The Education Inspectorate has once again warned that neither the NVAO, the higher education accreditation body, nor the Inspectorate itself can intervene at any stage if the quality of teaching on a course goes wrong. The examination boards only partially make up for this shortcoming.
(Photo: Thijs van Reeuwijk)
In the annual State of Education report published today (in Dutch), the Education Inspectorate once again highlights the blind spots in quality assurance within higher education. Although degree programmes are assessed every six years by the quality assurance body NVAO, if anything goes wrong in the education system before then, the NVAO is unable to intervene.
Particularly now that many universities and universities of applied sciences are having to make cutbacks and programmes are being phased out, the Inspectorate sees this as a major shortcoming. The Inspectorate itself can only intervene if laws and regulations are being breached and there is a potential case of mismanagement. In 2024, for example, it published an investigation into TU Delft, following reports that social safety there was at risk.
‘To safeguard the quality of education for all students, the oversight gap must be closed’
In an interview with the Higher Education Press Agency last year, Inspector-General Alida Oppers said that the Inspectorate is increasingly conducting investigations at universities and universities of applied sciences where there are suspicions of mismanagement, but that this is not possible if ‘only’ the quality of education is at stake. Today, the Inspectorate reiterates: “To safeguard the quality of education for all students, the oversight gap must be closed.”
Examination boards
According to the Education Inspectorate, examination boards also have an important role to play, as they are responsible for ensuring the value of qualifications.
Most examination boards manage this reasonably well. However, their financial support has been lacking for quite some time, the Education Inspectorate stated last autumn. Examination boards complain that they have too little time. As a result, major educational innovations are sometimes approved in haste without the new curriculum and assessment plan having been fully thought through. “This poses risks to quality,” according to the Inspectorate.
HOP, Hein Cuppen
HOP
Hoger Onderwijs Persbureau
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