NVAO - Mission

Mission

The organisation's mission is to ensure the "quality" (defined in official terms) of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders and contribute to its advancement. In addition, it endeavours to contribute to quality awareness and to publicize the distinctive features of study programmes in higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders in national and international perspective.

The organisation pursues its mission by:

1. Accrediting existing study programmes in higher education (basic quality assessment).
2. Validating new study programmes in higher education (anticipated basic quality).
3. Contributing towards promoting the distinctive features of study programmes in higher education or institutions by assessing the specific quality features of existing study programmes at the request of institutions.
4. Advancing both the European and the international dimension in Dutch and Flemish accreditation and maintaining international contacts in order to reach agreement and cohesion.
5. Performing other commissioned tasks. For instance, providing recommendations on lengthening the master’s degree courses in university education in the Netherlands.
6. Contributing to the public debate on developments in higher education.

NVAO wishes to be a proactive partner in higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders. The organisation also intends to fulfil a pioneering role in the development of quality assurance and accreditation in Europe.

In both the Netherlands and Flanders, NVAO engages in intensive consultation with institutions of higher education, experts, umbrella and professional organisations, students, employers' organisations and labour unions. NVAO endeavours to be proactive, to engage in dialogue with institutions, students and the labour market.

Together with noted foreign accrediting agencies NVAO verifies to what extent their policies are based on the same approach and procedures as those laid down in the Dutch and Flemish accreditation frameworks.