Accreditation
As is clear from the name, NVAO is an accreditation organisation. NVAO's scope of work is however not limited to accreditation.
Based on the tasks laid down in its founding treaty and in national legal frameworks, NVAO has a quite extensive scope of work which cover all levels of higher education: at programme, institutional, system and international level.
NVAO's scope of work includes the following activities:
1. Recognition of new higher education institutions in which NVAO looks at the potential quality of higher education provision alongside national authorities appraisal of legal and organisational issues of the new provider;
2. Institutional audits in which NVAO assesses the institutional quality assurance sytem;
3. Initial accreditation of new programmes (i.e. programmes that want to offer a recognised degree);
4. Accreditation of programmes that already offer a recognised degree;
5. Assessment of distinctive (quality) features of programmes and institutions at the request of the relevant institution;
6. Publication of decisions (and officially recognised degrees) in the NVAO database;
7. Internationalisation activities related to quality assurance in higher education.
