Inspectorate: Students bear the brunt of complex educational institutions
Universities and colleges are a legal jumble of legal entities, says the Education Inspectorate. Even lawyers get lost. Ultimately, this is at the expense of students and staff.
Once again, the Education Inspectorate has written a remarkably critical report on higher education. This time, Inspector General Alida Oppers cracks down on the “tangle of organizational forms” within the institutions.
The report Confusion in the Multitude - The Legal Organization of Higher Education Institutions starts with an example of students who thought their tuition fees were too high. They took their lawyer to the civil court, but they should have gone to the administrative court. “And so the students were left empty-handed - without a judgment, but with an invoice for the costs of the proceeding,s” writes Oppers in her foreword.
Lost
So even lawyers get lost. What about students and employees? They live in legal uncertainty. There are also sometimes unequal terms of employment between employees “who work for the same educational institution, but fall under different legal entities,” according to the inspectorate.
Almost all institutions have a unique legal organization, they note, with several legal entities that all have different rules.
“We also came across boards that cannot fully serve the interests of the institution,” says the inspectorate, particularly in private education. This happens, for example, if a chain of different B.V.s and holding companies are involved and it is not clear who has the authority.
These constructions are not made complicated on purpose, the inspectorate emphasizes. The legal tangle stems from government policy, “for example, regarding private activities by government-funded educational institutions.” After all, you need different legal forms for that, while the name on the façade is still the same.
Institutional accreditation
The complex legal organization of institutions and “the gap between law and reality” stand in the way of effective supervision. Sometimes it is not even clear whether the degrees awarded are legally valid, because who exactly awards the degree?
And a new form of quality control may soon be added to that. The Inspectorate addresses the problem that universities and universities of applied sciences will soon be able to approve the quality of their own programs themselves. Under certain conditions, they will receive permission from the government to do this. This controversial system of “institutional accreditation” is supposed to replace the current inspection of study programs.
The problem is easy to guess: what exactly is an “institution,” if so many different legal entities operate under the same banner? Who will soon receive institutional accreditation? The situation is a “hindrance” for the possible arrival of institutional accreditation, the Education Inspectorate believes.
“Our conclusion: Current practice requires thorough consideration of the laws and regulations,” writes Oppers. “How can the public task of providing higher education be carried out fairly? How can the legal position of students be improved to better protect them in the event of disputes?”
