THE ROLE OF TEACHING IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMMES FOR TEACHING QUALITY IN UNIVERSITIES IN POLAND - UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN BYDGOSZCZ

The researchers focused on improving the existing Internal Teaching Quality Programme at the University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The main goals of the study were to establish which areas of the programme were particularly beneficial for the improvement of the quality of teaching in 2015/2016 at different departments of the university, and the assessment of the programme's new initiatives undertaken in the academic year 2016/2017.

The potential problem areas were divided into two main groups:
(1) those related to students, being the subject of the teaching process, and
(2) those related to teachers and the university's personnel policy.

Regarding the former, the analysis revealed that the majority of students from different departments do not actively participate in questionnaires or opinion polls, which are designed to gather important information such as teacher evaluation, study programmes and studying conditions in general. What is more, students have insufficient knowledge about the functioning of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) or using the credits in the course of their study. Another critical issue was the process of obtaining a degree and, specifically, overdue dissertation submission. As far as the latter problem group is concerned, the findings of the improvement programme show that the major problem for teachers and the university personnel is the irregular assignment of teaching hours. Not surprisingly, teachers who have more seminars find it increasingly difficult to maintain high quality of teaching. Therefore constant revision and improving new personnel policy is necessary. The improvement programmes, which are being implemented across different departments, brought yet another important conclusion: seminars need to be observed and evaluated so that outstanding teachers can be rewarded. Further significant question was motivating teachers for academic development and increasing their international co-operation. The evaluation of the improvement programmes, which was carried out in the summer semester of 2016/2017 across the University's departments, proved that the programmes had been successfully implemented and realized.