Background
Nyenrode Business University is one of the Netherlands’ most respected institutions for business and leadership education. Founded in 1946 by Dutch industry leaders from KLM, Shell, Unilever, Philips and AkzoNobel, Nyenrode Business University was built on the principle of “for business, by business.” This close connection to the corporate world remains central to how the university operates today.
Located on a 148-acre estate housing a 13th-century castle in Breukelen, between Amsterdam and Utrecht, Nyenrode serves approximately 4,000 students across its bachelor, master and executive programmes. The university holds EQUIS and AMBA accreditations and ranks among Europe’s top business schools.
Delivering secure, reliable and fair exams at scale is essential to maintaining Nyenrode’s academic reputation and the value of its qualifications in the business world.
Since adopting Cirrus in 2018, Nyenrode has achieved:
Reduced Workload
Clear Oversight
Efficient Marking
Strong Reliability
Genuine Partnership
“We’ve grown from a standard supplier relationship into a genuine partnership. Cirrus is responsive and reliable. Our feedback is taken seriously and we’re invited to think along as the platform develops.”
Senior Application Administrator, Nyenrode
The Challenge
Before 2018, Nyenrode delivered its mid-term and final exams on paper in the on-campus exam hall hall. The setup functioned, but the university recognised clear opportunities to improve both the quality and effectiveness of the entire assessment process.
Paper-based exams required considerable manual handling throughout the workflow – from preparation and printing through to distribution, invigilation, collection and marking. This created additional workload for both academic and administrative teams, with multiple touchpoints where consistency could vary.
Maintaining consistent quality assurance across the full exam lifecycle was challenging. Staff wanted a more structured approach that would give them better oversight during exam preparation, delivery and marking, while ensuring the process remained reliable and fair for all students.
As the university’s programmes continued to develop, Nyenrode needed an assessment platform that could deliver consistent quality at scale and give teams the tools to manage exams more effectively from start to finish.
The Solution
Since 2018, Nyenrode has used Cirrus to deliver all mid-term and final exams for its bachelor and master programmes. The transition from paper to digital transformed how exams work at the university. Students now take their assessments on Chromebooks in the same on-campus exam hall hall, working through the mix of essay and multiple-choice questions that Nyenrode’s programmes require.
The platform gave staff what they needed most: a clearer, more organised workflow with better oversight at every stage. Preparation, delivery and marking all became more structured, with fewer manual steps and stronger quality controls built into the process. The platform’s extensive marking functionality helps Nyenrode manage marking in a fair and consistent way, supporting moderation workflows and accommodating the varied question types across their programmes.
The relationship has become increasingly collaborative. Nyenrode and Cirrus now discuss challenges and potential improvements together, turning real exam scenarios into clear development priorities. This shared way of working ensures that new features support the realities of running large-scale assessments. In 2024, this approach led to the Marking Dashboard and Rescoring Tools. Nyenrode’s feedback shaped how the tools were designed, resulting in features that reduce manual work, give markers clearer insight into grading progress and make rescoring faster and more consistent.
Results
Cirrus has brought more structure and confidence to Nyenrode’s exam process. Staff follow a clearer workflow with less manual handling, and they can rely on the platform to perform consistently when exam pressure is at its highest. During busy assessment periods, teams have the oversight and control they need to manage exams effectively across all programmes.
“Working with Cirrus has made the whole exam process more efficient and has lifted the overall quality of how we run assessments. The reliability of Cirrus as a system is very strong, especially in terms of availability.”
Senior Application Administrator, Nyenrode
Digital delivery has strengthened quality assurance throughout the process. Exams are prepared, delivered and reviewed in a controlled, organised way that supports the academic standards Nyenrode sets for its degree programmes. Students benefit from a fair and dependable experience across all courses, with faster access to results and more flexible options for exam reviews.
The partnership has developed just as significantly. What started as a standard supplier relationship has grown into genuine collaboration, where Nyenrode’s feedback helps inform platform development.
“We’ve grown from a standard supplier relationship into a genuine partnership. Cirrus is responsive and reliable. Our feedback is taken seriously and we’re invited to think along as the platform develops.”
Senior Application Administrator, Nyenrode
Nyenrode continues to look at how to modernise and optimise its assessment processes. Further digitalisation, better use of assessment data and the potential of AI in marking are all areas the university is exploring as it works to keep exams relevant and effective.
Cirrus is developing tools that align with these priorities. AI-assisted marking and Cirrus Data and Insights are both in active development, designed to reduce marking workload, strengthen feedback consistency and surface valuable patterns in assessment data.
“Cirrus continues to develop, and we value how the platform keeps evolving in ways that align with our needs.”
Senior Application Administrator, Nyenrode
Seven years into the partnership, Nyenrode has the reliable assessment platform it needs to maintain academic standards while continuing to innovate.
Header image: “Kasteel Nijenrode 2015” by Choinowski, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
