in programme accreditation regulations were revised to include criteria on academic and discipline relevance kantardjiev and haakstad section of the regulations requires higher education institutions to describe the relevance of each programme for working life andor continued studies by outlining the skills developed in the programme and how those skills align with the labour market nord university the assessment of the labour market relevance of programmes is often informed through dialogue with employers but there are concerns about the robustness and validity of this consultation process kantardjiev and haakstad programmes now must be professionally updated and clearly relevant to further studies andor work life norwegian ministry of education and research b