Systematic quality work
Universities and university colleges
The purpose of systematic quality work at universities and university colleges is to secure and enhance the quality of study programmes and detect quality failures. All institutions shall therefore have an adequate internal quality assurance system that is partly based on student evaluations. It is also a requirement for the institutions to include and document their work on their learning environment.
Systematic quality work shall be part of a strategy, as well as part of the institution’s governance structure. In addition, systematic quality work is expected to promote a quality culture at the institution.
To secure quality, the institutions shall, amongst other things, control that all study programmes comply with the quality regulations at the national level. To assess educational quality, the institutions shall collect information from relevant sources, such as periodic evaluations.
The knowledge stemming from systematic quality work shall be used to further develop educational quality. Similarly, the results and information from systematic quality work shall be part of the knowledge base of the institution when assessing and further developing its study programme portfolio.
The national requirements for systematic quality work at universities and university colleges are stipulated in the Act relating to universities and university colleges, the Regulations concerning quality assurance and quality development in higher education and tertiary vocational education (by the Ministry of Education and Research), and Regulations on the supervision and control of the quality in Norwegian higher education (by NOKUT).
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Vocational colleges
Vocational colleges are required to have an adequate internal quality assurance system that supports the enhancement of quality and the relevance of their study programmes to the job market. The system must also identify potential quality failures. The internal quality assurance system serves as a tool for the quality management of vocational colleges, outlining their objectives, how they manage quality, their decision-making structures and reporting lines.
For vocational colleges with accredited academic disciplines, the internal quality assurance system must also include procedures for establishing new study programmes and for implementing substantial changes to existing programmes.
Vocational colleges must set quality targets for their study programmes. They are required to collect feedback from students, staff and relevant stakeholders on the quality of their programmes. Additionally, they are required to gather information generated by their internal quality assurance system in order to assess whether the quality targets for each study programme have been met. The colleges must then use these assessments to address quality failures and further enhance the quality of their programmes.
Quality management should be integrated into the leadership and governance structures of the vocational colleges, with active involvement from students and staff. The colleges must ensure that they have adequate documentation of their quality management processes.
The national regulations for systematic quality assurance in vocational colleges are set out in the Act relating to tertiary vocational education § 5, the Regulations concerning tertiary vocational education (by the Ministry of Education and Research), and the Regulations on the accreditation, supervision and control of tertiary vocational education, Chapter 4 (issued by NOKUT).