Quality assurance and recognition
12 Sep 2008
Higher education in Holland enjoys a worldwide reputation for its high quality. This is achieved through a national system of regulation and quality assurance. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is responsible for legislation pertaining to education.
If you look for an international programme or course in the database, you will notice that the status of individual programmes is indicated by icons. Accredited programmes will be listed in the Central Register of Higher Education Programmes (CROHO). Responsibility for accreditation has been allocated to the Netherlands-Flemish Accreditation Organization. Students will be awarded recognized degrees only after completing an accredited degree programme. Only degree programmes can be accredited by the NVAO.
Ongoing process
The accreditation of programmes is an ongoing process, which began in 2003, and it will take several years before all existing and new programmes have been reviewed and accredited. In the meantime it has been decided that those programmes which have been approved under the old system of quality assurance are also granted the status of accredited programme.
Institutions may also offer bachelor’s, master’s or other programmes that have not been accredited by the NVAO, but by a body in another country. For example a master’s programme offered by a Dutch University of Applied Sciences, but validated by an accredited British university.
World leading
Experience shows that people who have studied at a Dutch institution of higher education perform very well in other parts of the world. Dutch higher education is world leading in areas like business administration, agricultural studies, civil engineering, medicine, remote sensing and, arts & design.
Research
The high quality of the research and the dissertations that are defended in Holland does place it in the very top ranks. In fact, Dutch international scientific research is leading in Continental Europe. Holland occupies the fifth place in the world raking of numbers of publications per capita.
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For more information about accreditation and recognition, see:
