Institutional audit and programme reviews

All programmes at the Royal Conservatoire have been reviewed with a positive outcome by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) and by MusiQuE – Music Quality Enhancement.

Institutional audit (Instellingstoets kwaliteitszorg/ITK)
The University of the Arts The Hague passed an Institutional Audit in 2020. The purpose of this Institutional Audit is to determine whether the institution has a quality assurance system in place that, in combination with its quality culture, is capable of guaranteeing that its education meets national and international standards and expectations. With the institutional audit, the institution demonstrates to be accountable, on the basis of its educational philosophy and the choices it makes, of how it realises its ambitions with regard to the quality of the education it provides. The Institutional Audit is conducted by a panel of independent experts (‘peers’) appointed by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO).

Advisory report of the Institutional Audit HDK The Hague: click here

Programme reviews
Programmes offered by institutions that have passed an Institutional Audit may be assessed in accordance with the limited framework featuring four NVAO standards. The limited framework is focused on the substantive quality of the programme, including the required learning environment and the teaching staff.

In addition, the Conservatoire is keen to make use of the internationally recognised procedures, standards and experts of the European accreditation organisation MusiQuE – Music Quality Enhancement.

Experiment Institutional Accreditation with a Lighter Programme Accreditation/ Pilot Institutional Accreditation
Institutions that have successfully completed the Institutional Audit have the opportunity to apply for participation in the ‘Experiment Institutional Accreditation with a Lighter Programme Accreditation’. The experiment was set up by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and is implemented by NVAO. The University of the Arts applied to participate in this experiment and its application was approved. Existing programmes offered by institutions which have passed an Institutional Audit are normally assessed with a limited framework featuring four NVAO standards. In the context of the ‘Experiment Institutional Accreditation with a Lighter Programme Accreditation’, however, these programmes are being reviewed with a lighter framework:

Only the assessment in relation to standard 1 (Intended learning outcomes) and standard 4 (Achieved learning outcomes) is presented to NVAO as part of the application for accreditation of the programmes. The institution is responsible for organising the assessment of standards 2 and 3 independently, without involvement from NVAO in the review process. For this purpose, the Royal Conservatoire uses the internationally recognised framework of MusiQuE – Music Quality Enhancement.

Reports related to the Pilot Institutional Accreditation:

• Evaluation Pilot Berenschot: 'Balanceren tussen ontwikkeling en verantwoording Juni 2022 (in Dutch)
• Progress Report ILO University of The Hague 2021 - 2022
• Progress Report ILO University of the Hague 2020-2021
• Progress Report ILO University of The Hague 2019 - 2020

Below you can find the accreditation decisions and reports for each programme:

Accreditation is one of our instruments used to measure, verify and monitor external perception of quality. Find out more about the external perception of quality.

For more information about the accreditation framework in the Netherlands, please visit the NVAO site.