Actueel

Additional tasks

Apart form its primary responsibilities (i.e. (initial) accreditation), NVAO is charged with some additional tasks. These tasks have been approved by the Committee of Ministers and are compatible with NVAO’s mission. For these tasks, extra budgetary provisions are made available. In the Strategic Policy Statement it was set down that if a new task is agreed upon, it should be in line with or provide an obvious connection with quality assessment of programmes. NVAO’s most important additional tasks at this moment are the following:

Higher Education Register

NVAO has been entrusted the task to publish all the officially recognised higher education institutions and bachelor and master’s programmes in Flanders. This is done by managing the Higher Education Register. Through the online development and database administration, NVAO offers the Register both in Dutch and in English.

Recognition of private higher education institutions

The Dutch State Secretary of Education, Culture and Science has stipulated the policy regulation concerning recognition of private higher education institutions and has requested NVAO to play a role in the recognition procedure. For this purpose, NVAO has developed the ‘Protocol Recognition Procedure’ including the criteria that programmes have to meet to be eligible for recognition. Recognition means that, in the Netherlands a higher education institution – with the exception of the right to public funding – enjoys the same rights as a publicly funded institution. It concerns either legal bodies that offer accredited advanced master’s programmes or recognised private institutions (recognised as such by the government). If an institution is neither publicly funded, nor recognised and applies for accreditation of its programmes with NVAO, it will first have to apply for recognition.

Integrated supervision of higher education

The objective of the project ‘Integrated Supervision Higher Education’ is to establish an integrated chain of supervision in higher education in the Netherlands. This form of supervision should be all-encompassing and supply supervisory information on the quality in higher education. Risks and problems should be identified as soon as possible and should be made visible. This should not place a burden on institutions, but requires close cooperation between the parties active in the field of supervision in higher education. NVAO (the audit service of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science), the Inspectorate of Education in the Netherlands and the Central Funding of Institutions Agency (CFI)( the latter supplying the information to the other partners), are charged with integrated supervision. In addition, the IB-group occupies an important position regarding the registration of student and programme data.

Associate degrees

A second additional task concerns the assessment of Dutch applications for Associate degree programmes. These ‘pilot’ programmes were assessed by NVAO in the 2005-2006 period at the request of the State Secretary of Education in the Netherlands. These programmes can be provided by universities of professional education which offer accredited bachelor’s programmes in the same field of study. Associate degree programmes are short first cycle programmes with a professional orientation that are usually completed within two years. After completion of these programmes graduates can enter the labour market or continue their studies at the bachelor’s programme of the university of professional education.

Protocol broadened programmes

The Dutch minister of Education, Culture and Science determines whether an institution’s intention to combine two or more programmes already incorporated in the Central Register for Programmes in Higher Education (CROHO) leads to a broadened new programme. In this regard, NVAO carries out a marginal assessment and provides advice to the minister. For this purpose, the ‘Protocol Broadened Programmes’ has been developed.