2004:28 R

Evaluation of personnel and working life programmes at Swedish universities and university colleges

The first study programmes with emphasis on questions dealing with personnel and working life started during the 1980s. The study programmes formed a cohesive part of the line system up to 1993 when it was terminated and replaced by more topical-related subjects. Those institutes of higher education that ran P-line courses at the time continued to retain them in local programmes. This change meant that, as far as the courses on personnel and working life were concerned, the programmes developed in different directions. Today’s study programmes within the personnel and working life sector bear similar names, but the contents vary. Usually the courses are organised in Ì20-Ì60 points’ programmes and conclude with a bachelor’s or master’s degree.

The assessment group has based its evaluation of the study programmes by chiefly using two models to illustrate programme variation. One of the models largely cover courses specially programme-designed, while the other model deals with more general courses and then only one or several that focus particularly on the vocational sector in question.

The interdisciplinary character of the study programmes impose high demands on coordination, integration and the acquisition of knowledge across subject boundaries and the students emphasise the importance of being able to see the connection between the various courses – the red thread of continuity as it were. If the coordination is to function, universities and university colleges must allocate resources for this. The extent to which resources are allocated varies significantly between the various institutes of higher education.

Personnel and working life study programmes are often presented as vocational preparatory and research preparatory programmes. Few of the students, however, seek research studies. Perhaps one of the reasons for this may be that extremely few programmes have in-depth courses with emphasis on working with personnel as a profession.

Cooperation with working life in its different forms varies between the different study programmes. Both clients and students have strongly emphasised the importance of having some kind of contact with representatives of the economy. Clients underline the importance of the study programme to the personnel and working life sector and contacts with the institutes of higher education both can and must increase. All are not in full agreement when it comes to the demand for activity-concomitant study programmes, but they nevertheless underline the importance of a course with strong ties to working life. Clients, moreover, emphasise how important it is to clarify and bolster the contents and profiles of the study programmes.

The assessment group emphatically avers that cooperation with working life is important and should be reinforced, among other things through universities and university colleges having activity-concomitant study programmes on their agenda. Students are largely satisfied with the programme. Most of them stated at a meeting that they would choose this it again if given the opportunity.

In the chapter Overall analysis and assessment of course quality on the basis of the assessment group’s reference framework, the assessment group has collated its findings in a number of comments concerning important aspects of the study programme. In most cases the comments conclude with recommendations to the universities and university colleges to contribute to the further development of the programme studies.