NOKUT

NOKUT, the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (Norwegian: Nasjonalt organ for kvalitet i utdanningen), is an independent public agency, established by law in 2002, with the task of carrying out external quality assurance of higher education and tertiary vocational education in Norway.

NOKUT performs this task through a variety of mechanisms:

• Accreditation of higher education institutions
• Accreditation of higher education programmes and courses
• Revision of accreditation
• Evaluation of internal quality assurance in higher education institutions
• Evaluation of specific types of educational provision or defined aspects of such
• Recognition of tertiary vocational education
• General recognition of foreign qualifications.

As the Norwegian ENIC-NARIC centre NOKUT considers applications for general recognition of foreign qualifications. The agency is also responsible for providing foreign institutions and partners with information about the Norwegian educational system and the procedures for recognition of foreign higher education qualifications.

Its web site is at http://www.nokut.no

It is a full member of ENQA.

More details

(sourced from http://www.nokut.no/sw21570.asp)

NOKUT was established by the Storting (Parliament) in 2002 and became operative on 1 January 2003. It is mandated by the Act of 1 April 2005 No. 15 relating to universities and university colleges.

General recognition of foreign education

NOKUT also processes individual applications for general recognition of foreign higher education, cf. the Universities and University Colleges Act. NOKUT is responsible for following up the Norwegian interests and obligations as defined by international agreements on recognition and information on higher education. NOKUT is the Norwegian representative in the ENIC and NARIC networks and thus the Norwegian equivalent to the national information centre mentioned in the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

Independent

NOKUT is an independent body in that the Ministry cannot issue injunctions outside the lawful mandate or specified regulations. Nor can the Ministry rescind NOKUT’s decisions or give permission to establish education programmes which have not been given accreditation or recognition. NOKUT also has the authority to withdraw its accreditation or recognition if the conditions are no longer fulfilled.

NOKUT's role

It is the institutions which, pursuant to law, assume the responsibility for the quality of their own educational provision. The role of NOKUT is to check the quality of Norwegian higher education provision and to inform the general public about this work, and also to bolster the institutions in their own efforts in quality development.

Public decisions

NOKUT undertakes to perform its duties in an efficient, high quality manner and to be a non-bureaucratic, flexible and mutable entity which maintains a productive dialogue with the higher education sector and with society at large. NOKUT’s decisions are public and NOKUT will place great emphasis on providing information about its decisions.

50 people in NOKUT

NOKUT employs some 50 people and is headed by a board composed of 8 members who hold the superior responsibility for the operation and decisions of the agency.

Publications

There is an interesting set of publications in English at http://www.nokut.no/sw5074.asp

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