Results of the Research Evaluation: The University of Vaasa’s research has strong societal impact

The evaluation was executed during 2015 and it focused on the research activities of the University of Vaasa in the years 2010–2014. The basic units of assessment were research groups. The previous evaluation was done five years ago.

The final report consists of two different parts: the report by international evaluation panels, and the bibliometric analysis of research impacts.

According to the panel, significant progress has been made since the 2010 evaluation. University of Vaasa is now a “business oriented university”, and it has a clearly defined strategy with four focus areas for the research and a set of measures to follow up the performance.

The biggest praise relates to the interaction with society and societal impact.  The evaluation panel views that the University of Vaasa has been very strong in its interaction with the society. On the one hand the university produces high quality graduates and experts for regional and national industrial workforce. The university is also very active in transferring knowledge to the wider society.

– The panel strongly recommends that the university maintains and further improves its already significant collaboration with regional businesses at all levels. Collaboration with national and international businesses, in particular, is strongly encouraged.

In the opinion of the panel, the strategic aims of the University of Vaasa are clearly stated. Nevertheless it recommends that a clear statement should be provided with respect to the overall vision for the University of Vaasa and the quality of research that the university is aspiring to achieve.

HRM, FFA and NeVS are the best research groups

The panel identified three research groups that are not only on a high international level but are the University’s best or most promising groups.

These groups are Human Resource Management (HRM), Finance and Financial Accounting (FFA) and Networked Value Systems (NeVS).

According to the panel, these three groups hold particularly strong promise for future research.

The university level panel opines that there are two other groups which are currently carrying out research on a high scientific level. These research groups are Deliberative Welfare Policy Management and Practices and Discourses of Management.

Performance on the level of world average

The University of Vaasa requested the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University to perform a bibliometric analysis. The goal of the project was to gain

concrete and detailed insight into the bibliometric performance of the research publications of the University of Vaasa.

The indicators pointed to a performance on the level of world average.

Only the faculties of Technology and Business Studies were analysed.

– We found that the Faculty of Technology outperforms the Faculty of Business Studies on the whole set of bibliometric indicators, says the report.

Evaluation helps with the strategy work

Acting rector of the University of Vaasa Jari Kuusisto says that the evaluation will inform the ongoing new strategy 2017-2020 formulation for the University of Vaasa.

– The results will create a better basis for decisions on allocating the limited resources so that the University of Vaasa will remain competitive amongst the research universities of the world.

The recommendations for the future and the detailed evaluation of the different research groups can be found in the Final Report.

Evaluation of Research Activities 2010–2014. Final Report.
/fi/about/vision/quality/assessments/research_evaluation_2015/final_report/

Further information:
Rector (acting) Jari Kuusisto, University of Vaasa, tel. +358 29 449 8291, email: jari.kuusisto@uwasa.fi

Vice rector (acting) Vesa Suutari, University of Vaasa, tel. 029 449 8433, email: vesa.suutari@uwasa.fi