EDUCATIONAL QUALITY POLICY

CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.0 QUALITY POLICY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.1 Student-centred learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.0 QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

4.0 EUROPEAN STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5.0 PROGRAMME QUALITY DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

5.1 Information on programme performance and quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

5.2 Internal forums for quality dialogue and development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

5.3 Continuous programme management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5.4 Recurring peer reviews of our degree programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

6.0 INTERNAL PARTICIPANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

7.0 MONITORING PROGRAMME QUALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

7.1 Internal sources of information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

7.2 External sources of information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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CBS’ educational quality policy is based on politically adopted European conventions (the Bologna Accord) and on national legislation for university education in Denmark. Within this framework, CBS has developed its quality policy with the aim of supporting our entrepreneurial culture, with focus on relevance and excellence.

In this document, CBS’ quality assurance system is described: A. the contents of our quality policy B. how we implement the policy in practise.

CBS strives to attract talented students to all programmes, and they take their education seriously. Likewise, CBS takes the students seriously. Admission requirements are high, and students’ wishes, concerns and ideas are seen as essential sources of inspiration.

CBS is a large business university both in terms of student numbers and in variety of academic disciplines in degree programmes. However, the framework and processes are standardised in order to achieve economies of scale. Educational standards are high and well controlled, but it is important that there is also room and opportunities for students who are ambitious or entrepreneurial of mind.

Quality lives in the academic environments and in encounters with the students. Con-sequently, CBS works to raise the local quality awareness and support the educational quality development. The goal of our quality assurance policy is to develop and main-tain a culture of quality where efforts are directed at social, preventive and transparent support activities. It is CBS’ ambition to use resources on quality enhancement rather than control and sanctions; and it is our objective to always organise quality control in a way that it leads to improvement.

Since CBS was founded in 1917, we have been preoccupied with internationalization, at that time through training in modern languages and teaching in foreign trade. Today, our value to Danish society and Danish companies is based on our graduates being of in-ternational standard. We educate many graduates and for many purposes, so everything cannot be world class – but we carry out international benchmarking activities, and we seek to attract the best teachers no matter where they come from.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

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An essential objective of CBS’ quality policy is to ensure continuously that our pro-grammes are founded on the knowledge basis of the individual programme, as described in the programme regulations. This includes that the programme is linked to relevant academic environments and based on new knowledge. It is also imperative that the programme is organised by teachers who participate in or have active contact with relevant research environments. Finally, students must be in regular contact with the relevant knowledge base in order to support students in achieving the intended learning outcomes of the programme.

To this end, CBS has a number of policies that are to ensure that this happens in real life. The policies include minimum standards and monitoring processes. Key policies are:

• Research-based education at CBS• Rules for ‘planning of teaching activities’ (application of teaching resources).

2.1 STUDENT-CENTRED LEARNINGCBS wishes to provide the business sector with graduates with both strong fundamental business skills and transformative capabilities. Employers point towards such capa-bilities as being vital for all educational programmes in the future. A comprehensive process to identify and define the overall profile of a CBS graduate has resulted in the CBS Nordic Nine skills and capabilities. These are now defined as the Nordic Nine learning outcomes common to all programmes at CBS.

The Nordic Nine will serve as a guideline for future students and employers in un-derstanding the capabilities of CBS graduates. From 2022, the Nordic Nine will be reflected in all competency profiles for CBS programmes, and they will be incorporated into the programmes’ curricular design, teaching goals and the measurement of learning outcomes.

CBS’ pedagogical principles for teaching and learning are elaborated on CBS’ website.

2.0 QUALITY POLICY

3.0 QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCESS

CBS’ quality assurance system as regards the offered degree programmes is based on a number of elements. These elements make up the quality cycle, the cycle ensuring qual-ity and relevance in our programmes. The elements are divided into three steps: operate, monitor and improve – as can be seen in this figure:

3.1 THE ELEMENTS OF THE THREE STEPS IN THE CYCLEEach of the three steps contains a number of elements, and there is a well-described policy/procedure for each element in CBS’ Programme Quality Handbook. The circular process works in the way that if the analysing of what we monitor gives reason for changes, the improvement step will result in changes in one or more of the elements in the operation step, e.g. changes in programme regulations. The elements of the three steps are illustrated in the following figure:

Operate

Improve

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Monitor

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Programme quality management

OPERATE MONITOR

Programme quality management

IMPROVE

Programme regulations

Student admission

Programme ressource allocation

Allocation of teachers

Administrative infrastructure

Physical infrastruture

Student support

Academic integrity

Business intelligence

Benchmarking and ranking

Student evaluations of teaching

External feedback:

Employers

External examiners

Alumni

Recurring programme peer reviews

New programmes and discontinuation of

programmes

Support staff development

Faculty development

Student involvement

CBS’ quality policy interprets and incorporates the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG 2015) for internal quality assurance in the following way:

European Standards and Guidelines Programme Quality Handbook

1. Policy for quality assurance

Programme regulations

Allocation of teachers

Administrative infrastructure

Physical infrastructure

Academic integrity

Support staff development

2. Design and approval of programmesNew programmes and discontinuation of programmes

Employer feedback

Alumni feedback

3. Student-centred learning, teaching and assessmentStudent evaluations of teaching

External examiner feedback

4. Student admission, progression, recognition and

certificationStudent admission

5. Teaching staff Faculty development

6. Learning resources and student supportStudent support

7. Information managementProgramme resource allocation

Business intelligence

8. Public informationBenchmarking & ranking

Student evaluations of teaching

9. On-going monitoring and periodic review of programmes Recurring programme peer reviews – 5-year cycle

10. Cyclical external quality assurance

National accreditation – 6-year cycle

EQUIS – 5-year cycle

AACSB – 5-year cycle

AMBA – 5-year cycle

4.0 EUROPEAN STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES

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The responsibility for the continuous programme management and quality assurance lies with the individual programme director and the Dean of Education. The pro-grammes report to the Dean of Education, who also holds overall responsibility for educational quality, and for the study administration. The programmes have their own budgets and purchase teaching and project supervision from various departments. This organisational setup as a matrix structure is a central aspect of the university’s quality control system:

The dialogue between the programme directors and the heads of department is impor-tant, as this dialogue is the basis for a continued quality assurance of courses as well as entire programmes. The dialogue in the matrix system ensures that qualified teachers with the right qualifications are chosen for courses and programmes. In addition, the Dean of Education visits the research departments every 2-3 years in order to develop relationships between programmes and research. These visits normally have a specific theme.

5.0 PROGRAMME QUALITY DEVELOPMENT

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Programme(s)

Departments

5.1 INFORMATION ON PROGRAMME PERFORMANCE AND QUALITYAs part of its programme quality policy, CBS uses various sources of information in order to get an overview of the development of the programmes. CBS uses key figures on programme performance as well as information from student evaluations and from dialogue with both internal and external stakeholders: alumni, employers, external examiners, teachers, and the programme administration.

5.2 INTERNAL FORUMS FOR QUALITY DIALOGUE AND DEVELOPMENTCBS’ quality work is based on established processes that ensure dialogue, mutual under-standing, mutual learning, documentation and ongoing development of teaching quality across programmes and among individual actors. The actors are described below.

Dialogue is needed to create a common understanding, to share best practice, and to make a qualified assessment of the impact of teaching and the achievement of the stated learning objectives.

This dialogue has been formalised in a series of forums at different levels of the organi-sation. These processes, which are of crucial importance to CBS’ quality, are:

• Forums primarily for dialogue on strategic programme management, institutional strategies and policies: Board of Directors meetings, Senior Management meetings and Academic Council meetings.

• Forums primarily for continuous programme quality development under the auspices of the Dean of Education, as illustrated in the following figure:

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Programme director meetings

Seminars for programme directors, programme concentration coordinators and heads of department

Programme administrator meetings

Seminar for all members of study boards

Programme director seminars

5.3 CONTINUOUS PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT Students and faculty meet in the study boards to discuss assurance of learning and curriculum at programme and course level. The activities in the annual cycle of study boards are:

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The Dean of Education wants to encourage knowledge sharing across programmes and follow up on best practice. Efficient and timely communication is the prime means of ensuring knowledge sharing. For that purpose, the quality assurance process includes a number of different forums with meetings and seminars throughout the academic year, as stated above. In addition to those knowledge sharing forums, the following meetings are a vital part of the quality assurance of our individual degree programmes:

The programme director’s annual report The individual programme director makes an annual report about the status of the degree programme, stating achievements for the past calendar year and the expectations for the coming calendar year. The report serves as a basis for a continuous dialogue between the Dean of Education and the individual programme director.

The annual report relates to the achievement of objectives in institutional strategies and policies relevant to the programme; also, challenges and potential problems are identi-fied. Wherever relevant, the programme director comments on KPIs or specific quality issues. The annual report also comments on the action plan drawn up after the internalpeer review process

The dean meets with each programme management

The Dean of Education has an annual budget and evaluation meeting with the programme management team (programme director, programme manager and

vice-chair of the study board (student)) of each programme.

The dean visits each study board

The Dean of Education visits all study boards every other year in order to follow up on identified challenges and potential problems as well as future initiatives.

Action points mentioned in the action plans for the individual programme should be aligned with the strategies as established by the Dean of Education and the President. Data packages should reflect converging developments in programme results.

The programme director’s annual report is submitted to the study board who has the op-portunity to comment on it. Any comments will be forwarded to the dean.

Process for revising the programme regulationsWhen there are major developments that would change the overall profile of the degree programme, such changes will be discussed with the dean, whose approval is required. There is a continuous dialogue about planned developments starting at the budget and evaluation meeting in autumn and until the new programme regulations are approved by the dean; changes will be reflected in the coming version of the programme regulations.

5.4 RECURRING PEER REVIEWS OF OUR DEGREE PROGRAMMESThe ongoing quality management is supplemented by programme evaluations (Recurring Programme Peer Reviews) every five years. In these reviews all aspects of the quality of a degree programme are reviewed by internal and external review-ers, holding arm’s length to the programme management. The responsibility for these reviews lies with the Office of Education and Quality.

October/November: Budget

and evaluation meeting: dean +

programme management

December-January: Study board revision of programme regulations

February: Programme

director’s annual report

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The Dean of Education The Dean of Education has the overall responsibility for the programme portfolio, both in terms of quality and economy. It is his/her responsibility that all courses meet the institutional framework and policies adopted by the management (CBS’ strategy, devel-opment contract, quality policy).

Study boards and programme directorsFor each programme, CBS sets up a study board with overall responsibility for the professional and pedagogical organisation of the programme in alignment with institu-tional strategies and policies. The programme is headed by a programme director with the responsibility for the implementation of the decisions made by the study board. The programme director reports to the Dean of Education.

Course coordinators With input from the study board, the programme director appoints course coordinators among faculty, in collaboration with the research departments. By CBS policy, part-time faculty cannot be course coordinators. The coordinator formulates learning objectives, content, literature, pedagogy, exam form, and unfolds these elements in a course de-scription. This description must be approved by the study board. The study board checks whether the course learning objectives are relevant for the students’ fulfilment of the programme learning goals, i.e. the programme competency profile.

The course coordinator ensures that the intentions of the course description are converted into teaching and he/she also coordinates and instructs other teachers of the course. This includes ensuring that teaching is research-based.

Teachers and studentsTeachers are providers of knowledge about quality, both through participation in the study boards and through reporting to the boards. Part-time teachers provide know-ledge of professional relevance, while academic teachers provide feedback of academic relevance. Through the teachers’ personal networks in business and with national as

6.0 INTERNAL PARTICIPANTS

well as international peers, a substantial amount of informal feedback on the quality of our programmes is collected. This knowledge is used in the ongoing development of the programmes.

Teachers and students are jointly responsible for implementing the planned activities of the course. It is the teacher’s task to help students achieve the learning objectives. It is the students’ task to meet the learning goals. The teacher’s professional and pedagogi-cal responsibilities include organising the individual activities in the course description, committed presence in class, and to gather information on student learning outcomes during the course. The students’ responsibilities include active participation in educa-tional activities, including preparation and committed presence.

The students are involved in the development of education at CBS in a number of ways (*at programme level):

Student involvement

Board of Directors

Quality board*

Academic Council

Evaluations*

Student union

Study board*

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7.0 MONITORING PROGRAMME QUALITY

7.1 INTERNAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Business intelligenceEvery year in October/November the study boards and the programme directors access updated data on the intranet as regards applicants, admission, grades, failure rates, com-pletion, dropout, unemployment rates and number of international students. Evaluation by studentsStudents are providers of knowledge about programme quality, both through participa-tion in the programme’s study board or quality board and via systematic student evalua-tion of all elements of their education. Student evaluation is conducted at three levels:• Level 1: National level (Uddannelseszoom)• Level 2: Programme level (Each study year of the programme is evaluated (year 1,

year 2 etc.))• Level 3: Course level (All courses and teachers are evaluated).

7.2 EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION

EmployersDialogue with industry takes place in the different types of advisory boards at CBS: the Dean of Education’s advisory board and the individual programme’s advisory board.

The Dean of Education’s business panel (CBS Business Panel) was created to serve as a central advisory board. Its members come from various industries and organisations and are appointed for a two-year period. The purpose of the panel is to further strengthen the relations between CBS, the business community and society in general.

Advisory boards at programme level discuss subjects in relation to the quality assurance of the programme and development of new courses etc.

AlumniCBS values its collaboration and connection with its alumni because it is a benefit to both students, alumni and CBS to have a closer dialogue, as is seen in connection with continuous development of the degree programmes. In addition, alumni engage them-selves in CBS as guest lecturers, as board members, or in research projects or rankings. Furthermore, alumni are highly motivated by mentoring current students about career related topics, such as transitioning from student life to being part of the workforce. The online alumni community is growing, and CBS communicates relevant news and sends invitations to professional events, conferences and seminars, to mention a few.

External examinersExternal examiners ensure that examinations take place in accordance with the pro-gramme regulations, but they are also important suppliers of knowledge about the quality of our programmes; partly through external examiner reports and partly through the ongoing dialogue with CBS’ academic environment. In addition, CBS has an an-nual meeting with the main body of external examiners for CBS’ degree programmes, namely the body of external examiners for the business administration programmes. At these meetings, CBS receives valuable feedback on our degree programmes.

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ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS ABOUT QUALITY AT CBS

PROGRAMME QUALITY HANDBOOK

RECURRING PROGRAMME PEER REVIEWS

COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOLSOLBJERG PLADS 32000 FREDERIKSBERGDENMARK

PHOTOS:BJARKE MACCARTHY