Tremendous enthusiasm for Audit Festival
The Audit Festival being organised by the Netherlands Court of Audit and its partner organisations in The Hague on 11 September 2025 has enjoyed so many advance bookings that it is now fully booked. New applications will be placed on a waiting list in anticipation of cancellations.
This is the third time the Court of Audit is organising the festival for participants working in the fields of audit, evaluation and government inspection. Guest speakers will include Professor Beatrice de Graaf of Utrecht University and Professor Madaline Busuioc of VU Amsterdam. The latter will speak on Accountability and Artificial Intelligence.
Many workshops will also be held on 11 September covering a wide range of subjects and led by academics and experts from an equally wide variety of professional backgrounds: from the Association of Audit Offices to The Hague University of Applied Sciences and from Utrecht University to a data journalist from Follow the Money. Staff from the Court of Audit will also be making active contributions throughout the day.
For a place on the waiting list, see https://arauditfestival.yellenge.nl/registration/#/participants
Cooperation with academic institutions
The Audit Festival is just one of the activities in the Court’s intensified cooperation as a High Council of State with the academic world. One of the aims is to disseminate knowledge about innovative audit methods, with the ultimate goal of improving government operation and performance.
Besides organising the festival, the Court has established various forms of cooperation with academic institutions. It is working with Delft University of Technology, for instance, on systematic design methods so that its auditors can carry out in-depth examinations of complex problems in government policy.
Agreements are about to be concluded with the University of Oxford (Blavatnik School of Government) to carry out a joint study to determine the link between ministries’ human capacity and the follow-up on the Court’s audit findings and recommendations This joint project will also examine parliament’s use of the Court’s audits.
The Court is financing a chair at Leiden University (The Hague campus) and has invited several academics to consider its activities in their research projects. A vising scholar, for instance, will apply computer models to increase insight into the impact of the Court’s audits. Such academic insights will help the Court further improve its audit approach.
Thesis prize
Submissions for the annual thesis prize awarded by the Court can be submitted until 17 October (scriptieprijs@rekenkamer.nl). Completed master or post-master theses scoring an 8 or higher are eligible. A jury will assess the submissions and cash prizes will be awarded to the winners.