Increased government reporting regulations – yearly reports to be made compulsory

05.10.2012

A clause in the Netherlands Act of Higher Education that requires institutions of higher education to submit yearly reports on their activities and results to the minister is to be enforced as from 2013, after having been surprisingly ignored by government for many years. This means that institutes will have to submit yearly data on all their programmes, and not just at the moment of accreditation, every six years. The yearly report is not to be sent to the accreditation department of the government, but instead directly to the higher education inspectorate, who will assess “risks”, and act upon signals they receive from the institutes, regarding possible problems.

FIBAA AccrediationDuring 2012 Wittenborg has undergone two Bachelor programme accreditations, one from the Austrian, German and Swiss Accreditation organisation FIBAA, and one from the Dutch government agency NVAO, as well as a UK validation of Master programmes by the University of Brighton, all of which were thorough and required the submission of up-to-date factual data.

Wittenborg’s Quality System embeds accreditation and validation into the heart of the system, however the University sees the instigation of a publically open reporting system for all institutes, funded and private, as an excellent way to monitor and compare different schools and Universities, however looks forward to a system that differentiates between large and small, full time and part time, primary higher education and lifelong learning programmes for adults.

The information, to be provided to the inspectorate on a yearly basis, includes:

1.       Factual information

-          Programmes offered, in relation to full-time, part-time, dual and distance / blended

-          Accrediation results

-          Current partnerships

2.       Instittutional improvements

-          Acheived aims and objectives

-          Improvements based on accreditation panel review reports and own internal quality assurance systems

3.       Own risk analysis

-          Overview of risks established through self-assessment

4.       Student satisfaction

-          Based on the National Student Survey, held annually, and own survey methods

5.       Checklist of actions or improvement of actions based on the regulations of the Act of Higher Education (WHW)

-          Fulfilment of a checklist made in agreement with the Ministry of Education’s Inspectorate and the Accreditation authority NVAO, that ensures that the stipulations of the Act (WHW) are followed, including;

o   Easily available Education and Examination Guide (EEG/OER)

o   Independent and correctly instigated Examination Board

o   Board of Appeal

o   Clear complaints proceedure

o   Transparent credit transfer proceedure

o   Transparent information provision to students

WUP 05/10/12

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