Higher education in the Netherlands enjoys a worldwide reputation for high quality. This is achieved through a national system of regulation and quality assurance. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) is responsible for legislation pertaining to education.
The quality of education at the University of Twente is assessed both internally and externally. Internal quality assurance is organised through dedicated committees and periodic evaluations with students and staff, at the level of courses, programmes and departments. Externally, the institution as a whole and all programmes are assessed by the national accreditation organisation (NVAO) and for some programmes also by accreditation organisations specific to the field of study.
External Quality insurance
The degrees awarded by the University of Twente are formally recognised by the Ministry of OCW, based on accreditation of the programmes by the Netherlands-Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO), and are listed in the Central Register of Higher Education Programmes (CROHO).
ECA Certificate for Quality in Programme Internationalisation The international flavour of the ITC Master’s in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation is highly appreciated by students and external officials alike. To prove the latter, our programme was awarded the ECA Certificate for Quality in Programme Internationalisation by the independent Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO), with internationalisation being labelled a “distinctive quality feature”.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE ISSUES A DIPLOMA SUPPLEMENT FOR ITS DEGREE PROGRAMMES.
The Diploma Supplement (DS) is being issued in a widely spoken European language, given automatically and free of charge to every student upon graduation. It is an internationally recognised document attached to the diploma.
WHAT IS A DIPLOMA SUPPLEMENT?
The DS gives a detailed description of the holder's qualification(s) and a description of the national education system. One of the main aims of the DS is to ensure a fair and objective academic and professional judgement of your qualifications abroad. It is important to note that the DS is a supplement to, not a replacement of, the diploma.
ITC has signed the "Code of Conduct with respect to International Students in Dutch Higher Education". The Code of Conduct is the result of cooperation between all Dutch institutions of higher education, the Dutch Ministries of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), Justice, and Foreign Affairs, commercial learning institutes, and several international organisations that are financed by the Dutch Ministry of OCW. The Code of Conduct came into effect on 1 May 2006.
The Code of Conduct states that institutes must provide clear and up-to-date information on admission procedures, the accreditation status of the programmes, the quality criteria that must be adhered to, and the internal procedures that guarantee this quality, as well as a description of the study programme and its admission requirements.
The educational institution must also detail the services it provides to international students within the framework of obtaining a visa and a residence permit, housing, introduction, informational materials and the related costs.
Internal Quality Assurance
The Faculty ITC has set up an internal quality assurance system that uses a systematic approach to maintain and improve the quality of education being offered, as part of the integral university’s approach to quality assurance and quality control.
In 2018, the University of Twente developed a Quality Agreement Plan in response to the sector agreement Investing in Quality of Education. These quality agreements will be effective for a period of six years, from 2019 until 2024. All faculties have been formulating their own plans that describe the aspired and required development of education to which the income of the Student Loan System, where these quality agreements are based on, will contribute.
The Faculty ITC saw the quality agreements as an opportunity to develop a structural plan with proposed actions to further improve the quality of education at programme and faculty level and define elements of a quality agenda for 2019‐2024 in which the vision on educational quality is made explicit. The quality agreements are an integral part of the total quality assurance and in the formulation of these agreements, the Faculty ITC opted for an approach in which use is made of the existing ambitions and plans within the present Master’s programmes and at the faculty at large.
On 1 January 2019, University College Twente (UCT) joined the Faculty ITC. The process of integration in the faculty is still ongoing. However, the plans of the Faculty ITC had been developed already before UCT joined the Faculty. Therefore UCT has developed separate quality agreements that are included as an addendum to the Faculty ITC’s agreements. In the following years, the faculty will work towards a further synthesis and integration of the different agreements and measures.
Activities and measures for improvement are monitored closely and evaluated periodically to ensure they do lead to improvement and can be altered or fine-tuned if needed.
Download Quality Agreements ITC
