Three UiB communities apply for CoE status in education
The academic communities within the fields of pharmacy, computer science and interprofessional workplace learning in health want to become Centres for Excellence in Education (SFU). The initiative aims to strengthen the development of educational quality in many fields.
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Three academic communities from the University of Bergen (UiB) applied to the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills for Centre for Excellence in Education (SFU) status on 20 April. They are competing against 25 other candidates to be among four new centres that will each receive funding of up to NOK 80 million over the next 5-10 years.
Will provide quality enhancement, renewal and development
“I am impressed with both the ambitions and the ongoing quality of education work taking place at the academic communities. Receiving SFU status provides valuable room for manoeuvre for the development of educational quality and educational expertise over time”, says Pinar Heggernes, UiB's Deputy Rector.
“It is important to remember that this is not a means of funding educational programmes, but of quality enhancement, renewal and development over a period of time, which we expect to yield lasting results and skills development for UiB as a whole”, says Heggernes.
Here are UiB’s three candidates for Centres for Excellence in Education:
PhaCE: Farmasøyter for en bedre verden
PhaCE, or Pharmacy Centre for Educational Excellence, aims to educate pharmacists who are professionally self-confident and socially aware, and who believe that they can help influence the world for the better.
To achieve this, they will create a Centre for Excellence in Education with an adaptable culture of creativity, reflection and sharing. The work that takes place in the centre will be organised into three parts:
• Developing laboratories as learning arenas
• Developing communication expertise
• Developing learning in order to tolerate uncertainty
Basic principles for all work in PhaCE are:
1) Students as partners 2) Engaged educators, 3) Societal integration 4) Educational coherence, and 5) Value-based reflective practice.
Head of the centre initiative is Reidun L. S. Kjome, Centre for Pharmacy. The centre is a collaboration between several academic communities from the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Chemistry at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
ScaleIT: Scaling up computer science education
Research groups and students have worked together to establish ScaleIT for future computer science education. The centre will strengthen computer science teaching by focusing on three areas:
• Modular learning: Dividing courses into smaller sections in order to better respond to the students’ different levels of knowledge at the start of their studies.
• Activities and tools: Development of new learning tools and activities, as well as gathering and making them available to students and computer science lecturers.
• Public relations: Building relationships between computer science and other subject areas at UiB, as well as contact with the business sector in order to build holistic and relevant programmes of study.
Centre managers are David Grellscheid and Noeska Smit, Department of Informatics. The centre is a collaboration with the Department of Education and SLATE.
“ScaleIT will enable us to improve our educational provision, achieve better integration with other subjects at UiB and deliver better and more expertise that is highly sought after in both the business and public sectors”, says Inge Jonassen, Head of the Department of Informatics.
- Read more about ScaleIT (in Norwegian)
Interprofessional learning to reach the UN sustainability goals
EPIC, or Education and Practice in Interprofessional Collaboration, aims to make healthcare and social service professions more sustainable through interprofessional training and education.
The SFU application is a collaboration between the University of Bergen, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and the municipalities of Bergen and Øygarden.
Ane Johannessen, Head of the Centre for Interprofessional Workplace Learning (TVEPS), says the academic community wants to move away from the ‘isolated’ mindset that exists in higher education.
“Currently, students receive training in their chosen profession, but little contact is made across disciplines. Interprofessional collaboration is absolutely essential in the development of good healthcare professions. However, there are many places where this mindset continues to be absent”, says Johannessen.
Finalists to be selected in June
The Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills has received 28 applications for SFU status from universities and university colleges in this round. The applications will be assessed by an expert panel that will submit its recommendation on the selection of finalists by the end of June. Those eventually allocated centre funding will be announced at the end of 2022.
Pinar Heggernes commends the three academic environments who aims to renew and develop education throuch a Centre for Excellence in Education.
“I am proud of the applications that have been submitted and would like to thank the applicant communities for their fantastic efforts. I would also like to thank other academic communities who showed interest in the process and who will work on developing projects for the next round of applications”, says Deputy Rector Heggernes.
Centre for Excellence in Education
A prestigious national initiative for quality development in higher education funded by the Ministry of Education and Research.
There are currently 12 centres with SFU status, two at UiB.
SFU status is awarded to academic communities that have already demonstrated excellent quality and innovative practices in education, and that have plans in place for further development, renewal and innovation. One of the important requirements the centres have to meet is that they must disseminate their results and knowledge.
Announcements and allocation every three years, to 3 - 4 centres each time.
Each centre receives funding of up to NOK 80 million over 10 years (5+5).
SFU at UiB
bioCEED – Centre for Excellence in Biology Education has SFU status between 2013 – 2023.
iEarth – Centre for Integrated Earth System Science Education has SFU status between 2019 – 2024 and the possibility of five additional years.
