The quality of the graduation process
To what extent does your programme have the ins and outs of the graduation programme in order? The following checklist can be used to investigate this. The checklist is based on the checklist of the Expertgroep Protocol for vocational higher education, but tailored to the university situation. Checklist quality of the graduation programme
Assessing graduation projects – How to enhance the reliability by way of investigation, verification, and calibration activities
Graduation projects assess the final competencies of a programme and guidelines and a framework will be in place for this purpose. But even then, the assessment remains a difficult affair. The final assignment and the process can differ due to, among other things, the complexity of the assignment, the degree and quality of supervision, the qualities the student brings to the start, the attitude and behavior of the student, and the extent to which the student manages to develop during the process. The assessment is done by different teachers, each bringing their own views, methods, qualities and experiences.
All these factors make reliable assessment of a graduation project extremely important but at the same time complex. How can you ensure that the difference in grades is meaningful? That the grade does not depend on who happened to be grading (inter-assessor reliability)?
Investigation, verification, and calibration activities can help explore and increase the reliability of these complex assessments. These activities can be initiated by programme management (from a quality assurance point of view), an Examination Board (from a safeguarding point of view), or both parties jointly. A programme committee can also play a role in this respect.
What kind of activities can contribute to the reliable assessment of graduation projects? See this guide for considerations and suggestions.
Further reading
* Most information is unfortunately only in Dutch available.
- Protocol Expert Group and Background Information. In 2014, the Expert Group Protocol was commissioned by the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences to investigate the desirability and possibility of a joint protocol for the assessment of (core) essential assignments (in higher professional education). The results are presented in the report: "Beoordelen is mensenwerk. Bevindingen over de wenselijkheid en mogelijkheid van een gezamenlijk protocol voor het beoordelen van (kern)werkstukken Links to an external site.” The findings are primarily aimed at the higher professional education sector (hbo's). Nevertheless, they are also interesting for the Dutch academic world, because there are many similarities in the graduation process and the manner of assessment.
In addition to the protocol, a checklist was created to diagnose the extent to which the graduation programme of the study programme is in order and where there is still room for improvement. See for this: "Voorlopige handreiking ‘Methodisch implementeren van het Protocol Afstuderen Links to an external site." Versie 29 oktober 2015 Daan Andriessen, Mirjam Snel, Dominique Sluijsmans.
The questions from the checklist can be found in an English version versie <here >. Most of these questions are incorporated in the checklist as mentioned at the beginning of this page. - In the Protocol Verbeteren en verantwoorden van afstuderen in het hbo 2.0 Links to an external site, more background information on graduation (in higher professional education) is provided.