Initial accreditation in The Netherlands
In the Netherlands a new initial accreditation system has become effective on 1 January 2011. Accreditation takes place at the programme level. Thus, the accreditation system continues to focus on the quality of individual programmes. In addition, institutions may request NVAO to conduct a so-called institutional quality assurance assessment. Should such a thorough audit reveal that an institution's quality assurance is in such good order that the quality of the programmes is systematically improved, wherever necessary, NVAO will then place that institution in a different accreditation regime.
In the new system the following frameworks for the higher education initial accreditation system are relevant:
- institutional quality assurance assessment: an institutional-level framework to be used for "institutional quality assurance assessments";
- limited initial accreditation: a programme-level framework with "limited assessment criteria" for the initial accreditation of new programmes provided by institutions whose institutional quality assurance assessment produced a positive result;
- extensive initial accreditation: a programme-level framework with "extensive assessment criteria for the initial accreditation of new programmes", required if an institutional quality assurance assessment turns out negative and for institutions that have not applied for an institutional quality assurance assessment.
