VU offers high-quality education. That quality is provided by lecturers in the programmes, under the responsibility of the programme director.
VU has VU-wide policies on education and educational quality assurance. The VU operates an internal quality assurance system and participates in the external accreditation system of the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO in Dutch) to guarantee the quality of programmes befitting a learning educational institution.
At VU, the approved policy on education and educational quality assurance is given a place in the Manual of Quality Assurance of Teaching and Learning. This sets out the frameworks within which study programmes and faculties shape their education policy. All relevant quality themes are discussed in the Manual.
The Manual follows the policy established at institutional level by the Executive Board. This policy is drawn up in close consultation with the faculties and with the participation in the Joint Assembly (Gezamenlijke Vergadering or GV in Dutch). Of course, where appropriate, advice or consent of the GV is requested. Team Educational Policy of Student and Educational Affairs edits the Manual, the Education Quality Steering Group (STOK) advises on the content and has final responsibility. The Manual provides guidance for faculties in setting up and implementing their own educational quality assurance.
It covers topics such as the curriculum, educational evaluations, professionalisation of lecturers, language policy, student guidance, testing and assessment, etc. A chapter contains a description of the chapter topic and roles and responsibilities, followed by the quality requirements and recommendations formulated by VU in relation to the topic.
The Manual of Quality Assurance can be viewed by both lecturers and students in Dutch and English at vu.nl (login required). The Manual is a dynamic document and is constantly updated based on the most current policy.
The cycle at programme level
Education is carried out within the study programmes. Within the internal annual cycle, programmes report on implementation and results and make plans for improvement. The faculty board approves plans and monitors their implementation. Within the external six-year cycle, programmes are re-accredited once every six years on the basis of a decision by the NVAO after an external visitation. Since 2014, a standard internal midterm review on the state of affairs since the previous visitation and on the quality of the final works has taken place halfway through this external cycle.
The cycle at faculty and service level
The focus on education by faculty and service directors is mainly on creating conditions for good education. Within the internal annual cycle, faculties report on the performance of their teaching tasks and make plans for improving their teaching tasks. The Executive Board approves plans and supervises them. In addition to the annual cycle, an internal assessment of teaching quality assurance will take place once every three years from 2014. In this internal three-year cycle, two internal assessments take place each time between the six-yearly external institutional assessments. This takes the form of an audit at faculty and department level.
The cycle at institutional level
Within the internal annual cycle, the Executive Board steers the education policy at institutional level - as laid down in the Teaching Quality Manual. This is done on the basis of the institutional plan and its implementation plan. The Board reports on the steering and makes plans to improve it. The Supervisory Board approves and supervises plans. In the external six-year cycle at institution level, the institution's quality assurance is assessed. The institution as a whole is re-accredited based on a decision by the NVAO after a visitation by an external audit committee.
VU has three instruments in the internal quality assurance cycle at the programme level.
Midterm review
Halfway through the accreditation period, a midterm review is conducted at each VU programme with the aim of improving the quality of the programmes. By means of peer review, the current status of the study programme and possible improvements are examined. In addition, the midterm review is part of VU's internal quality assurance system and facilitates the Executive Board to monitor VU's educational quality. The mid-term review is a standard part of the study programme's six-year accreditation cycle. Within this cycle, it is ensured that attention to the quality of the study programme is continuous and does not only get off the ground just before the accreditation moment and then collapse again. Any problems at study programmes will be identified early through a mid-term review, so that formal judgements from the external quality assessment will contain as few negative surprises as possible.
Reading group self-evaluation
The quality of a self-evaluation is partly decisive for a successful assessment. Therefore, before the self-evaluation is finalised, the programme is advised on possible points of improvement. This advice is issued by a group of readers under the central coordination of team Educational Policy. VU opts for this model of 'peer review' by this so-called 'reading group self-evaluation' so that the widest possible use can be made of and learning from each other's expertise. Review of the self-evaluation by the reading group has a twofold purpose: first, an improvement is achieved through peer learning and expertise sharing while reading, commenting and discussing. Secondly, the programme concerned is supported by sound advice from different perspectives from outside its own programme/faculty. The product of the meeting is an advice to improve the final version of the self-assessment.
Mock visitation
The primary purpose of the mock visitation is a good preparation for the real visitation. During the mock visitation, all delegations that have a role during the visitation are questioned by a mock visitation panel. This provides an opportunity to practice together and to devise and test concrete, telling examples. The mock visitation panel usually consists of three colleagues who are not involved in the programme, but who have experience of the accreditation process. These might be education or programme directors who have just completed a visitation themselves or are themselves in the process towards a visitation. This also allows for a secondary purpose of the trial visitation, namely a moment for programmes to learn from each other. The members of the mock visitation panel read the programme's self-evaluation and question the delegations on salient issues from the self-evaluation or on issues raised in previous visitations. By doing so, the delegations learn from the experiences in previous visitations and the panel members get to know the structure, approach and examples of another programme.
VU's education quality policy explicitly addresses risk management with regard to education quality. Risk management and risk identification are therefore a natural part of the integrated approach to educational quality. The process of risk identification should ensure the quality of education. By integrating it into the quality assurance system, risk signalling is given a natural place in the planning & control cycle at the level of the programmes, faculties and the institution.
Memorandum on Risk Management in Education
The memorandum on Risk Management in Education explains how VU gives shape to risk identification in education. It explicitly states that everyone involved in education has their own responsibility to identify and manage risks. Only through good cooperation of all involved can unwanted risks actually be avoided. This joint involvement is also reflected in the decision to make this memorandum a 'living document', which will be regularly updated based on experiences with risk management in education and training.
Reflection on development interviews
Our programmes are inspected once every six years as part of external accreditation by a panel of independent experts. The accreditation decisions and visitation reports are posted on the website of the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders(NVAO). Part of the assessment visit is the 'development interview', a conversation that the programme has with the panel about possible improvements from a development perspective. All reports with reflections on these development interviews and suggestions for improvements are published on one central page.
For an overview of the reports of development talks that have taken place since 2019, click here.
Educational evaluation is the systematic collection of data used to understand the current quality of education and opportunities for improvement. The primary goal of educational evaluation is to improve education. Firstly, this involves the course or curriculum being evaluated, especially through the qualitative feedback and improvement suggestions from the evaluation. Secondly, evaluations can be used to monitor the trend development of courses within a programme. For this, quantitative judgements from the evaluation are particularly useful.
Due to their didactic expertise, lecturers have a unique perspective on the quality of education and its level. Fellow teachers are therefore ideally placed to help improve teaching collegially. This can be done, for example, by reviewing and commenting on each other's teaching materials, course descriptions or assessments. Lecturers can also attend a lecture to provide feedback, for example. In the VU assessment framework, peer review is one of the pillars of quality assurance of assessment. Here, the peer tutor is a sparring partner to continuously improve the method and content of assessing and to supplement the tutor's own reflection.
Feedback from alumni provides both valuable input for good information about the programme and substantive suggestions for possible adjustments in education. Alumni are asked about the programme's alignment with the needs of the professional field. In addition to vocationally relevant competences, the academic training of our students is also requested. Aligning the final attainment levels of study programmes and the requirements of the professional field, among other things, ensures that graduates are adequately prepared for the labour market.
Field advisory councils consist of representatives from the professional field and alumni of the programme. The councils have an advisory role in assuring the quality of the programme and its match with the needs of the labour market. The contact between the professional field and the designers of the education, provides a good picture of the developments in the various sectors of the professional field. Faculties thus take note of the wishes and possible requirements that the various professional fields place on recent graduates. The programmes can in turn take this into account when designing the educational programme.
Surveys among alumni provide insight into the career development, connection to the labour market and the academic development of VU's graduated students. The surveys also provide information on the fit between a programme's final attainment levels and the requirements of the professional field.
The national, biannual National Alumni Survey is conducted among recently graduated master's students and provides insight into the labour market entry of graduates and the connection of the study programme.
In addition to this survey, insight into the course of a career and its relation to the education received is desirable, as well as a picture of the extent to which our alumni are academics who act as envisaged by the educational vision. A VU alumni monitor has been developed that provides insight into career patterns of graduates for faculties.
Each study programme or group of study programmes at VU has its own study programme committee (OLC). This includes both students and lecturers, who jointly give advice, solicited and unsolicited, on all matters concerning the education of the programme, such as the curriculum, quality assurance, student guidance and the Education and Examination Regulations (TER). The Centre for Teaching and Learning organises professionalisation training so that OLC members can perform their duties to the best of their ability.
Programme committees are participation bodies that have the right of consent on certain parts of the Education and Examination Regulations. Study programme committees are valuable because students and lecturers can discuss points of improvement of the programme in a relatively informal atmosphere and are in direct contact with the students and lecturers of the programme.
For the establishment and functioning of the study programme committee, the VU has a comprehensive guide to programme committees.
The examination committee has a crucial and also legal task in monitoring the quality of the programme. In this, the examination committee has a testing task: it tests the level of the programme at the level of the individual student and guarantees the quality of examinations.
For the establishment and functioning of the examination committee, the VU has a comprehensive guide Examination Boards (only available in Dutch). There is also a VU-wide consultation of examination board chairmen to harmonise working methods and make VU-wide agreements.
The University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) applies as a minimum requirement for all teaching job levels of academic staff and has been a prerequisite for permanent appointment since 2010. In addition to basic didactic skills and multicultural competences, the UTQ covers the VU teaching vision and personal reflection on academic conduct by lecturers.
In addition, VU has the route to the Senior Teaching Qualification (STQ) as a follow-up to the UTQ. The aim of the STQ course is to empower (potential) senior lecturers in the various roles they fulfil within education, in order to strengthen the quality of education.
VU has been organising the Educational Leadership Course (ELC) since 2016. The aim of the course is to better give content and shape to educational leadership at a strategic level.
English proficiency is a basic requirement for teachers who teach in English. All teachers who teach in English are tested on their English proficiency. If the teacher does not achieve the required score, in-service training follows.
For quality education, lecturers are essential. The quality of education at VU is largely determined by the quality of lecturers. Their ability to inspire students, their didactic qualities and their ability to place their own subject within the bigger picture of the study programme and society, and to connect it with doing research, forms the basis of education at VU. The connection between teaching and research characterises the academy. VU explicitly links research and teaching in the academic career. A strict separation between teaching and research is not desirable for any academic position; every scientist, including one whose career focuses on teaching, must have a basis in research and this must be maintained throughout the career. In addition, it is not possible to make an academic career without demonstrable experience and proof of competence in teaching.
The Education Framework is a tool to recognise, track and make transparent teaching progress and achievements, allowing scientists and their superiors to make clear agreements on personal development paths.
The framework describes four stages of development:
At programme and department level, the framework provides a tool for mapping teaching expertise in the formation.
Professors with an educational profile
In line with its Recognition & Rewards policy, VU offers academics the opportunity to shape their academic careers with a focus on education. The choice of an educational profile is in line with individual talents and contributions. In this way, VU recognises key positions in the field of education from assistant professor level to the highest academic level within the organisation. VU has now appointed several professors with an educational profile.
See also: Recognition and Rewards at VU.
The Student Charter of VU Amsterdam describes the rights and obligations of students on the one hand and of VU Amsterdam on the other, arising from legal and university regulations.
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