News

VLUHR QA in the spotlights.

Staff Mobility project

VLUHR QA hosted the visit of the Balearic Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (AQUIB) and the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (NAQA) through the IMINQA staff mobility project.
👉 On the first day, we shared our experiences together with the colleagues from AEQES.
👉 On the second day, VLUHR International gave insight into its activities and the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) shared good practices on responsible internationalisation.
👉 We addressed the topics 'discipline-specific learning outcomes', 'European Approach for external QA of joint programmes' and cross-border QA.
👉ENQA joined us to discuss and answer our questions and reflections on the ESG.

Two English assessment reports

VLUHR QA published two English assessment reports in 2022:

High quality Flemish higher education

VLUHR QA carried out 64 programme reviews on the basis of the 2015 - 2020 framework. Almost all programmes received a 'positive' assessment. The programmes that received a 'sufficient with limited validity' had to adjust their evaluation policy. More information can be found here.

Programmes and panels contribute to quality of VLUHR QA

VLUHR QA learned from questioning its stakeholders who were involved in the programme assessments in the period 2018-2020 that:

panels require a better streamlining of information;

programmes want to work with new forms to set up a dialogue with the panels during site visits;

all stakeholders want to reduce the administrative burden.

We immediately started working with these recommendations. Read here (Dutch only) how VLUHR QA offers an answer to the issues raised by its stakeholders.

Eight assessment report first half 2020

VLUHR QA published in the first half of 2020 eight assessment reports following the Flemish decree of 2015. A new quality assurance system was introduced in Flanders in 2019. For this purpose we have developed a new manual that meets the criteria for accreditation by NVAO. This manual has been set up for programme reviews of institutions without an institutional review, but can also be used by other education and training providers.

EQAR-registration renewal for 5 years

After a positive evaluation by an international and authoritative panel, the registration of VLUHR QA with the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education was renewed for five years. On the ENQA website you can read the panel's findings, judgements and recommendations. In this way, we remain a reliable and independent quality assurance agency that is authorised to carry out programme reviews in the European Higher Education Area in accordance with the European Standard and Guidelines.

QA of e-learning

The Flemish universities and university colleges switched to various forms of e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Standards and Guidlines (ESG) for quality assurance are also the minimum requirements for e-learning. Several European projects have addressed the ESG for e-learning:

TeSLA focuses on the evaluation of e-assessment.

ENQA produced a paper with some considerations per ESG in function of e-learning.

If you have questions about the quality assurance of e-learning, please contact us.

Observer Erasmus+ KA3 projects

VLUHR QA is involved as an external evaluator in a number of Erasmus+ KA3 projects. One of these projects investigates how micro-credentials can be integrated in higher education. Micro-credentials are kind of mini-qualifications that demonstrate competences in a certain field and that can also be obtained outside formal educational.