Quality assurance

Public institutions

Although they have institutional autonomy, publicly financed institutions must follow general regulations concerning teacher qualifications, award structures, study programmes and quality assurance.

Within higher education, new study programmes have to be accredited by an accreditation agency (see Evaluation and accreditation below). At the other levels of education, the relevant ministries decide which institutions can offer which programmes. All decisions are based on considerations concerning the institution's ability to deliver a programme meeting certain quality requirements. When an institution is given the right to offer a certain programme, the institution must design the programme within a framework laid down by ministerial order.

Private institutions

Private institutions can operate without any approval. They must, however, abide by an accreditation procedure if their students are to be eligible for State study grants. The State Educational Grant and Loan Scheme Agency (SUstyrelsen) under the Ministry of Education administrates this procedure. Programmes with State study grant approval are listed online at SUstyrelsen's website (in Danish).

Examinations

All examinations at Danish higher education institutions are administered not only by the teacher, but also by an examiner who, in the case of many examinations including the final project, must be external. The external examiners are responsible for assuring the same standard for all examinations and thus for their quality.

Accreditation and evaluation

For all higher education programmes accreditation is mandatory and a precondition for attaining public funding. The accreditation system is based on the 2007 Act on the Accreditation Agency for Higher Education, and the responsibility of implementing the Act lies with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The Act aims to create a system with a view to ensuring and documenting the quality and relevance of higher education in the Danish educational institutions. The Danish Qualifications Framework has been incorporated into the quality criteria of the accreditation system.

According to the Accreditation Act, the Accreditation Council is the specific unit which makes the decisions regarding accreditation of all higher education study programmes. The Council has the authority to award, conditionally award, or deny the accreditation of all higher education programmes. Decisions are made on the basis of accreditation reports prepared by accreditation operators:

• For university study programmes under the Ministry of Science, ACE Denmark prepares the accreditation reports.

• For higher education study programmes within the fields covered by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA) prepares the accreditation reports.

ACE Denmark was established on the basis of the 2007 Act.

The Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA) is an independent national agency formed under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of Education. It was established in 1999 under national legislation, succeeding the Evaluation Centre which existed from 1992-1999. EVA is a founder member of the European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA)

In addition to accreditation, EVA carries out systematic evaluations of programmes, teaching and learning at all levels from early childhood education to professional bachelor programmes and adult education. Evaluations take place on EVA’s own initiative as well as on request from ministries, local authorities and educational institutions among others. All evaluation reports are published.

Institutions evaluated by EVA are responsible for follow ups. Evaluated institutions must prepare a follow up plan that has to take into consideration the recommendations of the evaluation report. Public announcement of the follow-up plan must be made not later than six months after publication of the report.

Institutions are required to set up their own internal quality assurance procedures. The Universities Act specifies the role of deans, heads of department and study boards, respectively, in assuring and developing the quality of education and teaching. Self-evaluation, in which students normally participate, is an integral mandatory part of any evaluation.