TTK University of Applied Sciences was accredited for seven years

The Quality Assessment Council for Higher Education of the Estonian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education (EKKA) decided to accredit TTK University of Applied Sciences (TTK UAS) for seven years.

The international expert panel that assessed TTK UAS brought out several strengths of the university. The panel found that the university has a modern and constantly evolving infrastructure. It provides excellent opportunities for both learning and teaching. In addition, the commitment of teachers to student-centredness and the continuous improvement of their teaching skills was emphasized.

The Council of EKKA recognized the newly implemented Research Group on Didactics and the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Both are valuable initiatives for continuous improvement of teaching, learning, research, and competence enhancement.

TThe Council found that in the future, the higher education institution should also set targets for the indicators of its activities to be able to measure their success and impact. There is also a need to increase research funding, the volume of applied research, and the involvement of lecturers in research and development.

The rector of TKK UAS Enno Lend commented that the seven-year accreditation shows that the university is on the right track. “We have made appropriate decisions in the development of the higher education institution,” he said. “We are grateful to the nearly 150 people in the university, as well as employers and alumni who represented us in the institutional accreditation process. We can be completely satisfied with the joint effort, as in the previous assessment seven years ago.”

Necessary input for further activities

Lend believes that completing all assessment standards is a great achievement. According to him, the panel’s proposals will be sent to the members of the university for review and discussion. “We will get relevant proposals for the university’s action plan from there,” he said. “These recommendations and the observations received from the external environment of the university will give us the necessary input for further activities.”

Heli Mattisen, the director of EKKA, commented that TTK UAS has a very good co-operation with companies both at the level of study programmes and development activities. “In addition, it is a significant fact that the employment rate of the graduates is almost 100%,” Mattisen said.

All higher education institutions in Estonia must undergo institutional accreditation at least once every seven years. Institutional accreditation is an external evaluation, in the course of which the compliance of the management, teaching, and research activities and the study and research environment of the higher education institution with legislation, the goals of the educational institution, and the development plan is assessed. The evaluation is carried out by an international expert panel. Based on their assessment report the accreditation decision is made by the Quality Assessment Council. TTK UAS passed the institutional accreditation for the first time in 2015. Check out the evaluation decisions and reports here.

Image: TTK UAS