Study selection website still in its infancy
According to the experts, the www.studiekeuze123.nl website that was officially launched last week, is first and foremost “a good start”. They want more ‘objective data’, but also more elaborate search options, preferably also in English.
State Secretary Rutte opened the site during an international symposium about ranking in higher education at the University of Leiden. The absence of an option to make international comparisons was an obvious point of criticism from the specialists in the audience. State Secretary Rutte agrees that the site - online since the beginning of this year- can be improved in many areas. “Launching the site marks the end of the beginning,” he said.
Vice president Te Beest from the University of Leiden announced that he would be happy to provide the data about the quality of education that Rutte wanted, to enable those who want to choose a study to rely on more than just the opinions of other students. Te Beest regretted that the new site does not use the assessments of the official auditing committees, but did not indicate how this should be done now that programmes are assessed by the accreditation organisation NVAO only on their basic qualities.
The meeting at which the site was launched, was about (international) ranking of institutes and how to deal with this phenomenon. The study selection site, however, primarily compares study programmes.
Source: Observant, 23 February 2006
