Contributions of university evaluation tosociety:
University evaluation in Norway

By
Professor Roger K. Abrahamsen
Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Chairman of the Board of NOKUTMy introduction

 “Contributions of university evaluation to society”
 Questions asked by the organisers: “Goal of university evaluation in the Nordic
 How should the government, universities and quality

assurance agency satisfy with the accountability ofuniversity evaluation
 How should universities utilize the result of theevaluation for improvement”

16.10.2006|2Types of evaluations/assessments carried out byNOKUT

 Quality audit (evaluation of institutional quality
assurance systems)
 Initial accreditations: Institutional accreditation
 Programme/course accreditation

 Revisions of accreditations
 Evaluations of significance to assessment of thequality of higher education

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Evaluations and assessment carried out by NOKUT All evaluations and assessment are carried out by external
committees or expert panels established by NOKUT. Only thesecretary of the committee is a NOKUT officer.
 All reports from the committees and expert panels are public The reports are comprehensive and present basic information
about the institution, a thorough evaluation spelled out inrecommendations as well as more formal conclusions
 The reports are very important tools for the institutions further
work with quality aspects
 The institutions normally express great satisfaction with thereports and often underline their practical usefulness
 We have the understanding that the institutions pay
considerable attention to the recommendations

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Quality audit

 Institutions are required by law to have satisfactoryinternal quality systems
 The system will be assessed by NOKUT in periods ofmaximum six years
 Institutional quality audits represent the systematic,

comprehensive mechanism for external scrutiny of thequality of higher education

 The institutions themselves carry the responsibility forthe quality of their own educational provision
 To carry out robust internal quality assurance is in theirown interest
 The institutions have a good possibility to develop an
institutional quality culture
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Quality audit

 The institutions have the freedom to design their own
quality assurance system within a given frame ofreference External quality assessment: Should assess whether the internal quality assurance

works effectively and convincingly
 Should not give detailed instruction as to how theinternal quality assurance should be done The concept of freedom for the institution to design
their own quality assurance system is supposed tofoster a sense of ownership and broad
participation among the institution’s staff andstudents
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Quality audits The purpose of the evaluation of the quality
assurance system is to audit the quality assessmentsthat the institution itself makes of its educationalprovision
 Quality audits cannot directly themselves lead to theloss of accreditation.
 But could reveal indications of poor quality
 NOKUT may follow up these indications by carry out

revision of accreditations
 The link between institutional quality audits andrevisions of accreditations can be considered as acentral pillar in the Norwegian system

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Quality audits The quality assurance system should be used as antool for the institution to pay continues attention to theimprovement of their educational provisions
 The feedback to the students about actions for
improvements is crucial.
 Improve the confidence between the institution and thestudents
 The students may pay an even more important role indeveloping the quality of the education when they see
improvements

 The fact that the institutions have established, and areable to operate, a reliable quality system may becrucial for the trust and reliability expressed from thesociety to the Norwegian institutions for higher
education
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Initial accreditations: Institutional accreditation
 Accreditation of institutions is an instrument which make itpossible to change institutional category
 NOKUT carry out institutional accreditation based on
applications to change category
 The aim is to achieve academic expansion
 Through a process from being e.g. a university college with theambition to getting the status of a university, there is need toincrease the institution’s competence and quality
 This may:
• Create a political will to allocate additional resources at thegovernmental level• Mobilize particular support from the regional or local politicians,
society and industry• Increase the regional competence platform• Create regional innovation and new professional activities in theregion
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Initial accreditations: Programme/courseaccreditation
 Accreditation of programmes of study is an instrument tosecure the standard of new programmes Accreditations are carried out by NOKUT when an
institution applies for the accreditation of a new course orprogramme that the institution’s status doesn’t allow it toprovide automatically Unaccredited institutions must undergo accreditation
procedures for all new provision at all levels
 University colleges must do it for all new provision beyond
the bachelor level Universities and special field universities (e.g. a school ofveterinary science) possess full rights to award degrees at
all levels without specific programme accreditation
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Institutional Autonomy

Universities

Specialised
universities

Accredited
universitycolleges

Nonaccredited

PhD.
MasterBachelor

Power to establish any study programme (BA, MA, PhD)Power is limited. The institusjonen can not offer study
programmes in the field without accreditation and a final
decision by The Ministry of Education.
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Initial accreditations: Programme/course
accreditation

 In order to achieve governmental supported studentsloan, a study programme has to be accredited
 Accreditation of new programmes are an important
prerequisite in the Bologna-process signed by theNorwegian government Accreditation may be considered as an important tool toachieve the national political and institutional goal tosecure that the quality of higher Norwegian education is
at a high international level It is considered important for the students to know that
their study programme has been accredited
 Accreditation of new programmes establish an increased
confidence to the institutions from the society
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Revisions of accreditations

 Revision of accreditation of programmes of study
 Revision of accreditation of institutions
 Based on different indications, NOKUT may conduct
an evaluation of an institution or a programme ofstudy with a view to do revision of a previously
granted accreditation. Such revision may result inwithdrawal of the accreditation. The Ministry shallthen withdraw the rights entailed by accreditation.
 Revision may be triggered by indications from theinstitutional audit of the quality assurance system orby other indications of inferior quality.
 Revisions may be carried out as random tests

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Revisions of accreditations

 Accreditation is not a monitoring instrument only The reports from the expert panels contains
recommendations on how the institutions could
develop the quality beyond the minimum level The experience shows that the institutions follow up
the expert’s recommendations
 Accreditation is a strong instrument for obtaining thegoal of continuous improvement of higher education
 The decision to revoke the accreditation of aprogramme or institution will obviously create aconsiderable set of activities in order to retain thequality necessary for accreditation

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Evaluations of significance to assessment of thequality of higher education

 NOKUT may decide to conduct other types ofevaluations that are considered useful from theperspective of increasing knowledge about quality in
Norwegian higher education.
 Also the Ministry may instruct NOKUT to carry out
such evaluations
 In these evaluations NOKUT will no longer havequality control as an objective. The relation to theevaluated institutions changes correspondingly.
 When the object is exclusively “to lean more”,
participating institutions become NOKUTs project
partners
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Evaluations of significance to assessment of thequality of higher education

 Important source of information for the Ministry andfor the institutions in their decision making andallocation of recourses for improvement of highereducation.
 May indicate to NOKUT if a revision of accreditationof a program or institution is necessary or relevant.

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Challenges and further development of the systemof quality assurance in higher education

 Based on the information given concerning the links
between the various elements in the Norwegiansystem for quality assurance of higher education it
can be concluded that it is an integrated system
 One of the strengths of the Norwegian system for
quality assurance in higher education is the balance
between internal and external quality assurance withfocus on the institutions’ responsibility for the quality
on their provisions.
 This balance, combined with confidence in theinstitutions, also make the system resource effective

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Challenges and further development of the systemof quality assurance in higher education

 Besides getting more out of the existing system by improving
processes and procedures and following up otherchallenging issues, the following steps could be taken:
 Systematize the accreditation instruments more; criteria andprocedures Reserve evaluations of significance for assessment of quality ofhigher education, primary to thematic evaluations, covering
specific aspects across the institutional spectrum
 Give higher priority to work with the examination of the effectsof the different instruments on the aims an objectives
 Achieve more knowledge on the effectiveness of the different
methods used and how to reduce the cost in quality workwithout reducing the quality
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Some general conclusions
 The various types of evaluations of the quality assurance system
in higher education creates an increased focus on quality
development in higher education
 Important for the country as such Important for the students
 Important for the institutions

 A comprehensive quality assurance system and the evaluation
tools used creates: Increased confidence between the society and the institutions
 Better contact between the society and the institutions
 Better contact between the industry and the institutions
 A better platform for decision making for allocation of recourses bothat the institutional and governmental level A better platform for other political decisions
 An increased possibility for internationalisation within highereducation

 The lack of an appropriate national quality assurance system inhigher education will result in a loss of confidence in the modernsociety, among students and among politicians
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