Education Agenda: a guide for improvement

Education Agenda 2023-2028

• What do we want to achieve in the coming years?

  With the Education Agenda 2023-2028 (available in Dutch), we are working toward:

  1. Strengthening and renewing our educational profile and portfolio.
     The bachelor's, master's and education for professionals portfolio at VU Amsterdam is designed to create an (internationally) attractive and responsive offering that is in line with VU's educational vision and research spearheads and offers students optimal opportunities to develop their talent.
  2.  Increase student success and student well-being.
     Education is designed to create a climate for student well-being and student success, in which talents can develop and progress optimally, receive proper guidance in the process and enter the labor market excellently prepared and resilient.
  3. Strengthen teacher development and teacher well-being
     There is a university-wide shared and supported ambitious culture in which lecturers are further professionalized and provide challenging teaching, there is a strong, natural perception of a positive teaching and quality culture, and a close-knit teaching community in which lecturers and teaching support staff are recognized and valued, experience less workload and more job satisfaction.
  4. Optimizing educational facilities and integral support
     There is high quality student and educational support that matches the ambitions from the strategy and educational vision and needs of the users, in which education and available spaces are optimally aligned, that is organized and affordable, and continuously improved.

  This multi-year Education Agenda will be updated each year based on progress, results and progressive insights. For 2023, the Education Agenda 2023-2028 is detailed in the document Education Agenda Edition 2023.

• What has already been accomplished?

  Within VU Amsterdam, we have been working with an Education Agenda since 2013. With the Education Agenda 2023-2028, we are building on the Education Agendas of recent years. The choices we make are based on a continuation of our previous ambitions. The emphasis in recent years has shifted from performing (2013-2018) to lasting change (2018-2023). In the coming years, we will continue to work on an innovative mindset (2023-2028). The previous Education Agendas led to some great results, which continued in the period starting in 2023.

  • Learning university
    The Institution Quality Assurance Review (ITK in Dutch) examines the institution's internal quality assurance. The Education Agenda provided a strong focus on improving the quality assurance of our education and strengthening our culture of quality. VU Amsterdam passed the first ITK in 2016 and again in 2020. The audit committee at the first ITK complimented VU for what it was able to achieve and called VU a "learning university." 
  • Rise in appreciation of students for their education
    The Education Agenda has contributed to an improvement in student satisfaction, which is visible in the National Student Survey (NSE in Dutch). In recent years, the NSE score "student opinion of education in general" rose from 3.8 (2014) to 4.07 (2019). In the broad university category, VU Amsterdam rose to shared first place with Utrecht and Nijmegen (2019). 
  • Teacher professionalization wave
    VU Amsterdam fulfilled the performance agreements that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science makes with universities and colleges on improving their education.There has been a significant increase in the number of lecturers with a Basic Teaching Qualification (BKO in Dutch); now 84% (2022) of our lecturers have a BKO. The number of those certified with a Senior Qualification in Education (SKO in Dutch) and an Educational Leadership Course has also increased significantly.
  • Bachelor's and master's education undergoing renewal
    After renewing Bachelor's and Master's education through the Bachelor's and Master's Directive, a strong impulse was given to Activating and Blended Education after the Corona measures. We will continue this in the coming years.
  • Stronger focus on education
    By investing in teaching innovation, student success, faculty professionalization and facility innovation via a multi-year plan in the Education Agenda, the quality of education has improved university-wide. Initiatives such as the VU Network for Teaching and Learning, the strengthening of the position of portfolio holders for education as well as program directors in the administrative regulations and the development and implementation of the Educational Performance Framework indicate that the space and appreciation for education have increased.

• Education Quality Plan

  The VU Amsterdam Education Quality Plan has been drawn up as part of the Education Agenda 2023-2028. This quality plan is in line with the nationally established themes in the quality agreements and was created in close consultation with the employee participation council.

• Educational organisation

  The organisational and decision-making structure is described in VU Amsterdam's governance model. This shows in clear terms how tasks, responsibilities and powers are divided, how decision-making takes place and how goals are achieved.

  Education consultations

  The VU has the following university-wide education consultations (VUnet ID required): 

  • Education Portfolio Holders Consultation (OPO)
    At university level, strategic consultation on education takes place in the Education Portfolio Holders Consultation (OPO in Dutch). This involves a non-binding coordination between education portfolio holders from the faculty boards regarding the management of education and the realisation of the education agenda. The OPO gives solicited and unsolicited advice to the Executive Board and is mandated by the board to decide on the implementation of the education agenda. The OPO sets out broad outlines, after which faculties and departments advise on their feasibility.
  • Educational Quality Steering Committee (STOK)
    The Educational Quality Steering Committee (STOK in Dutch) advises the Executive Board, in particular the rector, on educational quality and quality assurance and on the quality of applications for new programmes. The steering committee also advises on the system of educational quality assurance and occasionally advises (solicited and unsolicited) on all other matters relating to educational quality. Members are appointed on the basis of expertise and emphatically do not function as faculty representatives.
  • Consultation of Heads of Educational Support (HO)
    This consultation advises, preferably prior to decision-making, on the consequences of proposed policy decisions for operational management to the OPO and the directors of operational management. This involves faculty-transcending or uniform education and student support processes and projects and the setting up of the associated organisation.
  • Internal Quality Assurance Sounding Board Group (KIK)
    The Sounding Board Group consists of education and quality assurance policy officers from the various faculties. Through them, faculties are informed about national or university-wide education policy. The members are also asked for advice. In addition, this is the place where faculties exchange their (good) practices.