Achieved many important goals

NOKUT's 20th year was both content rich and busy. Despite many parallel processes and growth in ordinary tasks, increasing numbers of applications, and a tight budget, NOKUT has performed well and can demonstrate good goal achievement in accordance with the new strategy, NOKUT 2030: Ensure quality, build trust.

Published on

In 2023, NOKUT contributed to the launch of 39 new study programs – all over the country. These range from vocational school programs such as "bar manager" and "wind power and energy storage" to a master's program in law. At the same time, this was also a year with a record number of applications for accreditation of new study programs and subject areas – a total of 144 applications. On top of that, we received 208 notifications of changes in study programs at vocational schools. These are changes that NOKUT must approve before the study programs can be implemented.

"The significant increase in applications in the vocational school sector has been particularly challenging. Therefore, it has been important to use the available resources effectively. Throughout the year, reallocations have been made across the organisation and between tasks. In addition, new working methods have been implemented, and processes have been simplified," says NOKUT's director Kristin Vinje.

Commendation from ENQA

An important milestone in the anniversary year was that NOKUT renewed its membership in the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, ENQA, and continued its registration in EQAR, which is a register of European quality assurance organizations that meet European quality standards, ESG.

"This confirms that the work at NOKUT is of internationally high quality. The evaluation panel particularly highlighted the good work NOKUT does with method development, and that we have a good and open dialogue with the institutions. They believed that this is something that will contribute to the quality development of the sector and ensure that quality work is not only done through control," says Vinje.

Good educational quality for all

Everyone should experience good educational quality where they study, whether it's at a university, a university college, or a vocational school. In Norway, we have a total of 10 universities, 38 university colleges, and 61 vocational schools, both public and private.

What all these institutions have in common is that they must meet requirements to ensure they have a system for maintaining and developing the quality of their education programs. As the accreditation and supervisory authority, NOKUT is responsible for ensuring that this happens, but the institutions themselves are responsible for ensuring that good work is done on educational quality at all levels.

"In our own strategy for the period up to 2030, we have outlined the course for how NOKUT will work to ensure quality and stimulate development in such a way that society trusts that vocational schools, university colleges, and universities deliver good education to their students. Students deserve the best possible education, while society is dependent on candidates being competent when they enter the workforce," says Vinje.

Accurate and tailored quality assurance

In 2023, NOKUT completed supervision of the systematic quality work at 4 universities, 1 specialised university, and 5 university colleges. In addition, we initiated 12 new such supervisions at university colleges. Thus, we have followed up on the quality work at institutions that together house more than 110,000 students in higher education. This represents about 1/3 of the students taking higher education in Norway.

"Through supervision, we contribute to ensuring, developing, and informing about quality in the study programs. When NOKUT conducts supervision, we check if the regulations are being followed and issue orders to correct the deficiencies we find. We will continue to adapt our working methods in the future so that institutions experience them as useful in their quality work and so that they can develop their study program portfolio," Vinje explains.

NOKUT's external quality assurance consists of both controlling and contributing to development. Our tools should be accurate and tailored to the characteristics and the academic powers of the institutions. We will stimulate development to a greater extent. Our reports and analyses will contribute to increased knowledge about various factors that affect the quality of study programs. In addition, we should ensure that the accreditation processes are efficient, so that more study programs are offered more quickly, and so that the business world gets better access to candidates with the right skills.

Thematic Issues

Three themes have been given a little more space in the annual report.

"The aim is to highlight examples that illustrate how our work has contributed to good results and given effects for the users or has had an important societal effect," says the NOKUT director.

Internationally recognized quality assurance body

In July, the final decision arrived – NOKUT was approved by ENQA for five more years. Shortly afterwards, we were approved by EQAR and included in their register. What does this mean for NOKUT? Why are these approvals so important?

Artificial intelligence and data sharing in NOKUT

At NOKUT, we are working to exploit the potential of both today's technology and the opportunities of the future. This is being done, among other things, by using artificial intelligence (AI) in analysis work and by ensuring better use of our own data.

NOKUT's periodic follow-up contributes to society's trust in educational quality

NOKUT's periodic follow-up with the systematic quality work of the institutions should contribute to society's trust that Norwegian higher education maintains a high international standard, and that both NOKUT and the educational institutions follow up on their obligations.

  • Board's report

    In 2023, it was 20 years since NOKUT was established. At the beginning of the year, NOKUT had a new strategy, a new organisational structure, and a societal mission that even more strongly focused on ensuring and developing quality in higher education and vocational education. The background for these changes was that the tasks of recognition of foreign education were transferred to The Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) from January 1.

    A significant milestone in the anniversary year was that NOKUT renewed its membership in the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and continued its registration in The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), confirming that the work at NOKUT is of internationally high quality. NOKUT fulfilled all the relevant criteria in The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), and it was emphasised that the organisation has made significant progress on several of the indicators since the previous evaluation in 2018. NOKUT was also praised for its open dialogue with stakeholders and for developing new, innovative methods.

    Achievement of Goals

    Overall, the Board is satisfied with NOKUT's achievement of goals in 2023. Despite many parallel processes and growth in ordinary tasks, increasing numbers of applications, and a tight budget, NOKUT has performed well and can demonstrate good goal achievement in line with the new strategy, NOKUT 2030: Ensure quality, build trust. The significant increase in applications in the vocational school sector has been particularly challenging. Therefore, it has been important to allocate the resources efficiently. Throughout the year, there have been reallocations across the organisation and between tasks. In addition, new working methods have been adopted, and processes have been streamlined. The Board commends the employees and management of NOKUT for the significant work they have done.

    Key Issues

    The periodic follow-up of the systematic quality work of the institutions is intended to contribute to society's trust in Norwegian higher education maintaining a high international standard, and that both NOKUT and the educational institutions fulfill their obligations. NOKUT is now completing the third round of follow-up initiated in 2017, which has been carried out as supervision. In 2023, ten supervisions were completed. The systematic quality work at four universities and three university colleges was satisfactory. Two university colleges had some deficiencies in their work, while one university college had significant deficiencies. After the supervisions, the institutions report better knowledge of the regulations and greater commitment to systematic quality work. This illustrates that periodic follow-up ensures and contributes to further developing educational quality. Throughout the year, work has also been done in parallel to approach the next round of this periodic follow-up. The board is satisfied that, in this work, emphasis is being placed on developing even more effective procedures which should both be better tailored to the unique nature of the various institutions and in accordance with the powers that the institutional category implies, and which to a greater extent stimulates development.

    In 2023, NOKUT continued to receive many accreditation applications for new study programs or changes to existing ones. The number of applications is increasing. This trend has resulted in application queues in both 2023 and the previous year. Therefore, it takes longer for applicants to receive a response to their applications than has been the norm in the past. NOKUT has taken several measures to reduce processing time, especially in the processing of accreditation applications from vocational schools. Prioritisations and efficiency measures, along with additional funding in the revised national budget, contributed to NOKUT being able to process significantly more accreditation applications for vocational study programs than planned for in 2023. Accreditation of subject areas has been prioritised, and in December, five vocational schools were accredited for their respective subject areas: three in the health professions area and two in economics and administration.

    The experience from processing accreditation applications is that many vocational schools have a great need for guidance and that there is a need to increase the level of systematic quality work. NOKUT contributes to the work initiated by the Ministry of Education and Research to develop a system for institutional accreditation. Along with other work NOKUT does with quality follow-up systems, this is important for further development in the sector.

    The Student Survey, the topic-specific national assessment examinations, and evaluations provide knowledge that is used to further develop the quality at the institutions and for governance and policy making. In 2023, NOKUT completed the evaluation of practical-pedagogical education and initiated the evaluation of the professional programme in medicine and of the initial teacher education for grades 1–7 and grades 5–10. The feedback from these evaluations shows that NOKUT succeeds in following up on intentions to facilitate learning, identify challenges, and provide advice on measures to develop quality. Thus, the evaluations represent alternative approaches to quality development work than supervision, providing NOKUT with a wider range of tools.

    The Board is pleased that NOKUT sees the opportunities in technology and participates in the digital transformation. This includes digitisation in case processing, but also the use of machine learning and facilitating the sharing of various data collected. For example, using artificial intelligence in summarising and systematising available knowledge will strengthen knowledge sharing and guidance efforts.

    Being a regulatory administrator is also a central part of how NOKUT fulfills its role as an authority. NOKUT carries out regulatory and control tasks on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research. In 2023, tasks included, among other things, five assignments from the Ministry of Education and Research on regulatory development: reporting considering the trust reform, the grant scheme for private university colleges, personnel regulations for universities and university colleges, contributions to the accreditation expert group, and clarification of frameworks and conditions for institutional accreditation of vocational schools. These examples show that regulatory assignments contribute to strengthening the foundation for NOKUT's core activities in ensuring and developing quality.

    NOKUT has good systems for managing the business. As part of the work on target and performance management, the board regularly reviews the risk picture for target achievement, assessment of financial consequences and reprioritisation if necessary. In 2023, the Board also had strategic discussions about work on quality development in the vocational school sector, the future outlook for NOKUT, follow-up of the ENQA evaluation, use of knowledge-based tools, development of the Student Survey, and the fourth round of periodic follow-up of quality work.

    Priorities Going Forward

    NOKUT's operations should contribute to society's trust in the quality of Norwegian higher education and vocational education. NOKUT's ambition is to be a modern and forward-looking quality assurance body that fulfills its societal mission to ensure and contribute to developing educational quality in a forward-looking manner. Through systematic work on its societal mission, NOKUT also meets the requirements of the European standards (ESG) that quality assurance and quality development are mutually dependent and necessary for building a good quality culture. NOKUT already has a strong position among European quality assurance bodies. The Board is committed to further developing this position in the years to come.

    The work to develop the next round of periodic follow-up of higher education institutions and efforts to contribute to strengthening the quality of vocational education are prioritised tasks going forward. NOKUT will also work systematically to make the tools for external quality assurance even more precise and contribute to development. NOKUT has summarised its societal mission through a description of three roles: the authority role, the knowledge role, and the role as champion for quality in education. The Board believes the new strategy supports the work of the societal mission and the various roles well and that the strategy will be a good basis for annual priorities.

    Tight financial frameworks combined with a backlog of applications give less room for maneuver than desired. Therefore, it may still take some time before NOKUT can deliver core tasks within the time frame desired by the Board and society. The Board is concerned about the long-term consequences this may have for quality development, for the strain on employees, and for possible damage to the reputation. Therefore, the Board will continue to conduct regular reviews of the risk picture for goal achievement and assessment of economic consequences, make priorities, and contribute to putting various forms of efficiency on the agenda, so that the tight financial constraints can be utilised as effectively as possible.

    About the NOKUT Board

    In 2023, the Board had the following members: Professor Lise Iversen Kulbrandstad (Chair), CEO Øystein Eriksen Søreide (Vice Chair), Vice-Dean Saira Basit, Associate Professor Cecilia Christersson, Senior Advisor Mads Danbolt (Employee Representative), Professor Dag Husebø, Director Vegard Iversen (from August 1, 2023), Former Rector Sonja H. Wiik (attending deputy member until July 31, 2023), Student Tommy Raaen (Student Mathias Hillgren, deputy member), Student Oline Marie Sæther (until June 30, 2023), and Student Eilif H. Finnseth (attending deputy member from July 1, 2023).

Share with others