FINEEC's self-assessment report for the ENQA targeted review 2026

The audited HEI conducts the self-assessment by following the guidelines in FINEEC’s audit manual. The HEI decides on the method for conducting its self-assessment. FINEEC encourages the HEI to engage its community as widely as possible in identifying strengths and improvement areas in its activities. This should preferably involve diverse groups of staff and students, as well as HEI leadership and key stakeholders. 

The self-assessment report with the additional documentation listed in the manual is compiled and submitted to FINEEC’s project manager three months prior to the site visit. The deadline is specified in the audit agreement. The material is prepared in the language of the audit, also agreed on in the audit agreement. The self-assessment report is 20–50 pages in length and is not published as part of the final audit report, but it is referenced in the audit report. 

The self-assessment report is a reflective document that includes both description and assessment of the HEI’s activities, highlighting the HEI’s profile, strategic priorities and positioning within the broader operating environment. Equally, the report should identify key strengths and improvement areas regarding each evaluation area. FINEEC encourages HEIs to publish the self-assessment report on their intranet or website.

Audit teams can request additional material before and during the audit visit. In addition, audit teams also have access to the audited HEI’s intranet site, which in the previous cycle proved to be a valuable additional source of information. FINEEC also compiles statistics for the audit team including Bachelor’s Graduate Survey feedback or AVOP feedback, career monitoring feedback, degree completion times and mobility data, and the number of completed credits for continuous learning from the education administration's reporting portal Vipunen. The aim of compiling the statistics package is providing the audit team with useful data on the scale and results of the HEI’s operations in addition to making better use of existing data. 

Once the audit team has received the self-assessment report, FINEEC organises a meeting between the audit team and the HEI leadership. During the meeting, the HEI introduces its organisation, management and quality systems and current topics affecting its operations. The auditors can ask background questions, for instance, related to the HEI’s management and quality systems. The aim of the meeting is to further strengthen the collaborative nature of the audit process, as well as to support the effective training of the audit team.

In collaboration with FINEEC, the HEI organises an open event for its HEI community before the audit visit to discuss the audit objectives, themes and the implementation of the audit visit. This event serves as way for the HEI to promote the audit as an inclusive and shared process, and to discuss the upcoming audit visit with the HEI community.

The FINEEC project manager sends the draft audit visit programme, along with the audit team’s requests regarding the groups and persons to be invited, to the HEI and organises a meeting with the HEI’s audit contact person to discuss the programme. The HEI has at least one month to finalise the visit programme and invite the participants. The visit programme reflects the specific characteristics of the institution. The team members and FINEEC project manager prepare for the site visit by drafting a question list for the interviews and documents for the workshops.

The audit visit is primarily conducted on-site and lasts two days. For the largest HEIs (over 20 000 students), the visit lasts three days. The size of the HEI is considered when planning the audit visit, for instance, with respect to the number of interviewees and workshop participants. The purpose of the audit visit is to verify and supplement the observations made on the HEI’s quality system and activities based on the audit material. A key aspect of the visit is to gather diverse perspectives and experiences from everyday life at the HEI, while also evaluating the audit themes within the institutional context. The objective is to create a supportive and respectful atmosphere that supports the development of the institution’s activities. In addition to the audit team members, the FINEEC project manager and backup project manager also participates in the site visit.

During the visit, the team conducts interviews and organises workshops with representatives of the institution’s management, members of the HEI board, teaching and other staff members, students, and external stakeholders. The aim is to involve different groups of students and staff as widely as possible and the topics for the discussions are guided by the criteria.

The visit concludes with a feedback session attended by at least members of the HEI’s leadership, the quality manager, and a representative of the student union. In the meeting, the audit team provides the institution with preliminary feedback on the strengths and areas for improvement identified in the evaluation topics.

The audit team draws up a report based on the data collected during the audit process and the analysis of that material. The audit teams are composed in a way that the team members complement each other with their expertise. The writing responsibilities are therefore divided according to the evaluation areas. However, all team members contribute to all evaluation areas over course of the process, and the report represents the whole team’s effort. 

The structure of the report follows the audit criteria, and in the report, the audit team evaluates the HEI’s activities and their development in relation to the criteria and the gathered data. In accordance with the enhancement-led principle, the report highlights key strengths of the HEI’s activities and provides recommendations for improvement. 

Prior to the Higher Education Evaluation Committee’s decision-making meeting, the institution is given the opportunity to fact-check the report. FINEEC offers information on the corrections made to the report. The final report is published on FINEEC’s website (www.karvi.fi) within three working days of the Evaluation Committee’s decision. The audit report is published in the language used in the audit (Finnish, Swedish or English), and an abstract is published in Finnish, Swedish and English for each report. 

A final seminar is organised by the HEI and FINEEC approximately one month after the Evaluation Committee’s decision. The seminar gives the HEI community the opportunity to openly discuss the audit results and conclusions with representatives of FINEEC and the audit team. The HEI decides on the format of the event.

Each year, the audit follow-up procedure involves the HEIs that were audited two years earlier. Its purpose is for the HEI to report on and receive peer feedback regarding its post-audit enhancement activities. The follow-up report collects information on the impacts of the audit.

Follow-up steps two years after the audit in the fourth cycle:

• The HEI prepares a follow-up report on post-audit enhancement activities with particular emphasis on the main recommendations from the audit and submits it to FINEEC by the agreed deadline, which is usually early autumn. The report is reviewed by FINEEC’s Higher Education Evaluation Committee.
• FINEEC organises a peer discussion event for the HEIs reporting in the same year.

In the case of a re-audit, the HEI is expected to have developed its operations in the areas evaluated to at least a good level by the re-audit. The same evaluation criteria, as well as the principles for appointing the audit team, its operations and decision-making, apply as in the initial audit. 

If the audit team assesses evaluation area I or II as Satisfactory, the HEI must report to the Higher Education Evaluation Committee on the development measures undertaken one year after the audit decision.