QUALITY AUDIT IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES

QUALITY AUDIT IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES Report prepared for the Nordic Quality Assurance Network in Higher Education (NOQA)Staffan Wahlén (ed.)June 2007©Nordic Quality Assurance Network in Higher Education (NOQA) • www.noqa.netQUALITY AUDIT IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES Report prepared for the Nordic Quality Assurance Network in Higher Education (NOQA)Contents: Staffan Wahlén, The Swedish National Agency’s Evaluation DepartmentDesign: The Swedish National Agency’s Information Department, Stockholm, June 2007ContentsSummary 7Background 9What is quality audit? 9The Agencies and their tasks 11EVA 11FINHEEC 12Iceland 12NOKUT 13HSV 13Criteria, principles and formal consequences of audit 15Formal consequences 17Remarks 18Methodology 19The experts 19Self-evaluation 23Site visit 26Language 28Remarks 29Findings and effects 31Denmark 32Finland 33Iceland 35Norway 35Sweden 37Strengths, challenges and developments 39General observations 39Observations on elements of the methodology 40Final thoughts 41References 43Appendices 45Appendix 1 45Appendix 2 48IntroductionFor well over a decade now, the national quality assurance agencies in the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have met annually to exchange information and experiences. A formalised network, the Nordic Quality Assurance Network in Higher Education (NOQA), was estab-lished in 2003. One of the major tasks is to pursue, each year, a joint project ...