1. The Board's Report

After several years of major changes, NOKUT worked strategically in 2024 to further develop several of the organization's instruments. As a result, NOKUT is now even better equipped to follow up and contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the quality of higher education and tertiary vocational education. The organization is well established and has adapted to the structural changes that have characterized recent years. At the same time, several external processes have taken place that impact NOKUT’s work. These include the introduction of new requirements for university accreditation and the opening up of institutional accreditation for vocational colleges.

NOKUT’s ambition is to ensure quality in order to build trust. In a world that feels increasingly unstable and unpredictable, it is all the more important that society can trust that vocational colleges, university colleges, and universities maintain high quality. This has been a key topic of discussion over the past year, and NOKUT has contributed constructively with its expertise in these debates.

The Board is very pleased with the work NOKUT is doing and the direction the organization is taking. Although several challenges remain, the Board looks back on a successful year. NOKUT is well positioned to handle future challenges.

Goal Achievement

Overall, the Board is pleased with NOKUT's goal achievement in 2024. Through its work, NOKUT has contributed to ensuring that vocational colleges, university colleges, and universities offer high-quality education, in line with the organization’s objectives. NOKUT has for several years operated under tight resource constraints, which have affected its overall capacity. At the same time, the workload has increased, particularly in terms of the number and scope of accreditation applications. This was also the case in 2024.

In response, NOKUT has taken several measures to meet its goals: internal processes have been initiated to streamline, digitize, and simplify work, especially in application processing. Resources have been reallocated across the organization and between tasks. In addition, NOKUT conducts prioritization and risk assessments to ensure that overall efforts are effective and contribute to goal attainment.

NOKUT’s limited capacity and ability to process accreditation applications promptly have, in many cases, resulted in disproportionately long processing times – something the Parliamentary Ombudsman also pointed out in 2024. The Board recognizes that the measures implemented by NOKUT in recent years to reduce processing times have had an effect, and it emphasizes that the ambition to reduce the backlog of applications will continue to receive attention. The prioritization of applications for disciplinary accreditations in 2024 has enabled more vocational colleges to obtain expanded academic authorizations, which is important for the further development of the tertiary vocational education sector. However, as of the end of 2024, many applications remain pending, especially those concerning accreditation of tertiary vocational education. Both the Board and the administration expect application processing to pick up going forward, particularly in light of NOKUT’s increased budget allocation for 2025.

During 2024, NOKUT completed the third round of periodic supervision of higher education. This applies to university colleges without institutional accreditation and without the authority to accredit their own study programs. Several institutions were found to have deficiencies in their quality work that must be addressed within one year. At the same time, extensive efforts have been made to prepare the fourth round, set to begin in January 2025. An important change is that follow-up will place greater emphasis on development and be more tailored to the individual characteristics of the institutions. Periodic quality monitoring of education is one of NOKUT’s most central tools and a cornerstone in ensuring public trust in education quality.

Additionally, an audit of one accredited university college’s accreditation and the quality work of one vocational college was completed. Overall, the Board is satisfied with NOKUT’s supervisory activities but wishes NOKUT had the capacity to conduct more supervision, particularly of vocational colleges, where supervision has been limited over time.

The Board is also pleased with NOKUT’s work on evaluations of education quality. In 2024, the evaluation of the primary school teacher education programs was concluded. The final report received considerable attention and was well received by academic communities. A follow-up seminar was also held with the teacher education programs two years after the previous evaluation in 2022. All institutions reported taking steps to improve their programs as a result of the evaluation. The evaluation of the medical professional degree program is in its final phase, with the final report expected in March 2025.

To support institutions in their quality work and to ensure trust in Norwegian education, NOKUT produces knowledge on the state of quality in various ways. For example, NOKUT has carried out several national partial exams in nursing, primary school teacher education, and child welfare. These exams aim to provide insights that can be used to further develop study programs. Institutions are given the opportunity to compare themselves, leading to increased awareness and dialogue about assessment and learning.

Results and analyses from the Student Survey (Studiebarometeret) for vocational colleges and the university and university college sector, along with evaluations of selected study programs, provide valuable contributions to the knowledge base for both institutions and NOKUT. In spring 2024, the government decided that responsibility for conducting the Student Survey and the Lecturer Survey would be transferred from NOKUT to the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) from January 1, 2025. NOKUT has cooperated well with HK-dir in facilitating the transfer and helped train HK-dir staff to ensure a smooth transition.

Priorities Going Forward

NOKUT’s ambition is to be a development-oriented and forward-looking quality assurance agency with the goal of ensuring and contributing to the development of educational quality. NOKUT ensures quality to build public trust. This ambition, along with the expectations and needs of the government and society, will guide NOKUT’s priorities going forward.

After several years of reductions, NOKUT’s operating budget will increase by NOK 12.5 million in 2025, which the Board considers essential for NOKUT to fulfil its mandate. The increased funding will strengthen supervision and accreditation efforts in teriary vocational education. In the long term, this will help NOKUT process applications faster and increase supervisory activity. This will be a high priority, and results are expected to be seen already in 2025.

Significant efforts were made in 2024 to digitize work processes within NOKUT. The Board believes that digitalization must continue to be a high priority. In recent years, NOKUT has increasingly used artificial intelligence (AI) in various aspects of its work. This is an area NOKUT will continue to explore – for example, by examining how AI can add value to several processes.

The transfer of the Student Survey to HK-dir will free up capacity to strengthen evaluation efforts. NOKUT aims for its evaluations to eventually cover the full breadth of Norwegian higher education while aligning with the national framework for quality evaluation in research and higher education and the standards of the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG).

By actively participating in the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and other relevant forums, NOKUT has strengthened its position over time as a leading European quality assurance agency. The Board believes this position should be further developed in the coming years. By staying engaged with work happening across Europe, NOKUT gains access to current knowledge and benefits from others' experiences – something that also benefits Norwegian educational institutions and their quality work.

The Board will continue to regularly review the risk picture for the achievement of goals and the assessment of financial consequences, make priorities, and help place various forms of efficiency on the agenda to make the most of limited financial resources.

About the NOKUT Board

In 2024, the Board consisted of the following members:

• Professor Lise Iversen Kulbrandstad, Chair
• CEO Øystein Eriksen Søreide, Deputy Chair
• Dean Saira Basit
• Associate Professor Cecilia Christersson
• Professor Dag Husebø
• Director Vegard Iversen
• Senior Adviser Mads Danbolt, employee representative
• Student Maiken Køien Andersen
• Student Kristoffer Myklebust Egset
• Student Tommy Raaen

Additionally, student Elida Linnea Slettum was appointed as an alternate board member for the students. Other alternates for the student members were Eilif Hallingstad Finnseth, Mathias Hillgren, and Adrian Nicolai Lorentzen Meyer. The alternates for the employee members were Kristoffer Øygarden and Frøydis Maurtvedt.

In December 2024, Associate Professor Inge Jan Henjesand was appointed as the new Chair, and Area Product Owner Nina Cecilie Norberg was appointed as a new Board member. Saira Basit and Mads Danbolt were reappointed. Sumera Majid was appointed as a new alternate representative for the employees. These appointments are valid from January 1, 2025, to June 30, 2028.

At the same time, Lise Iversen Kulbrandstad and Øystein Eriksen Søreide, as well as the previous alternates for the employees, stepped down from the Board.