Decisions following reviews of the quality assurance work at five universities and university colleges

In 2025 and 2026, NOKUT conducted reviews of the quality assurance systems and quality assurance work at five multi-campus higher education institutions. Together, the five institutions account for approximately 68,000 students in higher education. Now, NOKUT’s Board has made decisions in these cases.

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The decisions concern Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN), VID Specialized University (VID), and Nord University (Nord). HVL, INN, USN and VID meet the requirements of the regulatory framework, while Nord University is required to rectify deficiencies in its quality assurance work.

“The results show both that the institutions are working well and systematically with quality in their study programmes, and that NOKUT’s periodic follow-up is an important tool for further development,” says Kristin Vinje, Director General of NOKUT.

Four institutions with satisfactory quality assurance work

HVL, INN, USN and VID are all awarded decisions confirming satisfactory quality assurance work. The expert committees find that the institutions have quality assurance systems and quality assurance practices that comply with the requirements laid down in the Regulations on Universities and University Colleges.

Across the four institutions, the committees highlight, among other things, strong anchoring of quality assurance work in institutional leadership, systematic collection and use of knowledge from quality assurance processes to further develop the quality of study programmes, and active participation by students and staff. The committees also identify areas for improvement, but within the framework of quality assurance work that is assessed as satisfactory.

Deficiencies at Nord University

At Nord University, NOKUT identifies deficiencies related to the requirements for periodic evaluation of study programmes, and the institution is given one year to rectify these deficiencies. Among other things, Nord must revise its process descriptions for periodic evaluations and specify how students, doctoral candidates, representatives from working life or society, and external academic peers are to contribute to the evaluations. Furthermore, Nord must document how students/doctoral candidates and relevant external participants contribute to the implementation of periodic evaluations of study programmes.

At the same time, the committee highlights several positive aspects of quality assurance work at Nord, including strong engagement among staff and students and good control of the requirements for accreditation of study programmes.

First assessments in a new cycle of periodic follow-up

The five institutions are the first to be followed up in NOKUT’s fourth cycle of periodic follow-up of all higher education institutions. NOKUT began its reviews of institutional quality assurance work in 2003. This follow-up cycle runs from 2025 to 2033. Ahead of this cycle, the Ministry of Education and Research introduced new requirements for quality assurance systems and quality assurance work. NOKUT has revised its methodology by strengthening the developmental dimension of the follow-up, in line with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ESG).

The four institutions that have now received decisions confirming satisfactory quality assurance work have completed the review phase and will move on to a development phase. Nord University will enter a corrective phase, during which the institution must demonstrate that the identified deficiencies have been remedied. The purpose of the follow-up is to ensure and further develop the quality of education over time. Universities and university colleges are followed up at least once every eight years.

Read the reports

These reports are in Norwegian, but we have included abstracts in English.

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