This article gives an overview of ten years of experience with programme auditing at Hanzehogeschool Groningen. Hanzehogeschool Groningen is one of the bigger Dutch hogescholen (officially translated as »universities of applied sciences«). Ten years ago, it has set up an internal quality assurance system. It is an EFQM-based programme audit system in which every educational programme is audited once every three years on process quality. The programme audit system is linked on the one hand to the steering philosophy and planning and control cycle of the university, on the other hand to the Dutch external quality assurance system of programme accreditation every six years.

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The article describes the features of the programme audit system used by Hanzehogeschool Groningen. Although hard facts on the effectiveness of the system are currently not available, there are indications that the system leads to a rise in qualit awareness within the institution. Five success factors are mentioned: facilitation and management support, a bottom-up approach, orientation on programme improvement, the use of a higher education-specific model, and linking the internal quality assurance system to the institution’s steering mechanisms. The article concludes by highlighting six points for further discussion, such as the relationship between internal and external quality assurance, the independence of auditing from management, and the quality assurance of internal quality assurance. (Beitrag aus: Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung, Heft 1, 30. Jahrgang, 2008)