In November 2008, the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC) completed the evaluation of the centres of excellence in the Finnish university education for the fifth time. The designation of centres functions as a basis for the allocation of performance-based funding by the Ministry of Education. The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education has its own process for the selection of Centres of Excellent Quality in Higher Education. You may also find a brief overview of the seminar including the background and objectives in document form.

By introducing two national models for awarding excellence in education, and some of the awarded units, the seminar aimed to disseminate information on good practice in enhancing education. Likewise, the seminar strove to bring new ideas and perspectives to the continual development of curricula, programme and course design and to provide solutions and new viewpoints to teaching, assessment and learning methods.

The seminar gathered participants from higher education institutions, quality assurance agencies and ministries as well as other European actors to discuss and share new information. The conference language was English.