From Accountability to Opportunity: the role of quality assessments in Norway

Abstract

The article analyses the role external quality assessments have played in the relations between departments, educational institutions and educational authorities in Norway. The assumptions and fears that the assessments would be used by political authorities in connection with ongoing reforms and efficiency experiments at a national level have proven groundless. A study of the process shows that the departments themselves have used the assessments and their results for professional profiling, in the competition for resources, in relation to their own institution and in relation to educational authorities. For the departments, and in part for the institutions, the assessments have contributed to creating new possibilities to influence the higher levels that govern them.

Notes

[1] The author wishes to thank Sue Ellen Walters for collaboration in preparing the English version of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bjørn Stensaker[1]

[1] The author wishes to thank Sue Ellen Walters for collaboration in preparing the English version of this article.