KURT DOMS AND JEF VERHOEVEN Research on Asessment in Vocational Education in Belgium (Flanders). An Overview Introduction In this paper we like to accomplish two things. First, we present the education system in Flanders. As a consequence of the federalization of Belgium in 1989, education issues became the responsibility of the Flemish community. However, certain subjects, like duration of compulsory education, minimal conditions for granting diplomas and pension plans, remain the authority of the Federal Parliament. Secondly, we like to give an overview of research in vocational and technical secondary education. Because this term has different meanings in Europe, we will provide research concerning assessment in technical and vocational secondary education, and tertiary education in general. The information for this overview is gathered in different databases concerning education l and information received from several research groups in Flanders 2 . 1. General structure of the Flemish education system and quality assurance In this first part, we like to present a general overview on structure and principles of secondary and higher education. Especially, mechanisms for quality assurance will be taken into account. For developing a clear view on assessment of pupils, we will show statistics concerning schooldelay in secondary education and the number of diplomas granted in higher education. Below, we give a diagram representing the structure of Flemish education system. 1 Id est ADIOV (Automatisch Documentatie- en & Informatiesysteem voor het Onderwijs in Vlaanderen — Automatic Documentation- and Information system for Education in Flanders), DOVO (Databank Onderzoek van Onderwijs — Database Educational Research), IWETO (Inventaris Wetenschappelijk en Technologisch Onderzoek Vlaanderen — Inventory of Scientific and Technological Flemish Research), FWO (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek — Fund for Scientific Research). 2 As part of a research project (Doms, Verhoeven & Vandenberghe), aiming to describe and analyse the Flemish field of educational research, since 1989. The time this paper is written, full response from the different research groups was not yet realized.