Programme Councils

The programme councils have been delegated the coordinating responsibility for the programmes of study at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography. The development and management of the programmes of study must, however, be based on close cooperation between the course providers and programme administration.

The Departments must be allowed to voice their opinion in connection with programme-related issues of a general academic policy nature. If the programme and course provider do not agree on rare occasions, the issue will in principle be passed on to the Faculty, represented by the Dean, who can decide in the matter.

The programme council is responsible for:

• Ensuring that the programme plan is prepared in accordance with Section 3.3 of the Regulations.

• Entering into agreements with providers of courses for the programme, which include clauses concerning what content the courses should have, when they should be offered, and how the courses should be dimensioned to ensure space for the programme's students.

• Ensuring that the courses offered in the programme represent an academic whole and support the programme's objectives. For the disciplinary programmes, it is important to point out that this also includes responsibility for the recommended 40-groups of courses that are not taken from the discipline its self.

• Ensuring that the students at the programme are looked after at any given time.

• Quality assurance of the programme of study.

• That the programme takes the internationalisation goals into account.

• Guidelines related to the recognition of external education and exemption from courses in the programme. When courses are to provide grounds for admission to a Master's programme, consent must be obtained from the master's programme in question.

• Guidelines for admission to the programme, for the master's and PhD programmes.

The councils are appointed by the Dean upon nomination by the Department board. Programme councils consist of 7-9 members, 1 of whom is a student representative. The councils normally meet 5-6 times each year.

Adminitration of the programme councils

Topics one would like addressed by the programme council shall be given to the student adviser for Human Geography or Sociology 10 days prior to the meeting (7 days prior to the meeting if the issue is not to be dealt with prior to submission). The meeting papers will normally be sent to members of the programme council one week prior to the meeting. There are often subsequent submissions.

Protocols from the meetings are distributed to all the employees and the students’ committees. The protocols are also published on the Department's website.