FAQ-Kategorie: 03 Publication of accreditation reports

In principle, the publication obligation – i.e. the obligation to publish the accreditation decision and the accreditation report – applies both to study programmes that are assessed as part of the programme accreditation and to study programmes that have been accredited as part of the internal accreditation procedures of higher education institutions (§ 18 para. 4 sentence 2 MRVO, thus also applying to Alternative Procedures). Section 29 of the MRVO states that the decision of the Accreditation Council and the accreditation report are published by the Accreditation Council on its website.

Accreditation information from both program and system accreditation procedures (positive and negative), as well as from the internal procedures of system-accredited higher education institutions, is published in a separate database of the Accreditation Council.

The establishment of a new, independent database of accredited study programmes in the context of the digital application processing system represents the ideal opportunity to define the requirements of the MRVO in more detail and to create the technical basis for implementation.

Yes, see question 3.1

Note on the change: This question was initially part of FAQ 3.1.

In the new system, the institution responsible for entries in the database of accredited study programmes is always the institution that makes the decision on the accreditation of a study programme or quality management system (even for higher education institutions that are system-accredited under the old law): The Accreditation Council in the case of programme and system accreditation, the system-accredited higher education institution for its own study programmes (see § 18 para. 4 sentence 2 of the MRVO).

The Head Office of the Accreditation Council will continue to be responsible for checking and releasing individual database entries. All information entered in the database will be checked for technical accuracy and then released to the public.

Note on the change: This question was initially part of FAQ 3.1.

The database entries for the study programmes accredited internally by the system-accredited higher education institutions must contain the following information:

• Deadlines for accreditation of the study programme,
• Type of accreditation (initial accreditation, re-accreditation, provisional accreditation, deadline extension, other),
• a brief profile of the study programme including basic data contained in the Accreditation Council’s reporting grid for all procedure types*,
• a summarized assessment,
• Description of the process for awarding seals (with information on the cycle of internal university accreditations of study programmes),
• a Quality Reports,
• Information on the participation of external peer review reports** and, if provided for in the QM system of the higher education institution, information on the conditions imposed (with details on the fulfillment of the conditions).

* Corresponding mandatory fields (with predefined formats) are provided for entering the basic data for the individual study programmes in the Accreditation Council’s digital application processing system to be set up.

** The data protection regulations pursuant to Section 29 sentence 2 apply accordingly.

Note on the change: This question was initially part of FAQ 3.1.

The Quality Reports of the system-accredited higher education institutions do not necessarily have to be based entirely on the reporting grid for program accreditation specified by the Accreditation Council. With regard to the different design of their QM systems, the system-accredited higher education institutions can decide on an appropriate reporting form.

In order to reflect the diversity of accredited quality management systems, the Accreditation Council’s future database will include an additional free text field for describing an internal accreditation process developed by the higher education institution. This will make it easier for the Head Office to check the content of individual accreditation data records of study programmes and will also serve as a transparent information basis for the public.

See also question 3.3.

Note on the change: This question was initially part of FAQ 3.1.

On 10.06.2022, the Accreditation Council passed a resolution on the publication requirements for the publication practice of system-accredited higher education institutions, which makes FAQ 3.6 obsolete. Resolutions can be found here.