Institutional Audit
While the procedure is officially called the institutional quality assurance assessment, we refer to it in English as the institutional audit. The aim of this audit is to determine whether the management of an institution has implemented an effective quality assurance system, based on its vision on the quality of the education provided, which enables it to ensure the quality of the programmes offered. Institutional audits are explicitly not aimed at assessing the quality of individual programmes.
At the moment, only Dutch institutions can opt to apply for an institutional audit.
The institutional audit essentially concentrates on five coherent questions:
1. What is the vision of the institution on the quality of its education?
2. How does the institution intend to realise this vision?
3. How does the institution assess the extent to which the vision is realised?
4. How does the institution improve?
5. Who is responsible for what?
These five questions have been converted into five standards and included in the institutional audit framework.
For each of these five standards, the audit panel gives a weighted and substantiated judgement on a three-point scale: meets, does not meet or partially meets the standard.
The audit panel subsequently presents a substantiated final conclusion on the question of whether an institution is in control with regard to the quality of its programmes. This judgement is also given on a three-point scale: positive, negative or conditionally positive.
The institutional audit assessment procedure includes convening and appointing an audit panel, two site visits, an advisory report and a NVAO decision.
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