reviews. Therefore, a regular extern review of the entire operations will not be conducted; the results of such a review are deemed to be limited in relation to the effort.
"The objective for Stockholm University's quality assurance system for research is simplicity and efficiency by utilizing existing data. The indicator reports that are now being compiled, together with the other knowledge available, will form the basis for quality dialogues between the three decision-making levels of the core operations: President, area/faculty and department. Collaboration between these levels is central to the quality of research – and to the development of the entire university," says President Astrid Söderbergh Widding.
Discussion with all departments
In 2019, the indicator reports were tested at three pilot departments. In 2020, the President's decision was taken to extend the pilot to include all departments. Starting in the autumn, dialogues between the President, Deputy Presidents, the quality group and the departments began with the indicator reports as the basis. The aim was to collect feedback on the indicator material and how that can be used as a basis of discussion in quality dialogues surrounding research.
"This is an important part of the anchoring and a good way for us to get feedback on the system we are developing," says Jonas Gurell.
By the summer, the indicator reports will be updated and in the last half of 2021 individual quality dialogues will be held with all departments. The focus will then be on the research and research quality and not on the system in itself.
Jonas Gurell emphasises that the quality assurance system should not be a paper product but something that should give rise to active work. This will be something that needs to develop over time and the departments need to find a way of working that will be valuable to them.
"We are still at the beginning of a process, but it has been clear that the indicator material have led to several discussions about research and the quality of research. We see this as very positive," says Jonas Gurell.