Assessment of future prospects

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Ensure quality, build trust

The education landscape is in continuous flux and must both contribute to development and reflect changes in other parts of society. There is a growing demand for competence in the labour market, particularly in certain areas, and it is reasonable to expect that this challenge will increase in the future. This has led to an evolution where educational offerings are adapted to educate candidates that the labour market needs and to reach people across the country with diverse needs and at various stages of life. NOKUT's role is to ensure that all educational programs at universities, university colleges, and vocational colleges in Norway – regardless of how and where they are offered – maintain the quality that society expects and needs. NOKUT ensures quality to build trust.

High quality in higher education and tertiary vocational education is a prerequisite for society to assess knowledge and information, utilize and develop new knowledge, and secure future value creation. In this way, educational quality is closely linked to democratic preparedness, the welfare state's ability to develop sustainably, and society’s capacity to meet future challenges.

Norway has 63 vocational colleges and 48 universities and university colleges. Together, these institutions offer thousands of different study programs to around 330,000 students. Some institutions have broad academic authority, while others are smaller with more limited mandates.

The responsibility for managing academic authority and for ensuring and developing the quality of the education offered lies with the institutions. NOKUT's role is to conduct external quality assurance and ensure that the institutions’ internal quality efforts align with established requirements, while also stimulating further development. To do this effectively, NOKUT’s tools must be adapted to the distinct nature of the institutions and types of education. We must continue to develop our measures, so they are suitable for the sector – both today and in the future. Our ambition is to have targeted measures that do not place unnecessary resource demands on institutions or NOKUT itself.

  • NOKUT’s work is internationally anchored in the European Higher Education Area. This means our quality assurance practices are based on the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). NOKUT’s measures for quality assurance and development in higher education are legally grounded in these standards. We also seek to apply the ESG principles in our external quality assurance of tertiary vocational education, even though this segment is not formally covered by ESG.

    NOKUT is a member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and is listed in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), the official register of quality assurance agencies that meet ESG requirements.

    For NOKUT, the institutions, and the Ministry of Education, it is important to participate in European forums for the development of quality assurance. We do this primarily through our ENQA membership, where Director Kristin Vinje also sits on the board. This allows NOKUT to exchange experiences and knowledge with other agencies. ENQA also plays a key role in the ongoing revision of ESG standards, and through our membership, we actively contribute to this process. The new standards are expected to be adopted at the ministerial meeting of ministers responsible for higher education in 2027, which will impact quality assurance efforts in Norwegian education institutions and NOKUT.

  • The periodic review of institutions’ systematic quality work aims to ensure public trust in the international standard of Norwegian higher education and that both NOKUT and the institutions fulfil their obligations. Since its inception in 2003, NOKUT has conducted three rounds of such reviews, covering all institutions. 2025 marks the beginning of the fourth round, which will see all institutions reviewed over the next eight years. This round introduces a revised methodology, with a greater focus on development. We also aim to streamline the process and reduce the workload for both the institutions and NOKUT.

    In addition to periodic reviews, we conduct various types of supervision, including quality and financial audits in both higher education and tertiary vocational education. Due to tight resources in recent years, our capacity for supervision has been limited. Low supervisory activity may ultimately lead to unaddressed quality issues. To counter this, NOKUT conducts risk assessments based on data and indicators. We will further develop our supervision activities and methods, aiming to implement more adaptable approaches so we can carry out more audits of varying scale and scope. This will help us detect quality lapses and intervene when necessary – crucial for maintaining trust in the quality of education in Norway.

  • The number of applications for institutional accreditation is expected to rise. This is due to both changes in the criteria for university status and a new requirement for university college accreditation to receive public funding. In 2025, criteria for institutional accreditation of vocational colleges are also expected to be finalized. NOKUT must prepare for these applications.

    Such accreditations will grant institutions expanded authority to accredit their own programs and assume more responsibility for education quality. While this is a positive development that may reduce the number of applications to NOKUT in the long term, in the short term it will require significant resources, as application processes are extensive and NOKUT is already operating under pressure.

    We also expect continued high application volumes from the vocational college sector for both program and academic discipline accreditation, driven by government funding to develop new programs. These applications come from both established and new institutions, and many vocational colleges now aim to offer higher education programs.

    Given the large and complex volume, NOKUT must continue to improve and streamline its application processing, including through increased digitalization. Our ambition is to reduce the current backlog and shorten processing times. The increased operating budget for 2025 after years of cuts is a positive step and will help strengthen our work in supervision and accreditation in tertiary vocational education. As institutional accreditation becomes available for vocational colleges, we anticipate a growing need for supervision that exceeds current budget frameworks.

  • In the spring 2024, it was announced that responsibility for the Student Surveys (Studiebarometeret) and Teacher Survey would be transferred from NOKUT to HK-dir from 2025 onwards. NOKUT has conducted these surveys since 2013 as an integral part of our external quality assurance work. It is important that we maintain access to this data through close cooperation with HK-dir, as it informs several of our quality tools.

    Transferring these surveys will free up capacity for NOKUT to strengthen and develop our evaluation work, in line with expectations from the Ministry. Our goal is that NOKUT’s evaluations will increasingly cover the breadth of Norwegian higher education. This work will be based on the national framework for evaluating quality in research and higher education, in collaboration with the Research Council of Norway and in line with ESG principles.

    Our experience is that evaluations provide valuable insights into the quality of educational programs and contribute to their further development. A key success factor has been strong academic involvement, which must continue as we expand our evaluation efforts.

  • The government launched a new digitalization strategy in 2024, aimed at modernizing the public sector through better, more cohesive digital services and enhanced use of resources, infrastructure, data sharing, and artificial intelligence. For NOKUT to contribute to these ambitions, we must reach a sufficient level of digital maturity.

    We are already digitalizing our internal processes and aim to build a comprehensive digital infrastructure to support collaboration and data sharing both internally and across the sector. A key milestone in 2024 was completing our internal accreditation register and working with the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research (Sikt) on the new national education register.

    NOKUT has increasingly adopted AI through machine learning and language models, which have strengthened several of our tools. While we already use AI in our operations, we see the need to explore it further. Our approach will be to start small and scale up, ensuring responsible and transparent use, privacy protection, and legal compliance. We must implement intuitive, scalable AI solutions that add value, while recognizing that NOKUT is a small organization and must make wise choices between custom and standard solutions.

  • NOKUT enjoys a strong collaboration with the Ministry of Education, contributing knowledge and expertise in policy and regulatory development. We have received more assignments from the Ministry in recent years, which we see as a sign of trust and recognition, though it also requires prioritization of resources.

    We also collaborate closely with other subordinate agencies of the Ministry, especially the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir), Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research (Sikt), and the Research Council. This includes data sharing and developing common knowledge-sharing platforms, with the goal of better supporting the sector and improving efficiency.

  • Over the past five years, NOKUT has undergone major restructuring, due to changes in our portfolio and tighter financial conditions. We have scaled back activities and adjusted to the new economic reality. Through strict cost control, downsizing leases, reallocating staff, and process improvements, we have been able to strengthen our core activities somewhat in 2024. The NOK 12.5 million increase in the 2025 budget for supervision and accreditation in tertiary vocational education allows us to intensify our efforts in this area and in our broader mission – especially in working smarter through digital solutions.

    NOKUT will continue to manage changes in our environment and economic framework, seeking opportunities to adapt quickly and effectively. Still, realizing the desired effects of increased capacity, more efficient processes, and digital implementation takes time and requires predictable funding to ensure stable, sound operations over the long term.