Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic during the last few years changed dramatically the chances of conducting teaching and entrance exams at Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Laurea). Educational institutions and universities were closed, and entrance exams traditionally held on campus were no longer possible. Decisions on the implementation of the entrance exams had to be made quickly.

Laurea’s Master’s degrees had already considered the implementation of entrance exams based on a core competence course. The reasons were e.g. improvement of the quality of entrance examinations, raising the motivation of students, and raising awareness of Laurea’s education portfolio and the contents of education. The financial implications of the solution were also discussed. One goal was to increase the ratio of credits performed in the Open University of Applied Sciences (Open UAS). The COVID-19 pandemic justified the implementation of this solution further.

In the spring of 2020, the first entrance exam courses were built. Four Master’s degree programs worked together. And from that on, degree programs implemented the entrance exams in the same way, utilizing different study modules. Student feedback on the entrance exam courses was excellent. It was decided to be a permanent model for conducting entrance exams, together with traditional on-site and online entrance exams.

Conducting the student selection with the entrance exam course has numerous advantages. The online course enables the teaching of large groups of students. The Open UAS credits are accrued for all participants who pass the course. Students with the best grades will be selected for degree students. They will have the credits as part of their studies.

Those who pass the course but are not selected as degree students get the credits. If they apply again the following year, they will already have 5 credits completed.

During the entrance exam course, students become acquainted with the main contents of the masters’ degree they apply for. Students who complete the course and are selected as degree students are motivated. They can immediately take part in Laurea’s Learning by Developing (LbD) projects based on authenticity, partnership, experiential learning, creativity, and research.

Designing the curriculum for Masters’ Degree in Beauty and Cosmetics was presented in ICERI 2018 (Poutanen 2018). The Degree has been one of the degrees utilizing this new way to conduct student selection. Core competence courses have been chosen as the entrance exam, and different courses each year. This article presents the development, structure, and experiences of the entrance exam courses based on three years experience. The discussion is based on a SWOT analysis.

References:
[1] M.A. Poutanen (2018) PROUDLY PRESENTING, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FINLAND, MASTER'S DEGREE OF BEAUTY AND COSMETICS. DESIGNING THE CURRICULUM WITH PARTICIPATIVE PEDAGOGY, ICERI2018 Proceedings, pp. 3008-3012.

Keywords:

Entrance exam, Pedagogy, Online teaching, Curriculum, Master of Beauty and Cosmetics, Cosmetic Science.