Measuring Educational Excellence in MPP
Dr. Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer
MIT Technology & Policy Program
MIT-Portugal Program
3-1-2010
pfotenh@mit.edu
Outline
• Program assessment in MPP
• Sources of excellence in MPP education
• Spreading excellence:
Portuguese benchmarking and systemic spillovers
• Challenges for the future
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Program assessment in MPP
• Real-time program assessment to
– Demonstrate impact
– Foster organizational learning
– Study the generalizability of MPP framework
• Use of multiple survey tools, including
– Large online student survey (repeated annually)
covering both MPP and non-MPP students
– Faculty interviews with both MPP and non-MPP faculty to complement
the student data
– Comparative cohort is important to identify MPP impact and study
program embedding in Portuguese university environment
Survey
focus:
• Education & attracting students
• Internationalization & mobility
• Networking & communication
• Entrepreneurial activity & industry linkages
• Spillovers
• Implementation & external relations
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Sources of excellence in MPP (I):
Attracting excellent students
•
MPP program goal:
“…developing new, world-class education programs in Portuguese universities for top
engineering students from Portugal and around the world.”
•
MPP attracts excellent and distinctly different students:
– High degree of internationalization
– More experienced masters students and younger PhD students
– More diverse backgrounds, stronger industry backgrounds
– Towards gender parity in PhD programs
– Higher expectations towards their program
– Greater inclination towards industry and entrepreneurship
after graduation
– High motivation
•
Faculty comments on the student body:
– “I believe MPP is successful in attracting the very good students Portugal has in the areas of
Bioengineering. Actually, we are now also reaching students from pharmaceutical science and
different areas, and all of them are successful.”
– “contagious high level of ambition.”
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Sources of excellence in MPP (III):
Innovating Teaching and Learning
•
MPP program goal :
“… changing the traditional patterns of teaching and learning.”
•
Changes in teachings style and course design:
•
–
“Students in our non-MPP classes are used to the teacher coming into the class and giving them all
that they need to learn and go back. With the MPP students it’s different. We are trying to implement
a model here where MPP students have a lot of homework and a lot of self-studying, which our other
students don’t do. So classes are more focused on what they work at home, and then they bring new
things to the classes.“
–
Dori and Silva (2009) : Innovative and modular course design benefits student learning
Active Learning Strategies & TLL:
–
•
“A one day course really had an impact on me in the sense of how to deliver classes. The next week, I
was teaching differently. The class was about active learning strategies, and we had some hands-on
learning experience about how to make activities in class, to help students learn actively versus just
standing and listening to the teacher.
Teachers are willing to learn, too:
–
“I am also in a learning process in the MIT-Portugal Program, in this new engineering approach of
bringing together economic aspects, management, etc.”
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Sources of excellence in MPP (IV):
Networking
•
MPP program goal:
… building a network to foster innovative post-graduate programs that offer
world-class training”
•
Portuguese university network achieved a lot:
– The strongest point is this common collaboration and common production of both education
and research. It is a very effective way of improving, and I think this is maybe most positive
element.”
– “radically different,” “impossible without MPP,” “moved universities closer together”
– Works at all levels: Student-student, faculty-faculty, and to some extent faculty-student
– MPP students possess on average more contacts to Portuguese groups and slightly more
contacts internationally
•
“I don’t think we could have achieved the same quality without MPP. You have a lot of very good
people at IST, in Porto, and in Minho, but bringing them together was only possible through the
MIT-Portugal Program. So the quality of teaching is high in the in the sense that you can gather the
most knowledgeable people from three universities. If it wasn’t for the MPP framework, those
people would never be working together. This was an improvement. ”
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Sources of excellence in MPP (V):
Linking education to industry needs and innovation
• Breaking ground providing core skills for innovation and
entrepreneurship:
– “MPP definitely contributes to acquiring these skills. For example, the courses
focused on innovation: To my best knowledge, there are no existing PhD program in
Portugal that has innovation in the curriculum, because they are focused on pure
science. [..] All the students give terrific feedback. It is really interesting to them to
explore that different area.”
– “It has not existed in Portugal before, and it has been a major concern of the MITPortugal Program. We were aware that this was a lack of teaching. It was already
in the back of our mind, but it was never implemented.”
– “Faculty are getting much more interested in promoting to their the processes of
innovation, entrepreneurship, and how to interact.”
• Popular courses on innovation: bio-teams
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Spreading Excellence:
Benchmarking and educational spillovers
•
MPP program goal:
“… strives to become a model international program with innovative research and education.”
•
MPP is perceived as best-practice example for Portugal with benchmarking quality
–
•
•
“Compared to the rest of IST it’s doing very well, very successful. [..] And the quality of teaching is of crucial
importance to the standards of excellence that we are trying to achieve, also for the following years for
attracting good students.”
MPP education is spilling over into Portuguese universities:
–
Most MPP faculty continue teaching other (non-MPP) classes
–
MPP faculty actively communicate about their MPP experiences with non-MPP faculty
–
“Inside our school I am sure about it. Even people not related to this [program] inside this university they look
to the MIT-Portugal program ‘OK, these guys are doing this, and this is very interesting.’ That set’s a kind of
benchmarking for quality of procedures. People are getting much more interested in the processes of
innovation, entrepreneurship, and how to interact. It’s leaking out of MIT-Portugal, that’s’ for sure.”
–
Active copying of MPP course design and assessment method
Young scientists are influenced most
–
Boost of career, much important input, greatest adaptation
–
Mobility (MIT visits) is important source of impact, esp. for young faculty
–
“Maybe not the teachers that are in a state of their career where they don’t want to change, because they
are just sufficiently old to not change, but younger teachers like myself will definitely change.”
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Towards a second program phase…
•
Overarching consensus that second period is necessary
– Not primarily for monetary reasons:
– Consolidation: “Current phase raises awareness, but no create big changes yet,” “Would
not be able to do it alone at the moment”
– Address weaknesses of first phase: “Industry relations take time,” “Adjustments of the
funding allocation”
– Sustainability: “Need at least 10-15 years for such changes in PT,” “System not prepared
for sustaining the changes,” “old system will outlive the changes,” “Portugal trained a
brilliant cohort of young scientists, investment will be lost”
•
Second phase is critical for educational part:
– “My concern would be mainly on the teaching part of the program. If we don’t find
funding, keeping MIT in the teaching would be out of question.”
– The loss of the MIT brand would have an impact on attractiveness of the program, in
particular for international students
– “Those common courses that exist might cease to exist , and courses might become
more of an island again.“
– “The old system would outlive the changes”
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Challenges for the future (1)
•
MPP coped well with organizational challenges (steep learning curve):
– “Some courses are taught by more than 4 people, and this involves a lot of coordination, and a
lot of talking, and a lot of organizing. [..] Somehow we overcame that and we actually did a
good job setting up these courses.”
•
Revision of curricula
– Harmonization, Synergies, coordination between universities
– Preparation of students from different backgrounds: spend almost one term on catching-up
 More emphasis on pre-term prep classes & benefits of having different backgrounds
– More industry involvement in curriculum design and thesis proposals
•
Restructuring open calls?
– Decoupling between education & research needs at students’ expense (originally coupled)
•
Positive experience with STELLAR course software  similar buildup of other
tools, e.g. OCW
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Challenges for the future (2)
• Legal structure:
– Create for free space for good teaching: professional university management
– No perspective for young faculty in Portugal unless legal framework are radically
changed
– “MPP created a group of people that are leading fields of knowledge that did not
exist in Portugal. So there was a lot of investment in young faculty, to develop these
areas. What happens is that Portuguese universities are not prepared for this type
of programs. We have these few places for professors, and universities cannot open
more spaces for new faculty to come in. So MPP did a huge investment in young
people, but at the end of the program, universities will not have the capacity to
keep them. I think this is a big challenge, because all the effort that we had during
these years – I am not talking only about the money, but also the personal
investment of all the people that are involved – this can be lost in a few years.”
• Key role of junior faculty: Are affected most by MPP
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu
Conclusions
•
•
•
•
•
MPP’s education component has been exceedingly successful
The program is viewed as lighthouse of educational quality
Quality and dedication of MPP faculty is key factor of success
Build on faculty experiences to prepare the program for the future
Prepare the system to absorb MPP achievements and faculty
Thank you for your attention
& congratulations to award recipients!
Measuring excellence in MPP education | Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer | pfotenh@mit.edu