BUT successfully completed the international evaluation of EUA/IEP

Over the last four years, EUA evaluators have visited Brno University of Technology (BUT) three times. They have interviewed not only the management of the university, faculties and institutes of the BUT, but also academic staff, employees, students and cooperating partners. This entire evaluation process was concluded with a re-evaluation last autumn, thus the BUT successfully completed the entire IEP programme. The BUT received the final report in February 2023, it is available here.

The EUA (European University Association) is one of the most significant organisations that play a key role in influencing European Union policy in the field of higher education, research and innovation. EUA members are leading representatives of European universities.

The Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) is registered with the EQAR (European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education) and is a member of ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), and is an external quality assessor, supporting institutions in the ongoing development of their strategic management, quality assurance and internal quality assessment to improve activities and outcomes. The IEP focuses on the institution as a whole, covering the areas of governance and decision-making, quality, teaching and learning, creative activity, relationship with society and internationalisation. The IEP evaluation is based on four key questions, namely what the institution does, how the institution does it, how the institution knows it works and what the institution intends to do next to improve.

According to the EUA experts, the university has successfully implemented the recommendations from the 2018 institutional assessment. In the context of recent and current external challenges, the team noted that the university is generally performing very well. It has a good awareness of the external environment, and is fully aware of its competitiveness, including the importance of excellence in research and increase in internationalisation. The evaluators appreciated the improvements in management, specifically in the centralisation of support processes. They also praised the division of responsibilities between the faculties and institutes of the BUT and the central BUT authorities. In this context, they noted progress in the centralisation of the BUT IS and in the systematic use of analytical tools for objective decision-making.

The university has also made significant progress in the area of the third role, which the university sees as an integral part of its social responsibility. For example, people from the BUT have designed solutions for the "smart district" of Špitálka, created technologies for water purification in the Brno dam and, last but not least, strengthened links with secondary schools through the Robots@FSI or Business Point competitions. They have also seen developments in international activities through more permanent international teachers and students and by expanding the range of joint degree and double degree programmes. For example, cooperation with the Technical University of Košice was established within the joint degree programme and with Technische Universität Chemnitz at the double degree level.

The EUA team met many enthusiastic and committed BUT staff and students. They appreciated the new management's approach based on dialogue, mutual cooperation and friendliness, which has created an open atmosphere at the university. The above mentioned facts are more than good prerequisites for achieving the goals set by the university management, while taking into account findings of the EUA/IEP international evaluation process.