Strategic Operational Plan of the Faculty of Medicine

We are the most coveted faculty of medicine and health sciences. Our top areas of research are in drug development, diagnostics, and the promotion of health. We provide high-quality learning experiences in the oldest and most student-friendly university city of Finland. Our research is both nationally and internationally renowned. Health Campus Turku is a close-knit community with low boundaries and world-class infrastructures. We work in close collaboration with the public and private sectors of the West Coast in both education and research. We provide an inspiring place to study and a supportive working community.

Unique Learning Experiences and Outstanding Learning Outcomes

Diverse and High-quality Educational Content
  • We develop our curricula based on student feedback, staff consultations, working life feedback, and third party evaluations (including evaluations by Karvi, the Finnish Education Evaluation Center).
  • We systematize the feedback practices of the Faculty and develop the assessment of learning outcomes.
  • We reform e.g. curriculum structures and contents toward a module-based system, to meet the needs of society by utilizing design thinking. 
  • We reform the structures of the supporting services of the development of core education. 
  • We foster multidisciplinary and multi-professional education together with e.g. Åbo Akademi University, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Novia University of Applied Sciences, the other Finnish faculties of medicine, and the other faculties of the University of Turku.
  • We ensure that our study modules reflect the principles of sustainable development, accessibility, data management, open science, equality, and research ethics, in line with the university's strategy. 
  • We improve the opportunities for students to participate in research groups through e.g. rotation months supported by the Faculty research tracks, thesis work carried out in research groups, and internships. 
  • We provide students with opportunities for international exchange or internationalization at home. 
  • The Faculty has four international degree programs, which we strengthen by searching for synergies gains. For international students, we provide the opportunity to take Finnish language and culture studies.
Modern Learning and Teaching Methods Accessible to All
  • We encourage the digitization of education and strengthen our teachers' digital skills: e.g. Ministry of Education and Culture’s initiatives MEDigi and Jobitti and teachers in health care. 
  • We use a variety of digital solutions in our education (gamification, simulation, virtual and augmented reality, video recordings of lectures, MOOCs, and e-learning in general) in order to ensure that our expertise meets the needs and operating models of society. 
  • We see to the pedagogical training of our teachers.
  • We provide the opportunity for personal study advancement as well as equal possibilities for learning through evaluating the accessibility of our education and supporting the teaching staff in providing accessible education. 
  • We provide opportunities for teaching experiments and their assessment through e.g. increasing pedagogical research. 
  • We ensure that students receive enough guidance.
Future-oriented Learning and Education
  • We strengthen the multidisciplinary teaching in our multidisciplinary university: particularly in the fields of health care and social services, health technology, law, business, and economics.
  • We form networks with the other universities in our region (Health Campus Turku). We have a constant dialogue with the various social contributors. We participate in forecasting work (Southwest Finland Foresight Academy) and monitor both the weak signals and the changes in the service system, society, and legislation. 
  • We strengthen our connections to international contributors and develop application processes for the international funding of education.
  • We strengthen the entrepreneurial expertise of our students and staff and are involved in the innovation work of Spark Finland. 
  • We strengthen the Faculty's opportunities for lifelong learning by developing structures and providing meaningful contents for open university instruction, continuing education, and paid services, for example by providing education through Sote-akatemia (Centre for Education and Research on Social and Health Services). 
  • We advance the utilisation of artificial intelligence in education, its assessment and development.
Monitoring of the Objectives
  • course evaluations by students
  • completed credits (digital education, continuous learning)
  • Bachelor's, Master's, and licentiate degrees
  • feedback from the working life on working life relevance
  • follow-up surveys for graduates, particularly on the employment of international graduates
  • credits in teacher pedagogical training per teacher
  • number of international exchanges and degrees

Engaging and Exceptional Research Environment

Multidisciplinarity, Internationality and Networking
  • The Faculty has an internal research evaluation committee as well as an advisory board consisting of external members, which assess the visibility and impact of the research conducted in the Faculty. 
  • We strengthen multidisciplinarity within the Faculty as well as with the other faculties of the university, the independent institutes, and the member organisations of Health Campus Turku. 
  • We work in close collaboration with the Faculty of Technology, especially with the M.Sc. in Health Technology education. Our common, emerging research themes lie in health technology and computational medicine as well as in industrial collaboration projects.
  • We continue to foster our productive collaboration with Turku University Hospital, incl. supporting services for research development and funding.
  • We assess the operating conditions of Health Campus Turku and invest in the developmef its future work.
  • We explore the benefits of membership in international networks and, where appropriate, apply to join research networks, e.g. EIT Health.
Open Science and Support for Research
  • We are implementing a new open-access incentive programme by e.g. financially supporting researchers in open access fees as a reward for their support in the peer-review process of funding applications.
  • Together with the University Library we ensure extensive parallel publishing possibilities and the availability of research materials in accordance with the principles of open science. 
  • We will continue to be active in handling issues related to research ethics, also in close collaboration with Turku University Hospital.
  • We will hire more research funding experts.
  • We will develop our grant writing and peer-reviewing processes.
  • In funding, special attention will be paid in increasing the amount of international funding: we are e.g. actively forming the networks required for EU applications and encouraging all researchers to apply for funding.
Seamless and Attractive Career in Research and Research Leadership
  • We will increase bridge funding in the post doc stage of a researcher’s career.
  • For tenure researchers, we offer a so-called ‘starter kit’, and are developing our mentoring practices.
  • We arrange financial support for peer-review evaluations of funding applications, especially in the beginning of the career path.
  • We encourage international doctoral candidates to assume teaching positions and thus promote their integration into the university community.
  • We develop academic leadership training at all career stages.
  • We increase industrial PhD training organised in collaboration with the industry sector and, after the dissertation, PostDocs in Companies or PoDoCo work.
  • We are expanding our international doctoral collaboration, e.g. Cotutelle Agreements and the EU-funded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions.
Research Equipment and Materials
Innovations
  • We guarantee the development of Spark Finland's work and thereby improve the identification of innovations in research and clinical work.
  • We will increase the innovation training of our staff and students.
  • We will increase our cooperation in innovation activities with the members of Health Campus Turku.
  • We are developing the work of Corporate Corner, with the aim of providing interested companies with opportunities to familiarise themselves with the research of the Faculty in order to initiate collaborative projects.
  • We annually support significant research and education innovation projects related to the activities of the Faculty through BlueSkies funding.
Monitoring of the Objectives
  • publications at different stages of a researcher's career
  • multidisciplinary joint publications
  • internationality of publications
  • open access and openly available parallelly published articles
  • the number of funding applications, particularly the number of international consortium applications and multidisciplinary funding applications
  • the amount of external competitive funding, domestic and foreign funding separated
  • the use of peer-review support and its effect on the success of funding
  • the visibility of research in the media (Meltwater, Altmetrics)
  • the number, internationality, and completion time of doctoral degrees as well as the impact of the research track on the completion time
  • patents, invention disclosures, business collaboration, start-ups
  • the number of funded, interunit collaboration projects

An Active Expert Community

A Prosperous and Diverse Community
  • Our goal is to be a dynamic contributor and the most coveted medical faculty for undergraduate and postgraduate students, students in specialist training, as well as teachers and researchers.
  • We involve our students and staff in the development of the Faculty at all levels.
  • We foster an open culture of discussion, even on difficult issues.
  • We follow the well-being of our students and staff on a regular basis, and discussion on the subject is part of our day-to-day work.
  • International students and researchers are part of our Faculty, and we support their empowerment and integration into the Faculty.
  • We will clarify researchers’ career path models.
Skilled and Self-Learning Staff
  • We advance our teachers' pedagogical skills, including in e-pedagogy.
  • We will expand our international recruitment.
  • We look at the fulfilment of positions from the perspective of the Faculty as a whole.
  • We will expand the Faculty mentoring programme to encompass the entire community.
  • We will create a peer support system as an alternative to mentoring.
Open and High-Quality Leadership
  • We develop and clarify the transparency of our operations and supervisory work.
  • We pay special attention to the support and training of supervisors.
  • We continuously collect feedback on our operations, examine it, and decide on the required corrective measures based on extensive discussion.
Sustainable Campus of the Future
  • The Faculty's new, functional facility arrangements make working and studying comfortable, increase communality, and create synergy.
  • We will strengthen our Health Campus Turku collaboration to make campus citizenship as seamless as possible, which means lowering the boundaries between different organisations.
  • We develop the Faculty's digital capabilities.
Monitoring of the Objectives
  • national surveys
  • annual occupational well-being surveys
  • occupational health feedback discussions
  • student well-being surveys, bachelor’s graduate surveys
  • direct discussions with student organisations
  • monitoring the participation in supervisor training
  • monitoring the participation in pedagogical training
  • performance evaluations
  • open feedback channel of the Faculty
  • number of applicants for education provided by the Faculty 
  • evaluation of recruitment success
  • number of international staff and students

A Proactive and Dynamic Partner

Building Partnerships
  • We will intensify our collaboration with our partners.
  • We will create new partnerships in the top research areas of the Faculty.
  • We will strategically strengthen our collaboration with Health Campus Turku.
Societal Interaction
  • We will develop entrepreneurship training and entrepreneurial work.
  • We invest in the development of innovation activities.
  • We will continue supporting Spark Finland's innovation work, and we actively encourage our researchers to participate in Spark Finland's activities.
  • We will further strengthen multidisciplinary health and social services education and research.
Strengthening our Impact
  • We develop health communication together with the other contributors in our region.
  • We encourage faculty members to participate in the preparation of science-based decision-making and science-based social debate.
  • We develop our education based on working life feedback and the evaluation we receive from the Faculty Advisory Board.
  • We are an active player in various top projects of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, e.g. Biobanks, Cancer Center, Neurocenter, Drug Development Center, and Genome Center.
Monitoring of the Objectives
  • patents, invention disclosures, business collaboration, start-ups
  • visibility in the media (Meltwater, Altmetrics)
  • the success of the Faculty's invention suggestions in the SPARK Finland network
  • monitoring entrepreneurship training
  • feedback from advisory boards
  • feedback from influencer events


The Strategic Operational Plan of the Faculty of Medicine for the years 2021–2030 is based on the strategy of the University of Turku for the years 2021–2030 and its operational plans. The operational plan will be implemented according to the resources available and a separately made schedule. The Dean reports to the Faculty Council on the fulfilment of the operational plan. The operational plan is updated annually.

Keywords
Faculty of Medicine