Mirjam Woutersen, Nancy van San and Henri Ponds Towards EFQM in IQA? Mirjam Woutersen, Nancy van San and Henri Ponds Date:

Preface NVAO since 1 February 2005, complete staff about 35 fte (board, policy advisors and supporting staff) Programme accreditation in the Netherlands and Flanders, about 700 programmes every year Workload high, looking for a lean and effective system of IQA, partly based on EFQM Systematic approach IQA since spring 2006 External review in 2007 with a positive result Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 2

Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 3

Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 4

Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 5

Scheme EFQM Staff HEIs / HE Society Performance results Leadership Human Resources Strategy & Policy Resources Processes Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 6

Why EFQM? Stimulates organisational learning and innovation Helps identification of stakeholders’ and staff needs and balancing those needs Identification of enablers of quality Identification intended results (~stakeholders needs) Measurement of the performance and success Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 7

Defined organisation processes in 2006 1. Leadership, Strategy & Policy A B C Proces Manage- ment 2. en 3. (Initial) Accreditation 4. Legal Affairs 5. International Affairs 6. Additional Tasks 7. Communication 8. Support Services 9. Internal Quality Assurance Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 8

Quality Areas A B C Staff Management 10. Human Resources Resource- 11. General Services 12. Finance 13. ICT Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 9

Intended Quality process (Initial) Accreditation and International affairs severe Other organisation processes less severe Strategic objectives and target figures Planning documents and reports of progress Evaluation activities Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 10

Intended Quality process Yearly quality-report to the board Feedback from the board on proposals for measures for improvement This feedback should enable coherence between the organisation processes (systematic approach) Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 11

Topics of a planning document Name organisation process Administrative information Strategic goals Targets for the next year Evaluation activities Accountability Proposed measures for improvement Documents Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 12

What we learned up till now (2008) Don’t produce a lot of paper and don’t discuss very long about documents, otherwise resistance grows Quality improvement is a also a result of a immediate, spontaneous action Managing this IQA-system as an additional task for the board of a rather small organisation is complex Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 13

What we learned - 2 Due to high workload not all planned evaluations were carried out. Coherence between primary and secondary processes is not self evident Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 14

Proposed measures for improvement Reduce the number of quality areas Choose e.g. two concrete quality targets in every process every year, not more Organise evaluation activities that give inspiration to the staff to work on quality (projects and meetings with stakeholders), rather than written evaluations Organise on a yearly basis a special day focussed on quality improvement for staff to create dialoque Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 15

Discussion 1. Quality Agencies (QA) must perfome on IQA as HEI should (‘Practice what you preach’!). 2. QA should evaluate all organisation processes and not only the key processes (systematic approach). 3. QA should make public the results of IQA. 4. Every staff member has a role in IQA. 5. IQA means primary working on a quality culture and not a formal, systematic approach. Date: Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 16

Discussion 6. Good procedure description by manuals is the basis of valid accreditation decisions. Evaluations are less important. 7. Full application of EFQM is ‘a bridge too far’ for mostly rather small accreditation organisations. 8. Meetings or verbal consultation of stakeholders should be preferred above written evaluations. 9. Quality Agencies need a coordinator within the organisation for IQA. Internal Quality Assurance NVAO | 17