NOKUT’s history with systematic quality work
Accredited institutions have been required by law since January 1st, 2004, to have internal quality assurance systems. The Act relating to universities and university colleges became effective on April 1st, 2005. Since then, also university colleges with accredited study programmes had to have an adequate internal quality assurance system.
Development of the regulatory framework
There have been several revisions of higher education laws and regulations in Norway during the past years. The Regulations concerning quality assurance and quality development in higher education and tertiary vocational education (by the Ministry of Education and Research), were revised in 2016. The changes and feedback to the single regulations were rendered in a circular by the Ministry of Education and Research in June the same year. In 2017 changes in the Regulations on the supervision and control of the quality in Norwegian higher education (by NOKUT) were adopted. Regulations for systematic quality work now became legally binding, amongst other things. In addition, the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) have been revised. The first version of the ESG was published in 2005 and revised in 2015 (second version).
Changes in NOKUT’s Regulations in 2017
NOKUT conducted evaluations of the institutions’ internal system for quality assurance until 2016, which was based on certain criteria. These criteria can be recognized in Chapter 4 of the current NOKUT Regulations. The criteria are now legally bound.
Regulations that are linked tightly to the previous evaluation criteria are:
- Linkages to leadership and quality culture
- Arrangements for the systematic collection of information to assess educational quality
- Using knowledge and insights from institutional quality work to enhance educational quality
Chapter 4 also contains some new regulations:
- There should be a policy for the institution’s quality work
- The rules and regulations for quality work must be linked explicitly to the accreditation standards § 3-1 to 3-3 in the Regulations concerning quality assurance and quality development in higher education and tertiary vocational education, and to Chapter 2 of the Regulations on the accreditation, supervision, and control of tertiary vocational education by NOKUT.
- Information from quality work shall form a knowledge base for assessing and further developing the institution’s study portfolio.
Methodological development
In the first cycle from 2003 until 2011 focus of the review was whether internal quality assurance systems had been established at the institutions. In the second cycle from 2009 until 2016, the focus was on how the internal quality assurance systems worked in practice. NOKUT conducted a pilot project in 2017 and 2018 and thereafter introduced the third review cycle. In this cycle from 2017 to 2024 more focus is given to knowledge exchange between institutions under review. By organizing institutions under review into projects with a joint follow-up seminar after review, NOKUT provides the institutions with the opportunity to exchange experiences and good practices with each other.
The methodology of the third review cycle from 2017 to 2024 is different from those of previous ones.
| 2004 | 2003–11 | 2009–16 | 2017–24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal quality assurance systems are mandatory | First cycle of reviewing internal quality assurance systems (76 institutions) | Second cycle of reviewing internal quality assurance systems (62 institutions) | Third cycle: NOKUT conducts a pilot study in 2017/18, and thereafter establishes the third cycle of reviews (48 institutions) |
The three cycles have in common that the institutions are responsible for assuring and enhancing the quality of their study offers. NOKUT’s internal evaluations of the respective cycles attest continuity in the way NOKUT performed its external quality assurance. Expert committees assessing documentation on quality work submitted by the institutions as well as one or more site visits have been, amongst other things, constant elements in the evaluation and review processes. The results of these processes have been published in public reports, accessible on NOKUT’s website.
Each institution had to go through such evaluations and reviews on a regular basis every six years as outlined in the ESG and the Norwegian higher education act. In cases of non-compliance with existing rules and regulations, the institutions were required to fulfill the requirements and potentially sanctioned. The sanctions are specified in the Regulations concerning quality assurance and quality development in higher education and tertiary vocational education and have remained unchanged during the period.