Implementing a new method for quality assurance: the case of COBRA at KU Leuven
Lessons learned from a trial run
Abstract
After the amendment of the Flemish Codex of Higher Education concerning quality assurance and accreditation in June 2015, the Flemish higher education institutions had the opportunity to design an internal quality assurance method to monitor their education programmes. The University of Leuven (KU Leuven) developed COBRA, a method with cooperation, action and reflection, checks and balances as its basic principles.
During academic year 2015-2016, KU Leuven set up a trial run in which 15 faculties participated. The aim of this trial run was to evaluate the new method in a systematic way, drawing on websurveys, focus groups, reports and input from an international panel. This allowed us to identify positive elements and points for improvement. In this paper, we focus on what we learned from this trial run and how this critical self-evaluation resulted in concrete adaptations for the upcoming quality assurance cycle (COBRA 2.0).
This paper was presented at EQAF and reflects the views of the named authors only.
