New Dutch higher education accreditation system

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.

The accreditation methods practised under this regime differ from those implemented for programmes without a positive institutional quality assurance assessment. Under this regime, an assessment panel of independent experts assesses each programme on a limited number of standards pertaining to the essence of educational quality. On the basis of this assessment, NVAO decides whether or not to accredit that programme.

This leaves the teaching staff free to devote their attention and energy to expert suggestions for improvement relating to the core of their teaching, rather than spending time on pre-conditional aspects that are better dealt with at the institutional level, as the trustworthiness of the institution regarding those themes has already been demonstrated at the institutional level.

The new accreditation system is a system in which:
a. institutional quality assurance assessments bolster an institution-wide internal quality culture;
b. programme accreditations focus on the essence of the education provided: (improving) substantive quality;
c. a proper balance is achieved between assessing programmes on the one hand and quality improvement on the other.

The new accreditation system comprises six assessment frameworks:

1. institutional quality assurance assessment: an institutional-level framework to be used for "institutional quality assurance assessments";
2. limited programme assessment: a programme-level framework with limited assessment criteria for the accreditation of institutions whose institutional quality assurance assessment produced a positive result;
3. extensive programme assessment: a programme-level framework with extensive assessment criteria for accreditations, required if an institutional quality assurance assessment turns out negative and for institutions that have not applied for an institutional quality assurance assessment;
4. 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;
5. 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;
6. distinctive feature: an assessment framework to determine whether an institution or a programme has any distinctive.