Central quality control a blessing for teachers

The visitation committee’s advice was positive, although it still has to be ratified by the NVAO board. A decision is expected in April. Institution-level accreditation is a long-cherished wish of Dutch universities. Until recently, all the programmes had to go through the NVAO’s quality control test, required for obtaining government funding. But many components of the test, such as facilities and personnel care, are organized centrally. This meant that the programmes were required separately to put together comparable quality dossiers. By accrediting the universities on all those points centrally, the programmes will be spared a lot of paperwork. Teachers at Delft and Nijmegen universities, which were accredited last year in a pilot, say the accreditation created about 25 percent less work for them, says an NVAO representative.