Hey,
On the 25th of September was held the 3rd meeting of the year for the SCI Bachelor’s Programme Committee.
Decision items
- Changes to the curriculum 2024-2026: Exam will be added to the course CS-C3120 - Human Computer Interaction
Language guidelines
As a first discussion item the latest draft of the language guidelines was considered, particularly from the point of view of our Bachelor’s Programme. As the degree language of this programme is confirmed to be Finnish / Swedish, some changes to the current courses (=translations into Finnish) are required, but it still remains a bit unsure to what extent. Most likely will see courses having multiple teaching languages. These changes should be such that at least some “path” exists within each programme to graduate in Finnish (/ Swedish). On the other hand, it still might be justified to keep English as the teaching language for some courses. This is due to the learning outcomes of the majors; one aspect is to educate professionals that are capable of working with the language of the field of study. That in most cases is English. Further discussion regarding the latest draft of the language can be found in https://fiirumi.mylly.fyysikkokilta.dev/t/sci-education-management-team-4-23/637.
Changes to curriculum 2024-26
Next all majors held short presentations on the planned changes to curriculum 2024-26. Some majors also reflected their contents against the cross-sectional objectives, i.e., sustainability, entrepreneurial mindset, and radical creativity. Proposed changes for Mathematics and Systems Sciences were the following:
- Physics and Mathematics Studio - SCI-C0200: Currently the course is worth 10 credits, but the proposal is to split this course into two, physics part (5 credits) + mathematics part (5 credits). Only the physics part would remain as a mandatory, whereas the mathematics part would be strongly recommended for students majoring in Mathematics and Systems Sciences, but not mandatory.
- Foundations of Discrete Mathematics - MS-A040X: due to the suggested change above, 5 credits of mathematics would free up in the major studies. Foundations of Discrete Mathematics have been proposed as the replacement (in terms of mandatory major studies). Possibly a TFM version of the course will be implemented.
- Introduction to Optimization - MS-C2105: There are plans to split this course into two, one with more focus on ‘Introduction to Operations Research’ and the other having sole focus on optimization.
No specific changes were proposed on the behalf of Engineering Physics, but any changes to the Studio course would affect the Engineering Physics students as well, as the course is part of their major studies as well. The effect would most likely be similar as described above.
Change to the course Introduction to Studies - SCI-A0000
Also this course is going to be split into two. The course is now worth of 2 credits, and starting autumn 2024 there will be the following 2 x 1 credit courses:
- Introduction to Studies: Coordinated by LES, this course consists of the contents of the orientation week, introduction to SISU and MyCo, time management assignment, planning of studies including personal study plan, and the introductory lectures given by the majors. The course is to be completed in the first year of studies.
- IT tools - CS-Axxxx: Coordinated by the Department of Computer Science, this course is composed of multiple modules. There could for example be 4 modules in total, and the course could be completed by completing at least 3 modules. The idea is that the modules would help students across their studies, say a LaTeX module could be completed just before starting a Bachelor’s thesis. This can be ensured by (i) making the modules relevant to studies (ii) making the complementation schedule of the course flexible, i.e., the course can be completed at any point of BSc studies.
So all in all, the contents will remain more or less the same as in the current course, the complementation methods will just be more flexible and maybe some minor changes to the IT part of the course.
Other items
Currently it is optional for students to ask feedback from the Language Centre for their training reports (the ones that are based on some job experience and may reward you up to 10 credits). As a part of a larger discussion, it was considered whether this language check should be mandatory in the future. Also it was discussed whether this could be extended to some course reports as well, as this could help students to maintain or even improve their writing skills. Currently the writing routine seems to disappear between the upper secondary school and the writing process of the Bachelor’s thesis. However, this all comes to the amount of resources the Language Centre has to offer, so the discussion continues in the future once the amount of resources have been figured out.
That’s wrap for this time, the Committee has its next meeting on Monday 11th of December, so see you then!
Br, Tommi