In Belgium educational institutions are encouraged to care about quality assurance, this is done through an elaborate system of visitation and accreditation. Within this system each educational program is visited by a so-called “council of wise men”. This council makes an assertion of the level of quality (based on not only their visit, but a self-evaluation made by de members of the visited educational program).
These assertions are the basis for accreditation or non-accreditation of an educational program. In Belgium this means the difference between being financed or not being financed and to effectively have to close down the program.

Therefore quality assurance continues to rise in importance in higher education in Belgium and Europe, not only on management level but also on educational level. It is of ever greater importance that the quality of education and the different forms of education are assured. Because of this it is only logical that a direct link is made between quality assurance and education. Elements of quality assurance can be used in educational programs to increase participation and quality.

The Lessius University College Antwerp has decided to use quality assurance on every level of the educational programs in order to increase quality and provide proof of the existing level of quality. Basically this means that we will try to get more interaction from students, teachers and the respective field of employment. This is done in various ways:

- Each year a conference is organized at which employers and the teaching staff of the program interact with each other about the structure and the learning objectives specified in the curriculum. Here we try to fine-tune the program to not only deliver qualified researchers (an objective given to us by the government) but also individuals who are fully capable to function in the workplace.

- Every course is based on various evaluation methods. Students are evaluated on:

o Level of participation during class (discussion, preparation etc.)
o Attitude during the course
o Quality of the papers they have to hand in during the course
o Exams

These are of course all based on measuring if the student has achieved the competence(level)s that have been set for that course. The students are also encouraged to give feedback after each session about the clarity of the sessions and the way in which the education has been conducted.

- During each semester various guest lectures are given by experts in the field. During these lectures students are expected to fully cooperate as this aspect will also be taken into by both the guest lecturer and the teacher of the course. Afterwards lecture and it’s timing are evaluated.

- Each semester both teachers and students are asked to evaluate the courses they have given.

o Students are asked to complete an online survey. On the basis of that survey focus groups (consisting of teachers and students) discuss strong and weak points.
o Teachers are also asked to complete an online survey. Results of these surveys are used in various discussion groups.
These actions are used to increase the quality of education as a whole.

Through these actions Lessius University College has not only raised the quality but we’ve also increased the participation of most major stakeholders in educational programs.