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Programme Advisory

The program councils aim to enable student influence, promote the development of education, and contribute to ensuring that the programs are of high quality. In the documents below, you will find work procedures and a template for meeting minutes.

Working procedure for program councils (LTU-5104-2023)

Purpose
The program councils aim to enable student influence, promote the development of education, and contribute to ensuring that the programs are of high quality. High-quality education refers to a learning environment where the educational content, learning opportunities, and infrastructure are purposeful.

Composition
Program councils should be organized for all educational programs. In exceptional cases, a program council may encompass multiple educational programs. If a program council covers more than one educational program, one of the involved educational leaders should be appointed as the chairman of the program council and assume all roles described below as “educational leader.”

Program councils should include the following members:

Program educational leader: The program’s educational leader is responsible for leading the work of the program council and convening the council’s meetings.
Students: The program council should have a minimum of three students in attendance, and if possible, two or more students from each year should participate. Student unions are responsible for meeting the goal of having three students present. If it is difficult to achieve this, the educational leader should contact the educational representatives within the relevant section to discuss potential solutions.
Teachers: The educational leader selects the most relevant teachers to invite to a specific program council meeting. The educational leader should ensure that at least two teacher representatives are present at program council meetings. If it is difficult to meet this minimum requirement, the educational leader should contact the department’s head educational leader to discuss potential solutions.

Depending on the nature of the programs and any specific issues, it may be appropriate to involve technical and administrative staff. To capture ideas and feedback from the surrounding community about the program, external individuals can be invited to participate in the program council’s work in various ways (although this is not mandatory).

Tasks and responsibilities

Quality development: The program council should periodically evaluate and contribute to improving the quality of education through discussions and proposals for more comprehensive changes, such as program content, pedagogical methods, assessment methods, and student support. The focus is not on details or specific elements during the implementation of individual course sessions. However, if certain courses are deemed irrelevant for program students or do not perform well over time, these should, of course, be discussed in the program council.
Student influence: The program council should serve as a platform where students’ opinions and suggestions are presented, heard, and taken into account.
Evaluation and analysis: The program council should provide feedback for the faculty boards’ periodic evaluation of the educational program every three years, especially regarding the self-evaluation and the analysis of quantitative data for which the educational leader is responsible.

Program council meetings
Program councils should hold regular meetings, with at least one meeting per semester. The chairperson of the program council is responsible for compiling the meeting agenda. Once the agenda is finalized, it is sent to all program council members. The chairperson leads the discussions at the meetings and is responsible for keeping minutes according to the established template.