Filip J.R.C. Dochy studied Physical Education Sciences in Ghent, Belgium. After graduating, he studied Educational and Psychological Sciences. Simultaneously, he specialized in Research Methodology during his study of Politicology, at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghent. Further he studied Educational Policy and Management at the University of Leuven, Belgium and he took a degree in Teacher Education.

Since 1984 he has been a Researcher at the Skills Laboratory of the Medical Faculty and Associate Professor at the Department of Educational Development and Research of the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands. He was involved in the Performance Indicators Research Group of Maastricht and the Technical Working Party on Performance Indicators of The Netherlands until 1990.

From 1987 on, he was Researcher at the Centre of Educational Technology - Quality Assurance Section at the Dutch Open University. Since 1989 he has been Researcher and Research Manager at the Centre for Educational Technology and Innovation (OTIC) of this University in Heerlen.

Since 1997 he is Professor of Instructional Science, Technology and Teacher Traning and Research at the university of Leuven, Belgium.

He is a member of many editorial boards of journals in the field of assessment and educational research and is, amongst other things, editor of the Dutch Journal for Higher Education and coordinator of the SIG 'Assessment and Evaluation of Learning and Instruction'. From 1997 on, he is Secretary of the European Association for Research into Learning and Instruction (EARLI).