The Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC) has audited the quality assurance system of the Police College of Finland. The institute passed the audit successfully. The audit team assessed the coverage of the quality assurance system and whether the system matches the objectives, is effective and suits its purpose.
"Passing the audit confirms that we have succeeded in the development of our quality system. Even though the current Police College of Finland has only been in existence for four years, police training institutes have a long history in the area of quality management and enhancement. As a result of the auditing process, the school began paying even more attention to the quality of operations and quality assurance," says Kimmo Himberg , Director of the Police College.
According to the FINHEEC audit team, the Police College of Finland has a quality assurance system that is clearly linked to strategy and the management of operations and covers a large portion of the activities of the institute. The most important elements of quality assurance, i.e. the operations manual, process descriptions, feedback systems and self-evaluation, form a whole that supports the activities of the Police College of Finland.
An important strength lies in the close link between training and working life. Systematic participation of staff in working life rotation, practical training periods for students and close cooperation with the units of Police Administration ensure efficient transfer of up-to-date knowledge on working life to the operations of the institute.
"Another significant individual strength that emerged in the assessment was the quality assurance procedure of the Research and Development Department. According to FINHEEC, the evaluation of publications is an excellent example of thorough quality assurance," says Quality Manager Aatos Juurijoki from the Police College of Finland.
Development measures to be implemented based on recommendations
The audit team also put forward development suggestions for the Police College. Interaction between training and research should be increased and utilised in a more systematic manner. As it is, research information and the expertise of research personnel is not utilised systematically in the planning and implementation of the training. In addition, the expertise of teaching staff and student participation could be used more widely in research and development activities.
Other development targets include the role of students in quality management and enhancement, clarifying the overall responsibility for support services and development of quality assurance material in Swedish and English.
"The quality management work will be guided by the development suggestions mentioned in the audit report. We have already identified some of the development targets highlighted by FINHEEC and also initiated development activities associated with them," explains Juurijoki.
» Website of the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council
