Self‐Evaluation Report 2011/2012 Integrated Master of Veterinary Medicine University of Trás‐Os‐Montes E Alto Douro
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University of Trás‐os‐Montes e Alto Douro Self‐Evaluation Report 2011/2012 Integrated Master of Veterinary Medicine University of Trás‐os‐Montes e Alto Douro Vila Real 2012 Page INDEX 1 INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER 1. OBJECTIVES 19 CHAPTER 2. ORGANISATION 35 CHAPTER 3. FINANCES 43 CHAPTER 4. CURRICULUM 83 CHAPTER 5. TEACHING AND LEARNING: QUALITY AND EVALUATION 99 CHAPTER 6. FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT 121 CHAPTER 7. ANIMALS AND TEACHING MATERIALS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN 137 CHAPTER 8. LIBRARY AND LEARNING RESOURCES 147 CHAPTER 9. STUDENT ADMISSION AND ENROLMENT 161 CHAPTER 10. ACADEMIC AND SUPPORT STAFF 171 CHAPTER 11. CONTINUING EDUCATION 175 CHAPTER 12. POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION 179 CHAPTER 13. RESEARCH 183 Annex 1 Acronyms 237 Acknowledgements 239 Self-Evaluation Report 2011/2012 – Introduction Integrated Master of Veterinary Medicine INTRODUCTION The University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) was created by Decree-Law Nr. 60/86 of March 22th, succeeding to a University Institute of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, which had resulted from conversion of the Polytechnic Institute of Vila Real, by Law Nr. 49/79, of September 14th. All of their statues have recognized that, as institutions of higher education, the objectives of education, research, extension and provision of community services were fundamental to fulfill their mission and should provide answers to the region and to the country needs. Based on Departments until 2009, the university organization was modified after the publication of Law Nr. 62/2007 of 10 September, which approved the Legal Regime of Higher Education Institutions. UTAD is now supported by four university schools – the School of Agrarian and Veterinary Sciences, the School of Human and Social Sciences, the School of Sciences and Technology, the School of Life and Environmental Sciences – and one polytechnic school (Nursing School). The examination of the circumstances that shape the present and surveying its likely evolution, lead to the conclusion that UTAD must preserve and strengthen its character as a national university, deliberately open to internationalization, strengthening and reinforcing its interconnection in parity with other institutions of public higher education in Portugal, and at the same time, performing an appropriate differentiation of its nature, the requirements and opportunities that arise in the context in which it operates and develops its actions and the cognitive and organizational capital that it has accumulated, UTAD should enhance its identity and specific character as a center of excellence through the creation and dissemination of culture, and production and transfer of knowledge, the development and dissemination of technology, human development and high-level qualification of the population it serves, play a key role in regional cohesion, the recognition of the importance of natural resources, of the demographic balance, of the social inclusion and economic progress in Northern Portugal. Therefore, its mission, principles and values have been established in the Statutes (art. 7): 1. UTAD’s objective is to provide high level qualification in Portugal, to produce and disseminate knowledge and to offer cultural, artistic, technological and scientific education and training for its students, all within an international reference framework. 2. UTAD values the research activities by both its teaching and non-teaching staff, stimulates the intellectual and professional education of its students and ensures the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro 1 Self-Evaluation Report 2011/2012 – Introduction Integrated Master of Veterinary Medicine conditions for all duly qualified citizens to have access to higher education and lifelong learning. 3. UTAD encourages effective mobility in students and graduates, at both national and international levels, namely within the European Union and in Portuguese-speaking countries. 4. UTAD, in line with higher interests and State obligations, supports the provision of school social work activities that encourage access to higher education and good attendance, practising positive discrimination for students in economic difficulties who have the appropriate educational outcomes. 5. UTAD has also assumed the following rights and duties: a) To participate, alone or via representative organisations, in the formulation of national policies, making statements on legislative plans that relate directly to higher education and making itself available for consultation in defining the criteria for establishing State funding, as well as on the criteria for establishing the fees for the academic degree awarding study cycles; b) To participate, alone or in association with other public or private bodies, in outreach activities, namely, the dissemination and transfer of knowledge and enhancing the economic value of scientific knowledge; c) To contribute towards the public understanding of the humanities, arts, science and technology, promoting and organising actions to support the diffusion of humanistic, artistic, scientific and technological culture, and making available the resources required for those ends. Other underlying principles are freedom in teaching and research, ethical standards of rigour and quality and the promotion of equal access and equal opportunities. In the last decade, profound changes occurred in higher education in Portugal. The entire legal framework was modified: from the governance of the universities, the format of high education degrees – following the Bologna process -, to the career of higher education professors and quality assurance. As a consequence of the modification of the legal context of higher education, UTAD suffered considerable changes in its organization (see chapter 2). Briefly, a General Council with representative members from the university and from the outer society was implemented and the former departmental structure of UTAD, without autonomy for specific scientific areas, was replaced by school organization. These schools are embryonic forms of colleges, with a considerable autonomy in pedagogic and scientific subjects, but with a very limited financial autonomy, as the University itself. These modifications created, however, a closer proximity of the academic board and students of the Integrated Master in Veterinary Medicine (IMVM) to the pedagogic and scientific decision forums. The director of the course has to be a member of the pedagogic council. 2 University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Self-Evaluation Report 2011/2012 – Introduction Integrated Master of Veterinary Medicine The course of Veterinary Medicine in UTAD was created in 1980´s and the first group of students was enrolled in the class of 1987/1988. The Veterinary Medicine course in UTAD was evaluated by the EAEVE committee in 1998, being the suggestions made by the auditors taken into consideration to gradually implement modifications in the course of Veterinary Medicine of UTAD in the last decade. The IMVM is allocated to the School of Agrarian and Veterinary Sciences that includes five departments. Most of the teaching staff of IMVM belongs to the Department of Veterinary Sciences, created by the union of two former departments mainly related to the course (Department of Animal Sanity and Hygiene and the Department of Veterinary Pathology and Clinics) and from the migration of some staff members from the Food Industry Department. The Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH-UTAD) is now autonomously managed by an elected board and has partial financial autonomy based on a budget associated to a cost center which allows the reinvestment of substantial amounts of the generated income and the regular functioning of 24h over 365 days in different specialties (small animals, livestock and equines, wildlife species). In 2009, major improvements of VTH-UTAD increased the number and quality of specialized facilities, namely an area for equine rehabilitation, a chirurgical room for livestock and equines and the creation of a unit for wildlife animals. New equipment was acquired for imaging, surgery, anesthesiology and clinical pathology (see chapter 6); two mobile clinics were leased (a four year period). A new building Veterinary Sciences Laboratories – was finished in 2011, it is being equipped and it will soon allocate the labs related to food hygiene and technology, as well as scientific areas related to veterinary science. Livestock facilities have been also built in these last years for pigs, poultry, hens and rabbits. The university library opened in 2000 and it harbors the bibliographic collection of UTAD and provides a comfortable place for study and group work. Wireless access to internet is available throughout the campus. The organization of research in UTAD has been changed according to the increasing number and qualifications of the academic staff. Until 2001, almost all of the research activities of UTAD were merged into a research center entitled Institute for Agrarian and Food Technologies (ICETA - Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologias Agrárias e Agro-Alimentares). In order to promote a proactive approach in the different areas covered by ICETA, it was decided to reorganize this structure into 6 autonomous research centers. At the present time, Animal and Veterinary Research Center (CECAV - Centro de Ciência Animal e Veterinária) is based on 3 research groups – Clinical Sciences and Pathology, Food Quality/Safety and Public Health, and Animal Production. The vast majority of academic staff belonging to the Department of Veterinary Sciences