Institutional Audit

The Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK) once again passed the Institutional Quality Assurance Audit in January 2020. The Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) concluded that the AHK meets all four of the standards: vision and policy, implementation, evaluation and monitoring, and focus on development.

The panel of external experts, which visited the AHK in the autumn of 2019, states in its advisory report to the NVAO that the AHK has a strong and mature quality culture, and systematically works on improving educational quality. The ambition to rank among the best in the field of activity, means that employees feel responsible for the quality of education and are intensely involved in improvements and searching for innovations.

The panel found many examples of the implementation of the key objectives from the Strategic Plan 2018-2023 that are related to the vision on education:

  1. diversity and inclusivity;
  2. internationalisation;
  3. professional preparation for the international labour market;
  4. technology and digitalisation; and
  5. research for the arts, education and society.

According to the NVAO, the AHK has an adequate system to monitor educational quality in a structural way. The combination of the different formal evaluations and informal coordination means that a multifaceted picture arises regarding the quality of the education.

Discussions with students and employees revealed that they highly value collaborations between academies and are ready to jointly tackle (more) themes or projects. In addition, the critical input can be reinforced by the internal dialogue with students, employees and organising the field of activity more systematically, according to the NVAO.

Finally, the NVAO recommends improving the facilitation of the representative advisory bodies.  The University Council and the Executive Board are in consultation about further strengthening the role of the representative advisory bodies. Part of that will involve implementation, evaluation and adjustment of the Quality Agreements projects being discussed with the representative advisory bodies.

Questions?
If you have any questions about the Institutional Quality Assurance Audit or about quality assurance please contact Ellen Lucker via ellen.lucker@ahk.nl or +31 (0)6 498 125 69.

AHK Institutional Audit Quality Assurance Advisory Report (PDF, in Dutch)

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