All about the Examination and Assessment Committee.

• Place within the organization

  • The program director is responsible for the design and implementation of the program, as described in the OER, and ensures that the education and training meets the quality standard.
  • The program committee advises the program director and the faculty board on the (manner of implementation of the ) OER.
  • The examination committee tests the results of education per individual student within the framework of the OER of a program. After all, the examination board is "the body that objectively and expertly determines whether a student meets the conditions set by the education and examination regulations with respect to knowledge, insight and skills required to obtain a degree."

• Independence

  The independent position of the examination board in relation to the board of the institution (i.e., in the case of VU, the faculty board) has been confirmed and strengthened by the amendment to the HRA (Versterking besturing). Regarding the independence of the examination board from the institutional board, the Explanatory Memorandum notes the following:

  "The functional independence of the examination board from the Executive Board means that although the examination board is established by the Executive Board, the institution must ensure that the examination boards within the institution can perform their work independently. This also means, for example, that the Executive Board cannot impose obligations on the examination board regarding the assessment of students. The board does remain ultimately responsible for the quality of education and degree 27; an examination board must act within the boundaries of the education and examination regulations. This also ensures that the method of examination fits within the framework of the program."

  What is essential is that the examination board can perform its duties as a "watchful eye" (or, in other words: internal supervisor) from an independent position and - for this reason - does not take over tasks or responsibilities from the program director.

  In other words, the faculty board sets the Education and Examination Regulations and is thus ultimately responsible for the quality of education. The examination board tests whether the student meets the requirements set in the ER and after this testing, the institution grants the degree of Bachelor or Master.

  In addition to its independence in terms of its position in the organization with respect to those responsible for the quality of education (faculty board, program director), the independence of the examination board must also be reflected in its composition.

  1. An examination board will always have at least one external member.
  2. Managers with financial responsibility cannot be included in the examination board.

• Expertise

  The WHW includes as an explicit task of the examination board the 'guaranteeing the quality of the tests and examinations'29. This requires that the members of the examination committee have ample substantive expertise, testing expertise and knowledge of the legal framework.

  The various areas of expertise (substantive, testing and legal and regulatory) must be covered by the examination board as a whole. Thus, when composing the examination committee, the faculty board may choose to require the expertise in the different fields from each individual member, but it may also choose for an examination committee to consist of several subject matter experts and a testing expert. Every examination committee member should have (basic) knowledge of the legal framework.

  For more information on examination committees at the VU, see the handbook for examination committees.

• Preparation

  The examination board operationalises its (statutory) tasks in a working method, an annual schedule and possibly a division of tasks. This working method preferably includes the following:
  
  Checking quality
  The examination committee or test committee checks the quality of the tests afterwards and possibly also beforehand (before taking the test). In the case of ex-post control, it first examines the quality of a predetermined number of tests each year. This can be done on the basis of a random sample, one can also focus on a specific academic year. It is also recommended to pay special attention to tests in which final attainment levels of the programme are tested (at least theses). Secondly, it examines tests in which one or more of the following signals have been received that may mean that the quality of the test is not adequate:

  • low or high pass rates (establish limits in advance);
  • low scores (e.g. <3.5) on some of the questions about the test in the teaching evaluation, for example:
    > The exam sufficiently covered all the material to be studied
    > The exam was a good measure of what I learned in this course
    > Overall assessment of the quality of the exam
  • indications of (major) changes that were made after taking/inspection (e.g. adjustment of the examination score, deletion of questions, multiple answers correctly counted)
  • if a statistical analysis of the examination is available (supplied by default by the examination service for multiple-choice examinations): low reliability (KR-20 or Cronbach's alpha) (e.g. KR-20 < 0.65).

  Examination board set up
  The examination board does not have to do all the quality assurance itself. It can delegate the executive tasks to an assessment committee, which carries them out independently but under the formal responsibility of the examination committee. It is important that the division of tasks between the testing committee and the examination committee is clearly agreed and recorded. The examination committee must make sure that the way in which the test committee carries out its tasks meets the quality requirements as set by the examination committee. To this end, the examination committee itself must have testing expertise. Moreover, the examination committee must be able to direct the examination committee if, in the opinion of the examination committee, its working method does not meet the quality requirements. For the accreditation, the examination committee will have to be able to justify itself on the aspect of 'testing and achieved final qualifications'.

  The examination committee determines the Rules and Guidelines. It may set up a test committee and in this case agree with the test committee how to proceed in checking the quality of the tests. The examination committee can also appoint external members to strengthen its own expertise in certain areas.

  The examination committee annually appoints examiners.

  Useful links

  • Annex legal regulations regarding quality assurance for examinations (only available in Dutch)
  • Appeals, complaints and requests
  • Examination boards in higher education

  Training

  The Vrije Universiteit offers members of examination boards and examination committees a variety of training programmes, courses and workshops. The training offer is regularly updated. The current offer can be found on the Training and Development page.

  Specific offerings in the field of test competence can be found on the site of the education advisers and teacher trainers of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

• Implementation

  The examination board monitors the quality of testing according to its own methods, but has a number of tasks arising from its responsibilities. The tasks of the examination board listed here are limited to those that focus specifically on the testing of sections or of the program as a whole.

  The examination board:

  • Appoints examiners annually for the purpose of administering tests in specific courses of study and determining their results.
  • Establishes what requirements an examiner must meet in order to perform certain examiner duties.
  • Advises the program director on the content of the program test plan.
  • Sets the rules and guidelines regarding the quality of testing and examination and monitors whether these guidelines are followed. Thus, the examination board sets requirements for quality.
  • Supervises the quality of tests and examinations; safeguards the quality of tests and examinations, for example through (random) evaluation. In particular, it regularly takes note of the quality of the assessment of final works.
  • Makes an annual report on the past academic year. This report contains according to an available format the assurance of the quality of tests, final papers and examinations, the procedure for appointing examiners, the changes in rules and guidelines, assessment of tests and examinations and an overview of the appeals, complaints and requests.
  • Sets guidelines and directions with regard to the assessment and determination of results of examinations within the framework of the Teaching and Examination Regulations (TER).
  • The authority to determine that a student has achieved the goals set in the OER lies with the examination board. It effectively exercises the university's right to award academic degrees, and it is therefore of the utmost importance that its work be of impeccable quality. In the 2010 legislative amendment to the WHW, the position and independence of the examination board was strengthened.
  • In the case of joint degrees with other universities, the joint examination board guarantees the final level of graduates.

  For more information, see: quality requirements VU Testing Framework (only available in Dutch)

• Evaluation

  The examination board or the test committee checks, according to its own working method, whether the quality of the tests meets the conditions set for them and whether the test plan is implemented. The examination committee checks whether any improvement plans agreed upon with examiners the previous year have been implemented and have delivered what was intended (the improvement of test quality). If test quality problems are identified, program management is responsible for further analysis and investigation of the causes. The program management, in dialogue with the department head and the examiner/teaching team, takes remedial action regarding the testing of a course/course unit.

  The examination committee evaluates the testing plan and makes suggestions for improvement.

• Improve

  Every year, prior to the new academic year, the examination committee determines the Rules and Guidelines, with or without adjustments, and announces them in time. The examination committee includes the most important information on the quality of the tests of that academic year and any actions taken to improve the quality of the test in its annual report.

  • Appendix: Manual of examination committees (only available in Dutch)