Caroline Fredriksen

Sosialantropologi - årsstudium

Lorenzo Cañás Bottos

The current programme leader took up the position in September 2022, after the delivery of the study programme under evaluation had taken place, therefore might not reflect all measures taken by the previous leader during its delivery.From the previous report, and on the basis of students and the external evaluator opinion, were recommendations for the reduction of reading material in courses, as well as replacement of literature. Most courses saw slight revisions in the reading list, which seem to be resulting also in increased sense of ownership of the courses (which were designed by a committee in 2017). The revisions also included reduction on both compulsory tasks (SANT 1020as well as syllabus). Reductions in reading material have been introduced every year since the first implementation in 2017, without students ceasing to mention it as an issue. This will be expanded on below.The placement of SANT1022 in the study plan (from second to first semester) has been discussed in plenum and no changes were agreed.A further measure undertaken was to improve the coordination of compulsory assignments between&nbsp;parallel courses (SANT 1020 and SANT1021 as well as between SANT1022 and SANT1023). This has resulted in the issue not being raised in the referasegruppe reports, so can be considered as a positive movement to resolution.In terms of the delivery of the courses more freedom has been given to course leaders (emneansvarlig) in terms of the selection and division of co-teaching teams. This has seen a reduction in the size of the co-teaching teams, and its concomitant management entropy, increased sense of ownership, as well as better follow up of the courses. This is a movement in a good direction.

An issue worth of mentioning is student feedback. Lecturers have problems in finding students to do it, take part in the process and deliver the final report. Half the courses do not have a reference group rapport attached. Lecturers have no effective way (other than their own persuasion) to make students form reference group, and deliver the report (the latter is even more difficult as it already happens at the end of the semester).We also lack a more systematic system for collecting feedback from the totality of students (this should be, according to guidelines done every third time a course is delivered) but it should be done in a way that assures also inter-course comparability.Since the implementation of the reformed study program, there has been repeated reductions in compulsory work and number of readings, and every time, the following semester students continue expressing that the pensum is too long and heavy. Unfortunately, NTNU has no rules on how to translate ECTS into concrete workloads and reading pages. In the absence of such guidelines, we can resort to the EU and UiO. UiO guidelines states «Et emne på 10 studiepoeng har til disposisjon en tredjedel av studentens arbeidstid i semesteret for deltakelse i undervisning og for egen læring. Tiden til disposisjon (dvs. fratrukket tiden brukt på undervisning og ev. praksis)&nbsp;bestemmer pensumets omfang. En tommelfingerregel er at&nbsp;pensum normalt&nbsp;ikke bør overskride 1000 sider på et 10 sp. emne.» Following this rules, a 7.5 point course should not have more than 750 pages, and a 15SP course 1500.In terms of working hours, the ECTS Users guide (2021: 16) <a href="https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/9ac30b32-f6af-486e-ba4b-891459942bfd/language-en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/9ac30b32-f6af-486e-ba4b-891459942bfd/language-en</a> states “In most cases, student workload ranges from 1,500 to 1,800 hours for an academic year, whereby one credit corresponds to 25 to 30 hours of work.” With 30 sp per semester, this means that a 15point course should demand between 375-450 hours of work. Contact time typically being 14 lectures + 10 seminars totalling 48 contact hours, leaving between 327-408 hours for independent work during the semester which lasting 20 weeks (including exam preparations) means 11-20,4 per week per 15sp course. According to the studiebarometer, students enrolled in the programme, declare an average of 18.6 hours per week (assuming a 30 sp workload, therefore 9 hours of work per course per week on average). This evidences that students are putting in less than half the time than expected in self-study, or, in other words, receiving ECTS worth double their time input.Therefore, to the repeated request for simplification and reduction of syllabi and assignments, we should work on communicating how the ECTS system works, and that the demands currently in place are not only not unreasonable, but already well below the Bologna process guidelines. Significant calls for reduction below these values endangers the comparability, integrity and quality of the degrees, going against NTNU strategy in terms of the quality of its teaching.Both lecturers and students mention lack of preparation and increased absences in seminars. This is clearly an issue of lacking motivation. We need to seek avenues to improve this.We need to work on how we communicate our expectations to students.We need to work on how we communicate the relevance of the different activities in the study programme that contribute to the development of generic skills that are needed in a job market characterized by the knowledge economy so that students become aware of the skills and knowledge they are acquiring.Find a way of increase level of individual feedback from FVA. Maybe creating tutoring or cohort groups.

Sosialantropologi - årsstudium - ÅSANT