Quality assurance and your role in it

Every quartile, an overview is made of courses and projects and Quality Assurance distributes questionnaires among students in the last week of a learning activity. The questionnaires use a five-point scale ranging from 1 (unsatisfied), to 5 (very satisfied) and include open questions. After completing the questionnaire, you will receive the evaluation results of the learning activities you were enrolled in. Responsible lecturers are notified of the anonymous results and the Program Director receives a management summary for all evaluated learning activities. 

Annually, the National Student Enquiry (NSE) and the Bachelor College distribute questionnaires. These assess quality on a department and university level. Summaries of the evaluation outcomes are made available to students and staff. For bachelor students we address topics such as teacher coaching, professional skills and alignment between the major and the Bachelor College. For master students the emphasis is more on mentoring and professional skills and preparation for the labor market.

And last but not least, we gather feedback from meetings with students in education councils (see below) and regular lunch sessions with students from all years. During these lunch sessions, the Director of Education (DoE) and the Quality Assurance (QA) officer listen to the experiences of students, ask questions, explain measures for improvement etc.

Since 2015-2016 the Department of Industrial Design has education councils, one for each generation of students. Education Councils are a means to provide rich feedback to both the Director of Education and the Program Committee (PC), and also fulfill a role as sounding board. The student members of a council represent their year.

In the Education Councils meetings, discussions are led on educational activities; such as projects and courses and the improvement of these activities. Insights are taken by the Education Councils coordinators to the Quality Assurance Team, the Program Committee and/or the Department Council if necessary. The Quality Assurance Team will use the insights and data from the year council meetings and combines these with the results of the online-surveys to make plans for improvement with the relevant lecturers of the courses and/or projects.

Evaluations and plans for improvement are discussed with the Program Director. If deemed necessary, measures for improvement are undertaken. The plans for improvement and data from the surveys are discussed in the year-councils and distributed by the representatives amongst the student population, so meaningful insights can be gathered for future improvement.

So the year councils have a variety of activities of the year councils, such as gathering insights, ideas and opinions on educational activities within the department (both gathering information and insights during the course or project and afterwards); discussing online survey results in the year councils; and discussing and sharing the plans of improvement.

Input for the education councils can be forwarded to the Educational Officer of Lucid, see Contact page.

The Quality Assurance officer (QA) analyzes the results and discusses the outcomes per learning activity on a program level with the Program Director. When student satisfaction scores are too low (we strive for a mean score of 4.0 or higher), responsible lecturers are requested to reflect on student feedback. Measures for improvement (e.g. didactical or content-related) are formulated together with the Quality Assurance officer. The Quality Assurance Team composes a management summary and discusses this summary with the Director of Education.

Furthermore, the Program Committee (PC), which represents both students and staff, is asked to reflect on the results and to advise on the outcomes and the measures for improvement. To support the PC in her advice, the education councils are provided with the anonymized management summaries. The Education Councils, then bring their opinion to the PC who are also asked for their advice on how to interpret the results and further actions.

Results from the yearly inquiries such as the curriculum surveys and the NSE are also forwarded to the PC for advice. If results indicate that measures for improvement are needed on a program or departmental level (regarding more generic aspects such as projects or output qualifications), the Program Director reflects on the results and asks the PC for advice on measures for improvement. Consequently, the Program Director develops a plan of action, involving various committees and boards.

We aim for continuous development of our teaching staff and programs through our quality assurance procedure. As a final moment for reflection, the Dean of the Bachelor College has a bi-annual meeting with the Director of Education and his Quality Assurance Team. 

We use different approaches to inform our students and teachers about the evaluation results. Students who are enrolled in a learning activity receive the evaluation outcomes of that particular activity. When available, a summary of the evaluation results of one quartile is provided, see Quality of education outcomes.

All programs of the department of Industrial Design are assessed by the Accreditation Organization of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). The NVAO was established by the Dutch and Flemish governments as an independent accreditation organization tasked with providing an expert and objective assessment of the quality of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders. Education programs are visited by the accreditation committee once every six years. To prepare for this accreditation, the department of ID organizes its quality assurance in cycles of six years.