Projektbeskrivelse

At the 2009 annual NOQA-meeting in Helsinki it was decided that the 2009-10 Nordic project should take on a different form with greater focus on learning and exchange of experience between the agencies, and lesser focus on the production of a final report. 

It was also decided that the theme for the next project should be the site-visit. The site-visit is a central point in the well-established four stage model for external quality assurance of higher education, and all of the Nordic agencies conduct site-visits as an integrated element in their evaluation procedures.

There are, however, quite substantial differences between the agencies – and thus also a substantial potential for learning – in the way a site-visit is conceived, conducted and subsequently used as documentation. The differences can to some extend be explained by differences in the national approaches to external quality assurance of HE, e.g. audit, accreditation, programme evaluation or other evaluation models. But the differences are probably also related to national traditions, habits and maybe even regulations etc.  

Purpose of the project

The purpose of the project is to discuss similarities and differences in the form, methodology and function of the site-visit between the Nordic agencies in order to get new perspectives and inspiration for development of the national approaches. 

The project shall provide learning opportunities by organising an inter-Nordic exchange which allows for agency staffs to participate in a site-visit in one of the other countries. The experiences will be drawn up and discussed by a larger number of agency leaders and staffs at a seminar during the annual meeting in May 2010. 

Activities and organisation of the project

A project team consisting of one representative from each agency will be responsible for the project. The representative from EVA will act as project coordinator. The team members will organise and take part in the inter-Nordic exchange. Each member of the project team participates in a site-visit in one of the other countries.

The project team also prepares the discussion seminar in May 2010. The discussion seminar will focus on similarities and differences between approaches to site-visits in the Nordic agencies. Furthermore a number of smaller documents will be drafted:

• A description of the approach to site-visits from each agency including form, methodology and function
• Written reflections from each team member on their experiences from participating in a site-visit in another country
• A summary of the seminar discussions highlighting perspectives and learning points from the project.

These documents will form a short report documenting the experiences from the 2009-2010 NOQA project. This final report is to be distributed to the member agencies and to be published in the ENQA series.