Continued development of Hanken’s quality system

In the autumn of 2013, FINHEEC (The Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council) conducted an audit on Hanken's quality assurance system. The purpose of the audit was not to evaluate the quality of Hanken's education, research or societal impact. What the audit focuses on are the processes, systems and responsibilities that relate to upholding and developing the quality assurance system.

"The results of the continuous international accreditations and external evaluations of Hanken, pose strong evidence that both our education and research are of an internationally high standard", says Rector Eva Liljeblom. "These will continue to be the corner stones of how we ensure internationally measurable and comparable quality in all our activities also in the future".

In their report, the audit team concludes that Hanken has a strong organisational culture and a strong commitment for improving the quality of all its key activities. Hanken is also commended for its clear strategy and the systematic implementation of it, which form a solid basis for both setting and achieving goals.

Cooperation and interaction with different stakeholder groups, such as students and corporate connections, lie in Hanken's DNA according to the audit team. Response from these groups is collected regularly and used in operations planning and development.

Despite these evident strengths, FINHEEC, based on the audit team's recommendation, decided that Hanken's quality assurance system needs to undergo a re-audit within three years.

According to FINHEEC, Hanken does gather plenty information about its operations, but a more systematic way of documentation was recommended. FINHEEC also recommends that Hanken develops a more formalised coordination between the School's different departments and units in order to ensure uniform quality and support a systematic sharing of best practices.

"As a small business school with low barriers between students, faculty and business life, Hanken has a deeply rooted culture of informal means for sharing information. Hence, the information flow is not considered insufficient by us, but is not as formalised as FINHEEC requires", says Rector Eva Liljeblom.

Rector Liljeblom thanks FINHEEC for their work and assures that their recommendations will be taken into account when Hanken develops its activities.

"Similar external evaluations and audits are an integral part of Hanken's activities also in the future. By continuously subjecting our operations to external examination we receive invaluable input on our key activities; high quality research, internationalisation, and corporate relations", Liljeblom concludes.