At what times is reporting done?
The cycle at programme level
Education is carried out within the study programmes. Within the internal annual cycle, programmes report on implementation and results and make plans for improvement. The faculty board approves plans and monitors their implementation. Within the external six-year cycle, programmes are re-accredited once every six years on the basis of a decision by the NVAO after an external visitation. Since 2014, a standard internal midterm review on the state of affairs since the previous visitation and on the quality of the final works has taken place halfway through this external cycle.
The cycle at faculty and service level
The focus on education by faculty and service directors is mainly on creating conditions for good education. Within the internal annual cycle, faculties report on the performance of their teaching tasks and make plans for improving their teaching tasks. The Executive Board approves plans and supervises them. In addition to the annual cycle, an internal assessment of teaching quality assurance will take place once every three years from 2014. In this internal three-year cycle, two internal assessments take place each time between the six-yearly external institutional assessments. This takes the form of an audit at faculty and department level.
The cycle at institutional level
Within the internal annual cycle, the Executive Board steers the education policy at institutional level - as laid down in the Teaching Quality Manual. This is done on the basis of the institutional plan and its implementation plan. The Board reports on the steering and makes plans to improve it. The Supervisory Board approves and supervises plans. In the external six-year cycle at institution level, the institution's quality assurance is assessed. The institution as a whole is re-accredited based on a decision by the NVAO after a visitation by an external audit committee.
Which instruments are used?
VU has three instruments in the internal quality assurance cycle at the programme level.
Midterm review
Halfway through the accreditation period, a midterm review is conducted at each VU programme with the aim of improving the quality of the programmes. By means of peer review, the current status of the study programme and possible improvements are examined. In addition, the midterm review is part of VU's internal quality assurance system and facilitates the Executive Board to monitor VU's educational quality. The mid-term review is a standard part of the study programme's six-year accreditation cycle. Within this cycle, it is ensured that attention to the quality of the study programme is continuous and does not only get off the ground just before the accreditation moment and then collapse again. Any problems at study programmes will be identified early through a mid-term review, so that formal judgements from the external quality assessment will contain as few negative surprises as possible.
Reading group self-evaluation
The quality of a self-evaluation is partly decisive for a successful assessment. Therefore, before the self-evaluation is finalised, the programme is advised on possible points of improvement. This advice is issued by a group of readers under the central coordination of team Educational Policy. VU opts for this model of 'peer review' by this so-called 'reading group self-evaluation' so that the widest possible use can be made of and learning from each other's expertise. Review of the self-evaluation by the reading group has a twofold purpose: first, an improvement is achieved through peer learning and expertise sharing while reading, commenting and discussing. Secondly, the programme concerned is supported by sound advice from different perspectives from outside its own programme/faculty. The product of the meeting is an advice to improve the final version of the self-assessment.
Mock visitation
The primary purpose of the mock visitation is a good preparation for the real visitation. During the mock visitation, all delegations that have a role during the visitation are questioned by a mock visitation panel. This provides an opportunity to practice together and to devise and test concrete, telling examples. The mock visitation panel usually consists of three colleagues who are not involved in the programme, but who have experience of the accreditation process. These might be education or programme directors who have just completed a visitation themselves or are themselves in the process towards a visitation. This also allows for a secondary purpose of the trial visitation, namely a moment for programmes to learn from each other. The members of the mock visitation panel read the programme's self-evaluation and question the delegations on salient issues from the self-evaluation or on issues raised in previous visitations. By doing so, the delegations learn from the experiences in previous visitations and the panel members get to know the structure, approach and examples of another programme.
How are risks identified?
VU's education quality policy explicitly addresses risk management with regard to education quality. Risk management and risk identification are therefore a natural part of the integrated approach to educational quality. The process of risk identification should ensure the quality of education. By integrating it into the quality assurance system, risk signalling is given a natural place in the planning & control cycle at the level of the programmes, faculties and the institution.
Memorandum on Risk Management in Education
The memorandum on Risk Management in Education explains how VU gives shape to risk identification in education. It explicitly states that everyone involved in education has their own responsibility to identify and manage risks. Only through good cooperation of all involved can unwanted risks actually be avoided. This joint involvement is also reflected in the decision to make this memorandum a 'living document', which will be regularly updated based on experiences with risk management in education and training.
Reflection on development interviews
Our programmes are inspected once every six years as part of external accreditation by a panel of independent experts. The accreditation decisions and visitation reports are posted on the website of the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders(NVAO). Part of the assessment visit is the 'development interview', a conversation that the programme has with the panel about possible improvements from a development perspective. All reports with reflections on these development interviews and suggestions for improvements are published on one central page.
For an overview of the reports of development talks that have taken place since 2019, click here.