Teacher's rights and obligations

Teaching often requires you to handle your students’ personal data, and you are responsible for any data protection obligations relevant to your work. When supervising a thesis, you may also need to instruct the student in matters pertaining to data security in research. More information on data security.

You should keep in mind that teaching at a university falls under the scope of using public power. Grading a student’s performance is an administrative decision, and announcing the principles of grading is the most important method of guaranteeing the enforcement of students’ rights. The teacher must find appropriate ways to provide feedback on exams, seminar works, theses and traineeships. Suitable methods may include, for example, model exam answers, an assessment matrix, or verbal or written feedback provided in person. The minimum requirement is that students are at least told how and when (e.g. by visiting the teacher’s office or at an exam feedback session) they can access the grading principles and how the principles are applied to their study performance.  Students have the right to be treated fairly and in accordance with good administrative principles when dealing with teaching and related matters.

Students are legally entitled to submit an appeal for a grade to, for example, the teacher or body responsible for the grading or, as the next step, to the university’s Academic Appeals Board. More information on the Academic Appeals Board in Flamma.

Each degree programme or independent institute has its own guidelines on how teachers are to participate in the planning of teaching and course catalogue texts. Students have the right to know the intended learning outcomes, central content and grading methods of each course, and the information should be available in the curriculum. The students have the right to assume that the information they receive is reliable. The teacher is obligated to respond if a student approaches them appropriately about a matter relating to teaching.

For their part, the teacher can promote the enforcement of students’ rights by preparing the curriculum carefully and providing a clear, open description of assessment criteria and intended learning outcomes. This will also make it easier to justify the decisions made concerning the students’ grading. Students must be notified of any changes to the teaching well in advance. In case of cancellations or changes, the teacher must contact the degree programme management as instructed.

Examination records, including students’ exam answers and other texts, are confidential, as is any written feedback provided for the answers. The answers and related feedback must be processed carefully and data security must be ensured when storing them. See data security guidelines for teachers.

However, according to law, theses and dissertations are public and cannot be made confidential through a decision or agreement. In special cases, the Dean may issue a decision to collect the confidential materials used in a thesis into a separate appendix. You should bring this to the students’ attention already when supervising their thesis and selecting the subject and research data. Exam grades are also public information; the exam grade list is not confidential.

According to law, teaching at universities is always public. However, public access to teaching sessions can be limited for a good reason. The reasons for limiting public access may include, for example, the limited size of the teaching facility or the nature of the teaching methods (e.g. an exam, private instruction for a student). 

The teacher is entitled to a safe work environment and correspondingly, the students are entitled to a safe study environment. If you are worried about a student’s behaviour during teaching or instruction, please refer to the guidelines on the prevention of inappropriate treatment and harassment. If problems arise, it may be a good idea to contact the academic affairs of your unit/the Heads of Academic Affairs, who can get help from the university’s Legal Services, when necessary. It is essential that any disturbances to safety and learning are addressed. If you observe a student is cheating, please refer to the university’s guidelines on cheating.

The teacher holds the copyright to any teaching materials they create. The university aims to promote open access to research and teaching materials in order to improve the quality of teaching and enable collaboration among teachers while taking copyright into account.

The copyrights of others, including the students’ right to their own works, must be taken into account when preparing teaching materials. More information on teaching and copyright. 

Given that teachers and the employees of the university’s administration exercise public power, they are expected to be able to handle even harsh criticism as long as it is presented appropriately and objectively. On the other hand, teachers have the right to exercise their own freedom of speech by presenting their views and responding to any criticism they receive on their teaching. In addition, they have the right to address matters related to the activities of the university community.

Teachers may be required to instruct the students in presenting their criticism appropriately. It may also be necessary to establish limits to the discussions at teaching sessions to ensure that the discussions are suitable and necessary for the teaching. Criticism that disturbs your teaching and the students’ learning does not have to be tolerated. Name calling, lying, threats and attacks against a person’s character are not considered appropriate criticism. You can direct the students to read the university’s guidelines on the prevention of inappropriate treatment and harassment.

You should act carefully when participating in discussions outside the university. When a teacher exercises their freedom of speech, they should never identify individual students or make comments on matters related to individual students in a manner that allows the students in question to be identified. This is true even if the students are disclosing the confidential information on themselves. Thus, any comments you make should remain at a general level, for example, by describing courses of action in general.