ENQA review
At least once every five years, NOKUT should undergo an external review in order to demonstrate its compliance with the ESG.
ESG is short for Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. The standards were adopted by the Ministers responsible for higher education firstly in 2005, and then they adopted a revised version in 2015.
It is the ESG standard 3.7 that states that agencies should undergo an external review at least once every five years in order to demonstrate their compliance with the ESG. The evaluation provides a means for assuring the agency and its stakeholders that it continues to adhere to the principles enshrined in the ESG. It also helps the agency to reflect on its policies and activities. The evaluation is also a prerequisite for NOKUT’s membership in The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and NOKUT’s registration in The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR).
Review in 2023
The external evaluation that NOKUT is undergoing in 2023 is a "targeted review". The principal aim of a targeted review is to provide the agencies that have successfully undergone at least two full ESG reviews with an alternative way to assessing their compliance with the ESG.
A targeted review focuses on the agencies’ remaining challenges in reaching compliance with the ESG, while at the same time further strengthening the enhancement aspect of the review, thus offering a shorter and more resource-mindful review process. The self-assessment report is shorter (20–30 pages) and it must also be read in conjunction with the 2018 ENQA full review against all standards of Parts 2 and 3 of the ESG. The self-assessment report also includes a self-selected standard for enhancement, and NOKUT has chosen standard 2.2 "Designing methodologies fit for purpose" in this targeted review.
The review panel that ENQA has appointed consists of:
- Karin Järplid (chair, Sweden)
- Simona Lache (secretary, Romania)
- Pegi Pavletic (student, Croatia)
More information
- Terms of reference for NOKUT's ENQA targeted review 2023 (pdf)
- NOKUT’s self-assessment report (pdf)
- Annexes to the self-assessment report (pdf) – Note: This pdf needs to be downloaded/read in your desktop app due to the file size (20 mb).
- ENQA Targeted Review of NOKUT – Additional documentation – November 2022 (pdf)
Previous reviews
NOKUT has in the past been assessed three times against the Standards and Guidelines in the European Higher Education Area (ESG): twice by ENQA (2013, 2018) and once by NIFU STEP (2008) at the behest of the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.