Quality Assurance

Our quality assurance system explains how we monitor and improve the quality of our teaching and research. This process is not set in stone: it evolves over time as our requirements for the quality of teaching and research change.

Ongoing dialogue

Our Quality Assurance System Framework is built around ongoing dialogue. Quality is a core focus at ArtEZ. We listen to our colleagues and students to help us evaluate lessons, assess curricula and further develop our programmes. We also maintain a critical approach to work processes. Once we have the information we need, we work together to generate a roadmap for improvement.  ArtEZ promotes quality improvement using the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model, ensuring we remain in line with our colleagues’ teaching methods and student evaluations of lessons.

Our programmes invite leading professionals from the field to share their feedback on our education and research. Experts from professional practice also take part in the final assessments of our students’ work. Their insights help us to strengthen and renew our programmes and professorships. In doing so, we aim to ensure that our education aligns as much as possible with current developments in the professional world. 

National Student Survey and Arts Monitor

ArtEZ is keen to understand what students, teachers and alumni think of the education we provide. What is working well? How could we do better? To answer those questions, we regularly ask students, teachers and alumni to give their opinions in surveys.

Yearly we ask students to complete the National Student Survey. This nationwide survey gives students the opportunity to express their opinions about the study programmes offered by both academic universities and universities of applied science in the Netherlands. The Arts Monitor is the place for alumni to tell us about their experiences as freelancers and in the job market after they finish their studies at ArtEZ.

Participation

The Programme Committees, sub-councils and Participation Council also organise conversations about the quality of our education. 

All ArtEZ programmes are accredited. The quality of our teaching is assessed every year by experts from outside the organisation who review the programmes based on nationally applicable standards.  

Accreditation demonstrates that a programme meets the national quality requirements for teaching set by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). NVAO inspects programmes every six years to ensure that they continue to meet the required standards.  

The inspections are carried out by a committee made up of independent experts drawn from outside the programme. They base their assessment on documentary evidence and on a self-assessment report submitted by the programme.  

Committee members also visit the programme in person, and interview a range of different people, from students to professional representatives and from the exam board to management.  

You can read ArtEZ’ programme assessments on the NVAO website.

The development interview

The inspection committee also organises development interviews with people from the programmes, often following the programme visits. A development interview is intended to highlight any improvements or developments the programme is planning to implement.

It goes without saying that we also monitor the quality of our research. The process is similar to the way programmes are monitored and ensures that our Research Unit satisfies the requirements set out in the Branch Protocol for Quality Assurance in Research (BKO). The NVAO’s reports are available on their website.