Software solution(s) for curriculum and teaching programme design, timetabling and facility booking for the University of Helsinki

Lyhyt kuvaus

The University needs one or multiple information systems to support teaching planning and facility processes. In this context, teaching planning refers to a whole which includes
• Curriculum design (every four years)
• Teaching programme design (every academic year)
• Timetabling (including facility booking, every academic year)

The system is also able to also support the design and establishment of degree programmes.

The information system or systems offered must cover all of these areas and integrations within offered System entity.

The University has used a timetabling and facility booking system for more than 10 years. Timetables drawn up annually include information on exact teaching schedules as well as the teachers and facilities assigned to teaching. In addition, University staff and external customers can book the University’s teaching facilities for other purposes (e.g., meetings and conferences).

Timetabling is largely reliant on the automated timetable generation enabled by the current system. Currently, we schedule over 200,000 hours of teaching per academic year in our timetabling system, with over 150,000 hours of room bookings in over 400 facilities. The timetabling is carried out by over 100 timetabling officers (usually education coordinators) and a four-person admin team.

Timetable planning currently relies heavily on the automatic timetable generation functionality provided by the existing system. With this acquisition, the University of Helsinki aims to implement a unified system that supports several interlinked processes and helps harmonize these processes across the institution.

The procurement includes the following components
• Deployment project for the Cloud Services
• All necessary licenses to run the Cloud Service for four (4) years
• Maintenance and Support Services, for four (4) years

It must be possible to integrate the information system or systems with other University systems, such as the Sisu student information system. The results of the completed curricula, teaching programmes and timetables, are presented to students and staff in Sisu.

Please refer to the attached process descriptions and requirements excels for further details.

Hankinnan kuvaus

Background of the processes

At the University of Helsinki, most degree-awarding education takes place in degree programmes. In addition to degree-awarding education, the University provides non-degree education, including professional specialisation education, specialist training for physicians and dentists, specialist training for veterinarians, non-degree studies and micro-credentials. The University also organises commissioned degree-awarding education.

Curricula are drawn up for approximately 110 degree programmes, one doctoral school, the Language Centre and several professional specialisation education programmes. Currently valid curricula contain roughly 2,800 study modules and 10,000 courses.

At the University, teaching programmes are drawn up for approximately 110 degree programmes, one doctoral school, the Language Centre and several professional specialisation education programmes. In the academic year 2024–2025, roughly 12,000 courses were implemented.

Degree programme design

There are four levels of degree programmes: bachelor’s programmes, master’s/licentiate programmes, licentiate programmes and doctoral programmes.
Degree programmes may be offered in the national languages, Swedish, English or in multiple languages.
Education provided in a degree programme may consist of studies in several disciplines and the programme may have several study tracks.
All degree programmes have one coordinating faculty. Degrees are awarded by this faculty.

Degree programmes may be shared between several faculties. Degree programmes may also be organised in national or international cooperation and based on agreements which determine programme-specific principles. Such programmes may differ from the University’s own programmes in their principles and practices.

The University of Helsinki Doctoral School coordinates doctoral programmes.

The director of the degree programme is responsible for the management and quality of the programme together with the steering group of the programme. The duties of the steering group include preparing the curriculum (see Desired outcome for curriculum design) and deciding on the teaching programme (see Desired outcome for teaching programme design).
The following steps may be identified in degree programme design:
1. Preparation and planning
2. Decisions
3. Further preparation
4. Changes
5. Termination

Curriculum design

Curricula are plans detailing the arrangement of education and teaching as well as the attainment of learning outcomes at the University. Curricula are valid for four academic years.
The curriculum of the University consists of the curricula of the faculties and the Language Centre. The University curriculum also comprises general University-level policies and decisions regarding studies and studying.

The curriculum of the faculty consists of the curricula of the degree programmes under the faculty as well as any faculty policies and decisions which specify the curricula.

The curriculum of the degree programme indicates:
• The main learning outcomes of the degree pursued in the degree programme and the goal of the education
• The degree structure and any study tracks
• The learning outcomes, content, coordinators, scope and assessment methods of the study modules and courses as well as equivalencies with courses in the previous curriculum

The level of specificity in curricula may vary in parts (including completion methods, schedules, languages of instruction and literature of courses).
Curricula are used as the basis of annual teaching programmes.
More than a thousand individuals representing unit management groups and similar bodies, thousands of teachers and hundreds of support services employees contribute to curriculum design.

The following steps may be identified in curriculum design:
1. Preparation
2. Design
3. Decisions
4. Publication
5. Changes

This process may not be linear. Instead, some of the steps may happen in parallel.

Teaching programme design

The teaching programme for each academic year is a plan for how to organise the studies included in the four-year curriculum to students.

Teaching programmes describe and define in more detail the teachers, timing, target groups, language and other similar elements of courses.
More than a thousand individuals representing unit management groups and similar bodies, thousands of teachers and hundreds of support services employees contribute to teaching programme design.

The following steps may be identified in teaching programme design:
1. Preparation
2. Elaborating on the curriculum
3. Agreeing on teaching, guidance and supervision duties
4. Preliminary planning of course teaching and information requested from teachers
5. Deciding on the teaching programme
6. Publication of the teaching programme
7. Changes to the teaching programme
This process may not be linear. Instead, some of the steps may happen in parallel. A separate process description exists for timetabling, which takes place alongside teaching programme design.


See further details and requirements in documents:
Desired outcomes for teaching planning processes. Especially chapters:
2. Desired outcome for degree programme design (present state),
3. Desired outcome for curriculum design and
4. Desired outcome for teaching programme design
Vocabulary and planning hierarchies for teaching
Curriculum and teaching programme requirements

Lisätietoja

All parts must be offered, but the bid may be submitted by a consortium of two or more suppliers. If the bid is submitted by a consortium, one supplier will bear responsibility and enter into an agreement with the University of Helsinki.
The supplier will thus bear responsibility for the consortium partner(s) acting as a subcontractor.

Hankinnan kuvaus

The University has been using the timetable and facility booking software for more than 10 years. The timetable to be drawn up each academic year includes information on the exact schedules of teaching as well as the teachers and facilities attached to teaching. In addition, University staff and external customers can reserve the University’s teaching facilities for other purposes (e.g., meetings). Timetabling is heavily based on the automatic establishment of timetables enabled by the current system.
Currently, we schedule over 200,000 hours of teaching per academic year in our timetabling system, with over 150,000 hours of room bookings in over 400 facilities. The timetabling is carried out by over 100 timetabling officers (usually education coordinators) and a four-person admin team.

Timetables drawn up annually include information on exact teaching schedules as well as the teachers and facilities assigned to teaching. The timetabling process takes place alongside teaching programme design.

The current timetabling process at the University of Helsinki is a combination of manual and automated timetabling. Especially on campuses where multiple faculties operate in the same teaching facilities, most of the timetabling is done through centralised autoscheduling, while other faculties either do their timetabling manually or combine the two approaches according to what best suits the needs of a given academic year. Manual timetabling as well as preparing the implementations and study events for centralised autoscheduling are done mainly by timetabling officers, who work in direct contact with degree programmes; centralised autoschedulings are run by a smaller team of timetabling main users.

Most of the timetabling work for an academic year takes place during the preceding spring term, with the majority of timetables published to students by the end of June. Additional timetabling and changes to the timetables go on throughout the year.

The following steps may be identified in the timetabling process:
1. Rollover or copying the current academic year’s data to form a basis for the planning of the next one
2. Preparation
3. Timetabling
3.1. Centralised autoscheduling
3.2. Manual timetabling
4. Teachers review the timetables
5. Publication of the timetables
6. Changes to the timetables

See further details and requirements in documents:
Desired outcomes for teaching planning processes. Especially Chapter:
5. Desired outcome for timetabling
Vocabulary and planning hierarchies for teaching
Timetable requirements

Hankinnan kuvaus

For most of the teaching facilities, non-teaching booking requests are only approved after the majority of teaching has been scheduled.
The facility booking system processes facilities that remain vacant once the necessary facilities for teaching have been booked.

In the last few years, University of Helsinki have had around 12,000 non-teaching-related bookings per academic year in our teaching facilities, with around 2,000 of them for external customers.
There are approximately 430 rooms available, divided into 10 room types. There are approximately 1,000 external customers in the customer register, and around 1,000 invoices are sent out annually.

All staff of the University of Helsinki can sign on to a web-based component of the timetabling and facility booking system and view the schedules of all teaching facilities.
They can also use the system to find a suitable location for, among other things, meetings. Possible search criteria include time and duration of session, possible repetitions, campus, building, type and purpose of facility, minimum and maximum size of facility, furniture and equipment, accessibility, and whether the search should include rooms belonging to, for example, a specific faculty. Search results again include links to the website with, for example, photos of the facilities.
When a suitable facility has been found, users can create a booking request (for one or more facilities at a time, for a one-time booking or a recurring booking). At this point, the creator of the request will enter the title of the session and the organisational unit responsible for it, and they are shown the total cost of the booking.
After the booking request has been created, it will be reviewed and approved or rejected by our facility booking admin team. As long as the request has not been processed by the admin team, the creator can cancel it in the system.
Currently, students cannot sign on or create booking requests, but they can view facility schedules (with none of the details of the bookings shown).

Customers from outside the University can browse and search for teaching facilities which includes links to facility schedules (with none of the details of the bookings shown). Booking requests from external customers are done via an electronic form and the information entered into the timetabling and facility booking system by the facility booking admins. Changes and cancellations must be requested via email.
Our current solutions include a built-in customer register for external customers and some billing functionalities, both managed by our facility booking admins.

The system must include the Facility Register, Customer Register and possibility several price lists. Solution must also cover all functions related to booking, modifying and cancelling the reservations for facilities. Through the facility booking system, the facilities booked through both timetabling and the facility booking system are invoiced. Invoicing may be targeted at the University’s internal or external customers.
The system must also cover reports related to the monitoring facility use.

See further details and requirements in documents:
Description_facility booking and invoicing
Facilites requirements

Hankinnan kuvaus

Common requirements for the system and implementation project. No price is requested in this section.
The requirements set apply to the delivery of the entire system and the implementation project. All general requirements are mandatory for the bid to be accepted.

The quality points awarded for the preliminary implementation plan will affect the overall evaluation of the bids.

See further details and requirements in document:
General requirements