Ensuring Quality to Build Trust
NOKUT’s annual report has been submitted to the Ministry of Education and Research. In it, we summarize 2024 as a year in which NOKUT further developed its working methods while successfully delivering on its set goals.
In an unstable and unpredictable world, it is important that society can trust that vocational schools, colleges, and universities maintain high quality standards. NOKUT’s role is precisely to ensure that educational programmes at the country’s universities, university colleges, and vocational schools meet the quality that society expects and needs, regardless of where and how they are offered. We do this through supervision, accreditations, evaluations, and development of regulations. We ensure quality to build trust.
"We have carried out our work in a way that contributes to securing and improving the quality of higher education and higher vocational education in Norway. Additionally, we have kept society informed and updated on the state of educational quality in Norway," says NOKUT’s Chief Executive, Kristin Vinje.
Positive Outcomes of Our Work
In recent years, the number of applications to NOKUT has increased significantly. This has led to challenges with long processing times for accreditation applications. In 2024, NOKUT prioritized completing more applications for disciplinary accreditation for vocational schools.
"This prioritization has resulted in more vocational schools receiving comprehensive self-accreditation rights, which is crucial for the development of the vocational school sector," says Vinje.
By the end of 2024, many applications were still awaiting processing, particularly those related to the accreditation of vocational education programs. Increased funding in the 2025 state budget will help reduce processing times for these applications.
During the year, NOKUT completed the third round of periodic supervision of higher education institutions without self-accrediting rights. Several institutions were found to have deficiencies in their quality work that must be corrected within one year. At the same time, preparations were made for a fourth round of supervision, starting in January 2025, with a stronger focus on development and adaptation to the unique characteristics of each institution.
We completed the evaluation of primary and lower secondary teacher education programmes, where the results also provided valuable input to the Ministry of Education and Research in their work on the parliamentary report on professional education programmes. The final report received much attention and was well received by the academic communities. In addition, a follow-up seminar was held with the teacher education programmes, two years after the evaluation was completed in 2022. It emerged that all institutions have taken steps to strengthen the education programmes as a result of the evaluation.
Expecting Increased Application Volume
In the fall of 2024, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences was accredited as a university. The new requirements for achieving university status mean that more university colleges will likely apply for university accreditation in the coming years. A major development in 2024 was the introduction of the possibility for vocational schools to apply for institutional accreditation, granting them greater autonomy. This scheme will be implemented once the conditions for institutional accreditation are established, which is expected to take place during 2025. We anticipate that several large vocational schools will apply for this status. Both types of accreditation applications involve extensive processes and will occupy a significant portion of our administrative capacity.
Farewell to the student survey Studiebarometeret
Since 2013, NOKUT has conducted Studiebarometeret on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research. For educational institutions, Studiebarometeret has become an annual tradition that provides useful information about students' perceptions of the quality of their study programmes. It has also empowered students to play a strong role in quality assurance and influence their education.
The Ministry of Education and Research decided to transfer responsibility for Studiebarometeret to the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) as of January 2025. We will continue to work closely with HK-dir to use the data from the surveys in our own quality work.
European Collaboration
As a quality assurance agency, it is important that we both share experiences with and draw inspiration from quality assurance agencies in other countries. Actively participating in various European and international forums for quality assurance, such as the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), is essential for us. Both NOKUT and Norwegian universities and university colleges must adhere to the European standards for quality assurance in higher education, which also form the basis of Norwegian legislation. These standards are currently being revised, making it valuable for both us and educational institutions to stay engaged in this work.
Priorities Going Forward
In 2024, NOKUT took significant steps to digitize its work processes. In recent years, we have increasingly integrated artificial intelligence (AI) into various aspects of our operations. NOKUT will continue to explore how AI can add value to more of its processes moving forward.
With the transfer of Studiebarometeret to HK-dir, we will have increased capacity to strengthen our work on educational evaluations. Our goal is for NOKUT’s evaluations to eventually cover the breadth of Norwegian higher education while ensuring alignment with the national framework for evaluating quality in research and higher education, as well as the shared European guidelines.