Accreditation system 3.0

In 2013, the current accreditation system was evaluated. The Netherlands Court of Audit, the Education Inspectorate, the NVAO (Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders) and the WRR (Scientific Council for Government Policy) have all compiled an evaluation report. Furthermore, the NVAO was itself assessed by the European Association for Quality Assurance (ENQA).

These reports showed that in principle, the current system is functioning well, but that there is little support for it, that trust is not being rewarded, and that the administration costs are too high. Based on these conclusions, it has been decided to review the current system. In 2017, the Accreditation System 3.0 will come into force.

The review was an opportunity for the VSNU to highlight the issue of quality monitoring. You can read more about this in the summary of the Higher Education Quality Monitoring System.

The following parties are working on a review of the system:
-    VSNU
-    The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
-    Vereniging Hogescholen (Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences)
-    NVAO (Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders)
-    ISO (Dutch National Student Association)
-    LSVb (Dutch National Union of Students)
-    NRTO (Dutch Council for Training and Education)
-    The Education Inspectorate

The implementation of a new system should significantly reduce institutional administrative costs and better reward the trust that institutions have earned.
In May 2015, a recommendation on the new system will be sent to Minister Bussemaker.