0. Relationship between external and internal quality assurance
A university point of view
Dr. Cis Van Den Bogaert
University of Antwerp
Bari, 17 April 2012

1. Antwerp University of Antwerp
Belgium’s 2nd city, Flanders’ largest city
economical and cultural centre
major port, industry, commerce, diamonds, fashion, Rubens …
University of Antwerp

2. University of Antwerp Founded in 2003 (merger), roots in 1852
Antwerp University Association:
1 University + 4 University Colleges
Medium sized: ± students
Publicly funded
Autonomous education and research policy
Active pluralism
Excellence in research
Research-based education:bachelor, master, PhD

3. 7 (9) faculties Natural, Engineering and Design Sciences
Humanities and Social Sciences
Applied Economics
Literature, Languages, History and Philosophy
Law
Political and
Social Sciences
Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences
Life Sciences
Natural, Engineering and Design Sciences
Sciences
Applied Engineering
Design Sciences
+ autonomous institutions:
Education and Teacher Training
Development Policy
Sustainable Development

4. Educational organization
Discipline / Degree programme
Education Council Policy development
Cell for Innovation and Quality Assurance of Education (CIKO)
Education Committee / Course leader
Advice
Organisation of the educational decision making process.
Course leaders not released of any other duties (teaching, research) for this job….
Education council: 7 student members (out of 21 who can vote)
University board: 3 student members (out of 25)
CIKO: 1 student member
Education committee/faculty board: varies, mostly 1-2 student members
Student council: 23 student members
Social council: ? Student members
Education committee has prime responsability for writing SER. Support from faculty level (CIKO) and central level (my colleagues and me).
Faculty
Faculty Board / Dean
Institution
University Board / Rector
Decision

5. Flanders’ structure of higher education
1 ECTS credit = hours workload
60 ECTS credits = 1 academic year
Academic
Academic Bachelor
(180 credits)
Master
(min. 60 credits, mostly 120 credits)
Advanced Master
(minimum 60)
PhD
Professional
Professional Bachelor
(180 credits)
Advanced Bachelor
(minimum 60 credits)
University College
University
Secondary school

6. The Netherlands/ Flanders: External Quality Assessment
Internal evaluation
Degree
Programme
Self-evaluation
Report
Visitation Guide
Institution
Visitation
Report
Committee
Assessment
Framework
Agency QA
NVAO
Accreditation
Report
Decision
Accreditation Organization

7. 2 8 4 6 The 8-year QA cycle Curriculum review
internal quality assurance 8 4 2 6
Curriculum review
Self-reflection & self-evaluation report
Implementation of the new curriculum
Visitation
external quality assurance
Accreditation

8. Follow up internal/external QA
Visitation report
Reading group of peers
Education committee takes/plans actions
Follow up report to Faculty Board/QA-cell
Feedback
Follow up report to Education Council

9. New Accreditation System (NAS - Flanders)
Institutional Review
Vision strategic policy, planning, goals
Realization actions, procedures, instruments
Check internal quality assessment, feedback
Improvement actions for improvement
Assessment of degree programmes
Intended learning outcomes
Teaching – learning process
Assessment and achieved learning outcomes

10. use NAS to improve our iQA?
Relationship iQA - NAS
How do we …
cope with NAS? ✔
prepare for NAS?
✔ ✔
use NAS to improve our iQA?

11. Our strategic roadmap
Translate our educational vision into clear, achievable goals and make sure that our faculties support these goals
Define, conduct and assess university-wide and “faculty-deep” actions to achieve these goals

12. 1. Educational vision: goals
Nexus teaching – research
Competence-based education
Student-centred learning
Internationalization
2-page policy document
“Vision on education: realization”

13. 2. Actions: university-wide & faculty-deep
7 action lines:
Nexus
Learning outcomes
Alignment
Master’s thesis
Feedback groups
Assessment policy
Course information
4 goals:
Nexus
Competences
Student-centred
International

14. Our way to make our actions successful
Bring faculties together, let them show their good practices
Yearly Policy Days
Faculty DUOs
Make documenting feasible and visible
Digital programme portfolio
Invest in innovative development in the faculties, in line with our goals and actions
: Assessment Policy

15. 1. Faculty DUOs Natural, Engineering and Design Sciences
Humanities and Social Sciences
Applied Economics
Literature, Languages, History and Philosophy
Law
Political and
Social Sciences
Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences
Life Sciences
Natural, Engineering and Design Sciences
Sciences
Applied Engineering
Design Sciences 15

16. 2. Documenting : Blackboard

17. 3. Innovate: assessment policy
University Fund for Educational Innovation
2012: money used for Assessment Policy – every faculty can hire project staff for one year (0.5 fte)
Developing an Assessment Policy
University Policy Note (UPN) on assessment
Faculties write their own policy notes based on the UPN
Faculties design assessment tools and procedures
benchmarking of master’s theses
assessment criteria for all courses of a programme
formative assessment of large groups of students …

18. Secret of success and challenge
herding cats?
cooperation