Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, along with some thirty other Dutch higher education institutions, is taking part in a national microcredentials pilot project.
Microcredentials are compact digital certificates with a quality mark. The aim is to award these certificates to professionals on completion of an educational programme or module of between three and thirty ECTS credits.
“Although the first microcredentials will not be awarded until the end of this academic year, we are already seeing the positive effects that this initiative is having on quality. This is mainly because we are working with educators at VU Amsterdam and SBE’s Executive Education examination board to take a fresh and detailed look at the learning outcomes of our programmes and how best to assess them.”
As a programme director in the Lifelong Development domain, would you like to express an interest or ask additional questions? If so, please send an email to Susan Nuijten (Educational Policy and Advice, SEA) via s.e.nuijten@vu.nl. More general information can be found on the national website pilot Microcredentials.
Microcredentials are compact digital certificates with a quality mark, which in the future you will be able to obtain on completion of an educational programme or module of between three and thirty ECTS credits.
A professional who successfully completes an educational programme or module will receive a mini-certificate. This takes the form of a digital badge issued via a national system (the Edubadges portal), which they can then incorporate into their CV or LinkedIn profile, for example. By clicking on the badge, someone viewing their CV or profile can then obtain more information about the learning pathway, including learning outcomes, level of training, method of assessment, study load and the associated quality mark.
Technically speaking, microcredentials are a type of edubadge in the sense that they are issued through the Edubadges national portal. The main difference is that microcredentials are digital certificates with a quality mark; this does not apply to an edubadge. An edubadge carries no particular weight, while microcredentials have a study load of between three and thirty ECTS credits.
Higher education institutions in the Netherlands mutually recognise the quality mark of the microcredentials obtained. Any exemption for other programmes granted on the basis of microcredentials will be processed by the examination board, in line with standard educational practice. Microcredentials have not yet been incorporated into the Netherlands’ Higher Education and Research Act (Wet op het Hoger Onderwijs en Wetenschap, WHW). However, this is an aim for the future.
The national pilot (2022-23) is specifically limited to higher education designed for professionals who pay a fee that covers the costs. In the future, it may also be possible to issue microcredentials to regular students. Whether and when this will be introduced has yet to be established.
Each of the educational institutions participating in the pilot is free to implement the microcredentials as they see fit. At VU Amsterdam, the initial focus is on non-accredited educational programmes for professionals (in the Lifelong Development domain).
Currently, two programmes at the School of Business and Economics – Business Analytics & Data Science (BADS) and Digital Innovation & Transformation (DIT) – are participating in the pilot at VU Amsterdam. A number of other faculties are also working to identify areas where issuing microcredentials may add value for their professional students and the faculty, and to see which courses or programmes are suitable.
VU Amsterdam has been involved in the topic of microcredentials at national level for some time and has played a part in the project design and developing the quality framework. Being involved at such an early stage is important, especially given that this certification method is likely to play an increasingly significant role in the future. Among professionals and regular students, there is a growing need for flexible education that operates on a smaller scale than a full Bachelor’s or Master’s programme and accurately reflects personal learning goals and ambitions.
It is therefore vital for VU Amsterdam to keep abreast of such developments and be part of shaping the microcredentials concept.
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