[MADE BY CRAMGO]

Quality Assurance 

All issues related to quality assurance were dealt with by the Quality Assurance (QA) working group. The working group consisted of members of all partner institutions. Seven meetings of this working group have taken place: from 15-17 December ‘06 the first meeting took place in Groningen, and from 9-12 June ‘07 the members have met in Iceland for the second time. The group has met for the third time on 6-7 October ‘07 in Jyväskylä, for the fourth time on 19-20 January '08 in The Hague, and for the fifth time in Iceland on the 16-18 of May 2008. For the sixth meeting, 21-22 November ’08 in Groningen and seventh 6-7 of June '09 in Leiden, The Netherlands. During the final year of the project the QA-group met for the most part together with the CD-group, because the phase of integrating the work of both working groups had been entered.
The items addressed by the QA group were the following:

- internal quality assurance
- admission procedures/entrance examination and module assessments
- study guide
- external quality assurance
- degrees and diplomas
- workload and ECTS
- learning outcomes
 
Internal Quality Assurance
The Quality Assurance group has devised an internal quality assurance system that will be used next to -or in replacement of- the internal systems of the institutions, has designed instruments (e.g. questionnaires) to be used in quality assurance, and used this to compile a Book of Procedures and Instruments for Internal Quality Assurance. The internal quality assurance system is built upon the general idea that quality assurance should be based on completing the PDCA-circle, a feedback loop in which consistent measuring of results leads to amelioration of processes and products. The group has investigated which steering information would be needed to keep up the quality of the programme and convince outsiders in that respect. The group then studied whether it was possible to gather this information by using the existing iqa-systems in the different institutions. As this was not the case, it was decided to develop a specific set of instruments on the basis of existing instruments in some of the institutions.
The list of instruments to be used is the following:
 
- a list of data concerning students/teachers/budgets to be delivered on a yearly basis by all institutions on the basis of their own respective administrative systems
- a small student database proper for the JM programme delivering on demand facts and figures on e.g. in-, through-and output
- student questionnaire after entrance examination
- student questionnaire after module
- student questionnaire after graduation
- early leaver’s questionnaire
- alumni questionnaire
- teacher questionnaire
- list of data to be addresses by external assessors and evaluators
- press clipping collection procedure
The internal quality assurance procedure can be downloaded here.
 
Admission procedures/entrance examinations + module assessments
The QA group has intensely worked together with the Curriculum Development (CD) group answering questions about various forms of assessment. The joint admission procedure has been approved, as well as the content of the entrance examination. This has been laid down in a joint Registration and Admission Procedures document. The group has intensely worked together with the Curriculum Development group answering questions on assessment of the programme’s modules.
Registration and admission procedures can be downloaded here.
 
Study guide
A study guide for the Joint Master has been developed. The guide is based on the ECTS model, and will take the form of a kind of "addendum" to the official documents of the various participating institutions, covering only those elements that are specific and generic for the joint master, such as course descriptions and general facts on the joint master (admission, period abroad et cetera).
The study guide can be downloaded here.
 
External quality assurance
The accreditation procedures in all countries are different. The CD group has looked into the question how the accreditation will be realized in each country, and which consequences the different demands have for the master’s programme. Also the group is the forum for exchange of ideas and experiences in all countries. Acreditation of the programme remains however a national/institute-specific item where each country has its own specificities and problems which have to be dealt with on the institutional level.
 
Degrees and diplomas
Because it is formally not possible at the moment to hand out a joint degree in each country, it has been decided to hand out a degree of the home institution with an attached certificate expressing the joint character of the programme to the graduated student. In the certificate the participating schools will be mentioned, as well as the exchange institution and all modules and activities the student has undertaken in this institution during the exchange period.
 
Workload and ECTS
The QA group has studied the differences in the various countries within the credit systems and the official workloads of study years and master programmes. Formally there exist differences from country to country; however, all institutes have reached an agreement on the way how to handle this. Recognition of the period abroad by the home institution is thus secured for all students.
 
Learning outcomes
The QA group has together with members of the CD group formulated learning outcomes for the programme. They are based on the Polifonia/Dublin descriptors (the music-specific variant of the Dublin Descriptors) for the second cycle in higher education, but these have been reformulated in order to make them programme specific. For each of the core modules of the course it has been expressed which learning outcomes are addressed specifically. In total these core modules cover the complete set of learning outcomes. The learning outcomes can be found in the Study guide.