The ‘Soft’ Side of Quality

The Positive Effects of Policy Change in the Netherlands – A Case Study

In recent years the tone of higher education policy in the Netherlands has changed from advocating tight control and accountability to giving more room to the ‘soft’ side of quality. In trying to address this change, the management of a department at Leiden University of Applied Sciences decided to find out what academic staff and students think about the quality of education and how this can contribute to a shared vision on teaching. A study conducted to that end revealed that (still existing) governmental frameworks for quality control do not fit the ideas that staff and students hold about what should be central to teaching and education. Giving room to the ‘soft’ side of quality, by contrast, turns out to stimulate ownership of and involvement in quality in education by academic staff, students and management.