Quality assurance and safeguarding activities for the graduation process
The graduation projects are important for demonstrating that students have met the final attainment levels and are qualified to receive their diplomas.
Guidelines and a framework will be in place for this purpose. However, ensuring the quality of this process remains a challenging endeavor. In particular, ensuring the reliability of the grading. How can you ensure that the difference in grades is meaningful? Does the grade depend on who happened to be grading (inter-assessor reliability)?
Investigation, verification, and calibration activities within study programmes may help to explore and increase the reliability of these complex assessments. These activities can be initiated by programme management (from a quality assurance perspective), the Examination Board (from a safeguarding perspective), or both parties jointly. A programme committee can also play a role in this respect. Below, more information is provided about actions that can be taken.
Interesting and used sources
* Some information is only available in Dutch.
- Ensuring Bachelor's Thesis Assessment Quality: A Case Study at One Dutch Research University, Higher Education Evaluation and Development Hsiao, Y.P., van de Watering, G., Heitbrink, M., Vlas, H. & Chiu, M.S., 4 Jun 2024, In: Higher Education Evaluation and Development. 18, 1, p. 2-16
- Checklist of the Protocol Expert Group to diagnose whether a graduation programme is in order: Voorlopige handreiking ‘Methodisch implementeren van het Protocol Afstuderen' (2015, Daan Andriessen, Mirjam Snel, Dominique Sluijsmans). NB. Most of these questions are incorporated in the checklist mentioned above.
- In Protocol Verbeteren en verantwoorden van afstuderen in het hbo 2.0, background information on graduation (related to higher professional education, but applicable for academic universities as well) is provided.