Quality Assurance System
UCN's primary task is to train skilled graduates and generate knowledge through high-quality education. To give structure to this task and to ensure its accomplishment, UCN has developed a Quality Assurance System that provides:
- A plan and strategy involving all organisational levels for ensuring quality in our programmes
- Study programmes based on up-to-date knowledge, professional content and educational quality
- Study programmes reflecting labour market needs
The quality assurance system defines what has to be done, when it has to be done and with whom the responsibility rests.
The system is based on UCN's 'Policy and Strategy for Quality', which sets the course for our quality assurance work, and it is therefore our steering tool. This direction of our work is further detailed in frameworks and procedures, which give specific guidelines for the scope of the work and descriptions of responsibility.
Accreditation
Accreditation is a method for external quality assurance.
The Danish Accreditation Act (of July 2013) introduced institutional accreditation, which involves an assessment of an educational institution's overall quality assurance system carried out by the Danish Accreditation Institution.
On 2 March 2021, the Accreditation Council granted University College of Northern Denmark a positive institutional accreditation, cf. section 8 of the Accreditation Act1 . A positive institutional accreditation means that the institution can make adjustments to existing study programmes and local provisions of study programmes, cf. section 9(1) of the Accreditation Act. The institution can also establish new study programmes and new local provision of study programmes when they have been pre-qualified and approved, cf. sections 18 and 21 of the Accreditation Act. The accreditation is valid until and including 2 March 2027, cf. section 9 of the Accreditation Act.
If you want to know more about accreditation and the Danish Accreditation Institution, you can watch three short films about the subject at the Danish Accreditation Institution’s website. There, you can also read more about the process of institutional accreditation.