Students confirm the quality of our teaching, and nominated 720 WU teachers for the Excellent Teaching Award. The high standards of our courses are based on a comprehensive quality assurance program focusing on continuous improvement.
Curricular Changes
Business Law Program
Starting in the fall of 2016, both bachelor’s programs now have different introductory and orientation phases (STEOP). The STEOP phase is a series of four exams that must be passed before students can attend any other classes on the curriculum. Until 2016, both programs shared the same STEOP phase, but now it has been restructured to better equip students with the specific qualifications required for each program: The Business Law STEOP now includes the course ‘Introduction to Law’ instead of ‘Mathematics,’ while the ‘Mathematics’ exam remains part of the Business, Economics and Social Sciences program STEOP phase.
A comprehensive reform of the Business Law programs also took effect in 2016, both on the bachelor’s and the master’s levels.
New Course Formats
Two curriculum-specific modules (‘Finance’ and ‘Personnel Management, Leadership and Organizational Behavior’) were switched from large-scale lectures to a smaller-group format with a stronger emphasis on class participation. Initial results show positive effects on completion statistics.
Student Services
New Waiting List System
Our new waiting list system is intended to further assist students who are well advanced in their academic program. Under the new system, a fixed number of places for high-demand courses are not assigned according to the usual first come, first served principle, but are instead assigned according to students’ progress. The aim is to help students complete their studies more efficiently. This new system was also applied to the bachelor’s-level specialization areas for the first time in 2016.
Feedback for WU
Students can use the Message4WU feedback channel to communicate their ideas, suggestions, and complaints directly to WU. Feedback is collected and forwarded to the appropriate units or people in anonymized form. If students provide a contact address, they can also opt to be informed of what happens to their feedback messages.
Quality Assurance
International Best Practice Project
WU and seven further universities were selected to participate in an UNESCO Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP) international best practice project. The project, launched in 2014, focuses on innovative and effective internal quality assurance methods at universities and their effects on teaching and learning, employability, and management. The results of the eight case studies were presented at the annual UNESCO IIEP Policy Forum in June, and the effects on institutions and national systems were analyzed in detail.
Awareness of quality management and the instruments used among both academic and administrative staff was also investigated. The results show high levels of acceptance and effectiveness of our internal quality management, for example the regularly scheduled course evaluations.