3.2 Control and monitoring

The control and monitoring of the Quality Agreements are part of the regular Planning and Control cycle. Because the funds are allocated to the Schools, the substantive monitoring of the Quality Agreements takes place within the Schools. This is done on the basis of School reporting, which describes in detail what has/ has not been realized, including substantiation and a financial dashboard. Twice a year, the Quality Agreements are explicitly on the agenda of the bilateral meetings between the Executive Board and the School Boards:

• Spring bilateral meeting: (1) progress and (2) review of last year's accomplishments.

• Fall bilateral meeting: (1) budget and annual plan (including plans Quality Agreements) and (2) progress.

The Executive Board uses these meetings and dashboards to assess progress, and whether the participation has had sufficient opportunity to provide critical advice. This substantive review is included in this Quality Agreements section of the annual report. This was discussed with the University Council on April 6, 2023, separately from the other parts of the annual report. The Board of Governors is involved throughout the process of the Quality Agreements and progress is regularly discussed.

Progress

As Table 3.2.1 shows, there have been shifts in budgets in recent years. In almost all Schools, always in consultation with the Schools’ participation bodies, more resources have gone to Theme A: more intensive and small-scale education. In part, this shift can be explained by the influence of COVID-19: as a result, there was a great need for sufficient academic staff to cope with the enormous pressure that the crisis put on education. In addition, many programs have grown in student numbers in recent years, necessitating more academic staff to ensure small-scale, high-quality education that is in line with the Tilburg Educational Profile (TEP). For the other themes, some projects were overtaken by time, or some efforts proved to lead to the desired results with fewer resources. In addition, 2022 was a year in which, after the coronavirus crisis, space was available again for reflection and making new plans.

Figure 3.2.1 shows the current state of affairs. Under the heading National Themes, you can see the expenditure per theme and, under Tilburg University themes, the expenditure per Quality Agreement. Across 2022, the overall picture is that more was invested than was budgeted (upwards of 125%) on Theme 5 Appropriate and Good Educational Facilities (Agreement H, Realize Education Innovation Laboratory), which can be well explained by the speed of developments after COVID-19. On some other themes, less was realized in 2022 than was budgeted, such as PASS, introduce learning analytics, and embed labor market orientation. On these themes, many new plans were made, sometimes funded with Quality Resources but sometimes, due to organizational developments, supported from other (central) resources.

These choices were made at the School level. Table 3.2.1 shows differences among Schools. For example, TLS (104%) and TSHD (101%) invested more than budgeted. TiSEM (80%), TSB (81%) and TST (81%) spent less. This is partly due to additional investment in 2021 and partly due to postponed plans for 2023 and 2024.

The following section discusses each faculty's progress and choices for 2022.

Figure 3.2.1 Progress on national themes, all Schools

Figure 3.2.2 Progress on Tilburg University themes, all Schools

Also read

3.1 Quality Agreements at Tilburg University

3.3 Progress

3.4 Reflection