Nanoznanosti in nanotehnologije

The evaluation of the Doctoral degree study programme in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies was carried out by a team of experts in accordance with the recommendations, criteria and benchmarks set by the National Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Quality in Higher Education. The assessment of the study programme was carried out against five standards in the area of Internal Quality Assurance and Improvement, Modification, Update and Implementation of Study Programmes. MPŠ IJS meets the requirements in three areas of the assessment: Changes and updates of the study programme (Standard 3) and Delivery of the study programme (Standards 4 and 5). In two areas, we observed partial compliance with the quality standard under Standard 1 (Internal quality assurance and enhancement of the study program - Higher education institution evaluates and improves the content, structure and delivery of the study programme) and Standard 2 (Internal quality assurance and enhancement of the study program - According to self-evaluation report, tasks are completed based on previous self-evaluation). In identifying the strengths, we have focused on the distinct strengths of the Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies study program and the whole MPŠ IJS, 25 of which have been highlighted, but there are certainly more. Many of the strengths of the Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies study program and MPŠ IJS are due to the strengths or excellence of MPŠ IJS as a whole. MPŠ IJS is an excellent research institution, which translates the results of its research work into the economy (with which it has intensive cooperation) and into the courses of the study programme. This is also reflected in the quality of the research facilities. Students have many opportunities to get involved in research projects if they are self-motivated. Notwithstanding the many strengths, we have also highlighted 15 opportunities for improvement that the MPŠ IJS can exploit to further develop and improve the quality of the assessed study programme. These opportunities relate to all the standards, but we would first highlight the opportunities in upgrading the monitoring and quality assurance processes of the study programme, where more concrete measures for improvement and monitoring are needed (e.g. the appointment of programme leaders at the level of individual study programmes rather than fields, a greater role for departments in the development of study programmes, and consideration of different approaches to the preparation of self-evaluation reports for the study programme). The second major set of opportunities relates to the delivery of the curriculum (more practice-oriented meetings for PhD students, opportunities to integrate external teaching units into the curriculum, involvement of more external experts in the assessment of PhD students' research work, inclusion of a course on research methodologies, etc.). We observed partial non-compliance or partial fulfilment of quality standards in the quality assurance of the study programme. The first aspect is the partial closure of the quality circle, which is mainly due to the low level of awareness and knowledge of quality assurance processes among teachers, but also among students. The second aspect is the quality of self-evaluation reports and action plans and the lack of focus of the quality assurance system on individual study programmes. 22 During the second visit, the members of the expert team received further information on the Quality Commission's future plans for the school to address our findings, which were presented in an oral presentation after the visits. They prepared an improvement plan for the quality system and the functioning of the Quality Commission. The Panel welcomes this approach, confident that the MPŠ will be able to effectively address areas of partial compliance with quality standards and to take advantage of the opportunities proposed. At this point, the team would like to thank all those who made the visit to MPŠ IJS run smoothly: Gregor Rebernik, the NAKVIS expert, the MPŠ IJS management and all other stakeholders for their constructive cooperation during the interviews.