There are, however, incentive funds which can be used to encourage local authorities and educational establishments to undertake given activities or to reward them for innovative evaluation criteria. These rewards have no bearing on the size of state grants. One objective in the annual agreements on target outcome between universities and the Ministry of Education is that universities introduce self-study as an inherent part of their activities and evaluate teaching regularly. Good quality is rewarded from annual performance-based appropriations. The set of performance criteria will be further developed by the Ministry of Education and universities.
Annual evaluation plans Annual evaluation plans are made according to the principles defined above.
The main responsibility for financing the evaluation programme rests with the Ministry of Education. The educational administration allocates both human and financial resources for evaluation. This entails that it will also make evaluation a priority as regards human resources. International research on evaluation entails long-term commitment to cooperation, even up to five years. Projects included in the national evaluation programme are allocated sufficient resources to enable Finland to take part in international evaluations.