Quality assurance: Support and infrastructure

Support and infrastructure are prerequisites for high-quality research and education, e.g. in the form of appropriate administrative support, career development opportunities and career support for employees, student support, well-functioning teaching facilities and IT systems, and high-quality research equipment.

Operational support

Together with department, faculty and disciplinary domain management (heads of departments, directors of studies, deans and deputy deans, vice-rectors with deputies), peer-appointed department boards and disciplinary domain boards – and subcommittees – provide support by creating good opportunities for achieving quality in the organisation. Informal collegial support is also part of the foundation of high-quality research and education.

Local administrative support in departments and support functions organised under the faculty boards are also of great importance. This includes educational support provided by the Faculty of Science and Technology’s Council for Educational Development (TUR) and the Pedagogical Council at the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy (PRåM).

The three faculty offices belong to the University Administration and support the faculty boards in areas with direct relevance to the quality of education and research. They provide planning and follow-up of activities, prepare employment and promotion cases, support processes for applying for – and managing – external research funding, and conduct some study administrative tasks (including study guidance). The Faculty Office for Medicine and Pharmacy also supports the use of information technology in teaching through MedfarmDoIT.

Advisory Boards

The Advisory Boards for Education and Research advise the Vice-Chancellor on issues related to education and research respectively. There are also advisory boards for internationalisation, research infrastructure, collaboration and equal opportunities. The boards consist of academic staff representing all disciplinary domains, students and the University Administration.

University Administration

Most university-wide support is gathered within the University Administration. The University Administration’s overall mission is defined in its rules of procedure.

In addition to the faculty offices, the following divisions of the University Administration support quality in research and teaching:

The Division for Quality Enhancement supports quality assurance and enhancement in faculties and departments, and dissemination of good practice across the University. The division offers educational professional development opportunities, pedagogical consultation services, learning and teaching conferences, career support, and leadership support for academic staff – and supports the University’s quality system at large.

The Student Affairs and Academic Registry Division supports the quality of programmes through validation when accepting students and credit transfers, and by providing good conditions to allow students to pursue their studies. This includes study and career guidance, recruiting and welcoming students, support for students with disabilities, preventive student health care, and training for individuals responsible for welcoming students at students’ unions and programme associations. The Student Affairs and Academic Registry Division is also responsible for organising student collaborations and for a forum for dialogue between the University, its students’ unions and student nations.

The Division for Internationalisation supports internationalisation of education and research by supporting global collaboration and international mobility.

The Human Resources Division offers training and development initiatives and consultative support to managers, promotes equal opportunities, and provides university-wide support in international recruitment and onboarding of international staff.

The Planning Division supports university-wide strategic issues related to education and research through planning, follow-up and analysis (including bibliometric analyses and ranking issues). The Planning Division is responsible for providing the disciplinary domains and faculties with relevant data for their internal analyses.

The Buildings Division is responsible for the physical environment, and University IT Services is responsible for digital infrastructure. Both are part of the University Administration.

The University’s research infrastructure in the form of experimental equipment, databases, libraries, collections and biobanks is crucial for successful research and education. Uppsala University hosts and is active in several national and international research infrastructures.

Support, service and training are provided to ensure high-quality use of the various facilities. For example, Uppsala University Library offers courses and individual supervision in information retrieval and bibliometrics, SciLifeLab offers training for users of different instruments, and Uppsala Clinical Research Center offers courses in clinical trials and biostatistics. Uppsala University has an Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on Research Infrastructure.

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