Student empowerment

Students are co-actors in the creation of knowledge. The university strives to ensure that both individual students and student unions are actively involved in our development work.

• Agreement on Student Influence (.pdf) Pdf, 758.1 kB, opens in new window.
  Departments, units and bodies within the university shall take this policy document into account.

Student representation

Students have the right to be represented when decisions are to be made and in connection with the preparation of issues of importance to the education or the students' situation. Students must therefore be given the opportunity to be represented in all permanent or temporary groups or committees that prepare educational issues and issues concerning the student's working environment.

There are rules of procedure for the vice-chancellor level, faculty board, department and for operational support that stipulate that student influence should occur in connection with case preparation. The rules of procedure shall include how information shall be provided to the students, how consultation with the students shall take place and how the students shall otherwise participate in preparation work.

Student representatives shall be given the opportunity to supplement compulsory elements in courses that coincide with meetings in the university's preparatory and decision-making bodies with normal work effort. The student representative shall, if necessary and in consultation with the teacher, always receive supplementary teaching for parts that the student has missed, where necessary. It is the student's obligation to inform the teacher that they are a student representative.

Course evaluations

The university shall give students who participate in or have completed a course the opportunity to express their experiences and views on the course through a course evaluation organized by the university. The university shall also compile the course evaluations and inform about the results and any decisions on measures. The results shall be available to the students.

At Luleå University of Technology, course evaluations mainly serve two functions:

• The students are given the opportunity to evaluate and reflect on their education in a structured way and contribute to the quality development of the course.
• The compilation of the results gives the teacher and management a basis for quality development of the course and program.

It is a right for students to answer the course evaluation questionnaire, but not an obligation. The results of the course evaluations provide a valuable basis for improving the university's programs. It is therefore important that students participate in the course evaluations, both for their own learning but also for subsequent students. Course evaluations are also important for teachers in order to ensure feedback. Teachers and students thus have a joint responsibility to ensure that course evaluations are carried out and the responses should be characterized by constructive criticism and contain concrete ideas for improvement.

The course-giving department is responsible for conducting and following up on course evaluations according to an established model and for taking measures to improve courses if necessary. The teacher responsible for the course is responsible for ensuring that the course evaluation questionnaire is sent to the students, either electronically or as a paper questionnaire. The compilation of the course evaluation results is published on Luleå University of Technology's student web after the end of the course. In the compilation, the teacher must also take into account the views of students and employees that have emerged in the continuous course dialogue throughout the course. The teacher provides feedback on planned and implemented improvement measures to the students via the publication on the student web. The teacher responsible for the course is responsible for ensuring that feedback on previous course evaluation results and course development is made at the beginning of the next course session.