Malmö University's quality system and the five frameworks that govern quality work at faculties and at university level. Quality work is coordinated through councils and committees to promote the exchange of experience and provide effective support.

The different parts of the quality system

Quality work at Malmö University is mainly carried out close to the activities of the five faculties and their departments, so called operations-related activities, but also at a university-wide level. The university has five frameworks for university-wide quality work:

Quality assurance framework for research (PDF)

Quality assurance framework for the University Library (Swedish only, PFD)

Quality assurance framework for joint administration and services (Swedish only, PDF)

Faculty-specific quality work

The university's five faculties also have their own governing documents for quality work within education, doctoral education, and research. The faculties independently decide on the design and division of responsibilities for quality work, but they must adhere to the university-wide guidelines.

University-wide quality work

The university-wide quality work includes several activities aimed at developing the quality of operations. These activities vary depending on whether they pertain to undergraduate and advanced level education, doctoral education, or research.

However, two central components are shared within the university's integrated quality system:

  • Annual follow-ups during quality dialogues
  • Recurring external reviews

Quality assurance work for first- and second-cycle education

The University's quality assurance work aims to continuously develop its programmes and to ensure that they are of high quality. Outcomes and results from the quality assurance work, such as external reviews, alumni surveys and course evaluations, can be found on the staff web. There you will also find relevant and useful documents and links for quality assurance, as well as for related areas such as student influence and fair examinations.

For first- and second-cycle programmes, there are university-wide guidelines for part of the university's quality assurance work. Since all work that contributes to developing the quality of the organisation is to be regarded as quality assurance work, it is difficult to delimit what should and should not be included.

Most of these are activities that are carried out close to the programme, or where the results of the activity are fed back and used close to the programme.

A selection of the most central university-wide guidelines is given below.

Quality assurance work for third-cycle education

The quality assurance work around doctoral education should continually develop courses and programmes, and to ensure that they remain of a high quality.

The faculties decide how the work on quality assurance  should be carried out within their own faculty.

The key component in the quality assurance work is the ongoing collegial review of doctoral students’ work and progress. This often takes the form of introductory, middle and final seminars, and can also be done through peer review or equivalent.

The faculties should also ensure:

  • a transparent admission process
  • a systematic introduction to all doctoral students
  • a sufficient availability of relevant courses
  • that the programme is consistently informed by etical considerations
  • good opportunities for international exchange

University-wide quality assurance has six components:

  • Review ahead of the establishment of doctoral education subjects
  • External evaluation of subjects
  • Quality dialogues
  • Development of supervision and the supervisor’s role
  • Development of university-wide doctoral courses
  • Doctoral student and alumni surveys

Quality assurance work for research

Quality assurance framework for research

Quality dialogues and external evaluations are fundamental parts of the quality assurance work at Malmö University. Research at the University is subject to continuous quality review in seminars and conferences or through peer review of scientific articles and applications for internal or external funding.

The Quality assurance framework for research describes the division of responsibilities for quality assurance, as well as the university-wide themes and conditions that are to be prioritised for quality assurance and quality development in research. This university-wide framework is supplemented by the faculties/departments and research centres' descriptions of research-related quality work.

Framework for Quality Work in Research (PDF, Swedish version)

External evaluations

The University's research is subject to regular external peer quality evaluations. Its primary purpose is to develop quality and be designed so that they take into account the conditions and traditions of different disciplines. In these evaluations, national and international experts make recommendations regarding development opportunities in research activities.

External Research Assessment (ERA19)

ERA19, External Research Assessment, is an external quality evaluation of research at Malmö University that was carried out in 2019. The focus of the evaluation was quality-driving processes for research. The results of the evaluation of Malmö University's research quality can be found in the report below.

The Report "Preconditions, Processes, Performances for High-quality Research" (PDF, Swedish version)

Research Centres

The activities of the University's research centres are followed up annually in dialogues with the University management and evaluated when the funding of centres ends. The most recent external evaluations of the University's research centre were carried out in 2024.

Decision: Research Centers at Malmö University (PDF, Swedish version)

CoARA – development of research assessment

In November 2022, Malmö University signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA) and thereby joined the Coalition on Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).

The University has prepared an action plan for the development of research assessment covering the period 2024–2027.

Malmö University's action plan – Coara

Contact persons for quality work

Research ethics

The Advisory Board for Research Ethics works both strategically and operationally to promote good research practice.

The work ranges from monitoring changes in regulations, disseminating information and initiating educational activities on research ethics to handling cases of suspected research misconduct and coordinating support in matters related to ethical reviews of research applications.

The Advisory Board for Research Ethics

forskningsetikradet@mau.se

As an employee at Malmö University, you can find detailed information about ethical review and good research practices on the Staff Web.