Working on the quality agreements

What do The Hague University of Applied Sciences’ Quality Agreements entail?

In short: The THUAS Quality Agreements are agreements which the university of applied sciences draws up together with the participatory councils to increase the quality of our education. This money comes from the former basic grant for students. Therefore, students play an important role in the drafting of the agreements. The jointly formulated plan must be approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The NVAO (Nederlands Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie) first assesses the plan and then advises the Ministry.

Every university of applied sciences and university will receive extra money from the government to invest in the quality of higher education up to and including 2024. This 'extra money' is also called: 'study advance funds'.

For the period 2022 up to and including 2024, THUAS will receive a contribution of over €51 million.

In mid 2021, the second version of the plan ‘The THUAS Quality Agreements’ received a positive advice from the panel of the NVAO.

How did The Hague University of Applied Sciences draw up the plan

THUAS entered into a dialogue with the participatory councils, lecturers and students and together we chose the spearheads: providing small-scale and more intensive education, improving student guidance and providing good and appropriate educational facilities. These three themes fit best with the way we shape our education through our educational framework.

As the 'study advance funds' originate from the former basic grant for students, our students have played a very important role in drafting the very detailed and concrete plan for spending these study advance funds.

A kaleidoscope of examples

THUAS has already used the resources in many ways. The Commercial Economics programme, for instance, has been able to sharpen the guidance of its students and Industrial Design Engineering has been able to give their long-term students an extra push. Accountancy employed external thesis supervisors and Social Work was able to develop a flexible part-time variant. The IT & Design faculty developed a simulation of a design studio and the M&O faculty gave an impulse to their CarE projectfor our Caribbean-Dutch students. A Wellbeing Week was organised for all students. And there is much more.