This Tuesday the Institute Council approved a new organization for K2. The old organization of K2 had one axis for teaching, divided into 8 areas and one axis for research, divided in 21 research groups. The purpose of this division was to ensure teaching would be equated with research. The eight managers with responsibility for education have constituted the extended management team at K2.

A disadvantage of this arrangement is that it has been 8 + 21 groups, a total of 29 groups who reported directly to the department management. The control span for the K2 head was large. In addition there was an artificial distinction between research and teaching with two separate axes. In reality, it is the researchers who teach.

It has therefore been desirable to have a new organization of K2 with a smaller span of control for the management, and with research and teaching seen as a whole. In the new curriculum in medicine there will be semester boards that are responsible for the education in each semester. These semester boards will overlap with the function of today’s education managers.

In the new organization of K2, the current education managers will be abandoned. 7 of the 21 research group leaders will constitute the extended management team. The advantage of the new organization is that it is simpler, the department management will have a more manageable span of control and the differentiation between teaching and research is reduced.

I will take this opportunity to thank the education managers for the job they have done. The new organization is not to express dissatisfaction with their efforts, but is the result of experience with the old model and not least that semester boards will be established in the new curriculum for medicine.

Per

This statement came from an otherwise sober-minded fellow professor when I discussed the impending EUU seminar (or teaching days for academic staff at K1 and K2). The wording in K2Nytt 34 was: “The teaching days are mandatory for teachers in main positions.”

Research (gaining new knowledge) is of course highly rated in our university environment and merits are measured with publication points, annual PhD degrees and research awards. But knowledge must be communicated (taught) and the university as the highest level educational institution has a particular responsibility to provide updated scientific but also educational excellence in teaching! We know that we value expertise, but what about teaching methods? Have we (you …) something to learn?

On the first day (October 1st PM 9-12) of the upcoming seminar (program, registration), a review of the new curriculum for medicine is presented. The first group of students has already started this fall and early on they will attend clinical department rounds, so we will meet them soon. The teaching program will be redistributed within and between semesters, what does that mean for your teaching? Clinical procedures / skills training, how do we train and evaluate this? Decentralized teaching (at Haugesund, Førde and SUS), who is responsible for what?

Today’s students are technological competent and continuously online. Can we utilize that to improve our teaching? On the second day (October 14th) the three other universities will present their experience with E-learning. Canvas is the new E-learning system to be used at UiB and Inspera is our new digital examination platform.

To counter allergia obligatoria, we end with this reformulated call to all with teaching commitments: COME AND BE INSPIRED!

Jone Trovik