Having each student complete an entire research cycle at least once apart from the final thesis – this is the goal that the University of Oldenburg pursues with its teaching approach forschen@studium.

To achieve this, the FLiF+ project Quality Assurance was tasked with long-term implementation of research-based teaching in university-wide but also school-specific processes, procedures and mechanisms.

In terms of development, quality assurance operated on several levels.

Quality assurance in classes:

• Workshops on teaching in higher education for instructors
• Course evaluation with questions about research-based learning
• Gathering reports on courses involving research-based learning for a compilation of good-practice examples and for other purposes

Quality assurance in degree programs:

• Identifying research-based courses by analyzing module descriptions.

Quality assurance in projects

• External monitoring of the project by the Central Evaluation and Accreditation Agency – Zentrale Evaluations- und Akkreditierungsagentur (ZEvA)
• Regular reports submitted to project leaders and funders
• Regular progress reports and controlling compliance with project goals

The FoL+ project was funded by the university. In addition to classes in research-based learning format, the project focused on research. Early career researchers were encouraged to integrate their own research into teaching and enable students to take part in current research.

The staff associated with the two projects developed research-based learning formats and actively worked on implementing forschen@studium principles into study programmes across all schools at the University. This process wss supported by joint networking activities and various forms of exchange.

The FLiF+ and FoL+ projects were carried out by staff from all six schools. The Vice President for Instruction and International Affairs and the Department for Study Affairs were responsible for project management and coordination.