Wageningen University Scores High on External Evaluation

Wageningen University has received very good to excellent evaluations fortwo of its Graduate Schools. The evaluations were given to the C.T.de Wit Graduate School for Production Ecology & Resource Conservation(PE & RC) and the Graduate School WIAS, Wageningen Institute ofAnimal Sciences. Additionally, the Meteorology and Air Quality Group receivedan evaluation between very good and excellent. The evaluations were doneby independent, external committees consisting of prominent professorsfrom foreign universities ('peer reviews').

According to the involved evaluation committee, the C.T. de Wit GraduateSchool, which focuses on biological production systems in rural areasand sustainable land use, scores very good on the quality of researchand on organisation and management. The study programme of the GraduateSchool is even evaluated as excellent. The committee found several examplesof world-leading research groups and all of the evaluated groups werefound to be good or better. The committee, however, found the futureplans of the Graduate School still too vague, which was reason for themanagement and the administration of the Graduate School to give theseplans more concrete form. Furthermore, the committee concludes that womenand minorities are underrepresented within the Graduate School.

WIAS
The Graduate School WIAS, which focuses on research dealing with sustainableanimal husbandry and fish culture, scores very good on both researchand the doctoral candidate study programme. Some programme parts ofWIAS score excellent and no group scores lower than good. The researchcommittee has high expectations for the future of WIAS which, in theopinion of the committee, completely proves its established reputationboth within and outside the Netherlands.

Meteorology and Air Quality
The committee, which evaluated the Meteorology and Air Quality Group,concludes that the quality of research earns the designation of verygood, even bordering on the evaluation of excellent. On a scale of1 to 5, the chair group gets a 4.5. The committee praises, in particular,the high degree of publications; more than 50 percent of the articlesappear in highly regarded international journals.

Evaluation Protocol
All publicly funded university research in the Netherlands is evaluatedonce every six years, by external, independent review committees. Thishappens on the basis of the so called new 'Standard Evaluation Protocol',established by the NWO (Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research),the VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands) and the KNAW(Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences). The criteria for the evaluationare: quality, productivity, relevance and viability and feasibility.The 'reviews' of Wageningen's research took place earlier this year.