NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences

NHL Stenden Hogeschool

Basic information

National External Quality Assurance Requirements

  • Limited (initial) accreditation
    Same as for full (initial) accreditation except that the focus of the assessment is limited to four standards: intended learning outcomes, the curriculum, the assessment system and the achieved learning outcomes (when available for new programmes).
  • Full (initial) accreditation
    mandatory for all new and existing programmes in higher education. A conditionally positive decision in the initial accreditation procedure entitles the programme to award valid degrees and diplomas and has two years to meet the conditions set in the assessment. The duration of positive accreditation is for six years. Programmes are assessed in clusters within the same domain.
  • Institutional audits
    are optional. A positive result entitles institutions to use the limited frameworks for (initial) accreditation.

    In 2017, Netherlands started its second round of institutional audits that will focus more on the realisation of the educational vision and the development of a quality culture.

  • Further information on external quality assurance in Netherlands

External Quality Assurance Reports and Decisions

Institutional level

No results found.

Programme level

Part of the obligatory external QA system Decision: positive Joint programme
M Social Work (joint degree) (second cycle degree, 60 ECTS)
  • Qualification/award
    • Master of Social Work
  • Level
    second cycle
  • Programme type
    Full recognised degree programme
  • Workload (in ECTS credits)
    60
  • Joint programme with
Part of the obligatory external QA system Decision: positive
M Strategische Communicatie (joint degree) (second cycle degree, 60 ECTS)
  • Qualification/award
    • Master of Arts
  • Level
    second cycle
  • Programme type
    Full recognised degree programme
  • Workload (in ECTS credits)
    60

Verifiable Credentials

A Verifiable Credential (VC) is a digitally-signed and thus tamper-evident document containing information on a subject (e.g. personal information, entitlements of an individual, degrees held by an individual or accreditation of a higher education institution). Quality assurance results recorded in DEQAR can be downloaded as W3C-compatible Verifiable Credentials.

Currently, two types of credentials can be issued:

EBSI Verifiable Accreditations (VA) can be used by a higher education institution in the context of the EBSI Early Adopters programme.

  • The VA allows the institution to prove its external quality assurance on the Trusted Issuer Registry (TIR). EBSI VAs are only issued for external quality assurance results with an official status in a national system (“part of obligatory EQA system”).
  • At present, the higher education institution’s EBSI DID needs to be communicated to EQAR and recorded in DEQAR manually at the moment. If you are a higher education institution participating in EBSI, please contact us to register your DID.
  • EBSI VAs are issued by EQAR under its DID did:ebsi:zk4bhCepWSYp9RhZkRPiwUL.

DEQAR Format Verifiable Credentials primarily serve as a proof of concept and public demonstrator currently.

  • DEQAR Format VCs are based on the plain W3C Recommendation and our own data model. While they closely follow the EBSI Schema, no EBSI-specific or EU-specific elements or data types are used.
  • The higher education institution is identified by its DEQAR URI in this case.
  • DEQAR Format VCs are issued by EQAR under its DID did:web:data.deqar.eu.

Please note: this is an experimental feature.