FAQ-Kategorie: 06 Validity of previous and new law

For such procedures or completed program accreditations, the previous law continues to apply. Resolutions of the Accreditation Council, in particular on the criteria and rules of procedure, which were adopted up to and including 31.12.2017, apply to such old procedures; see in particular the “Rules for the Accreditation of Study Programmes and for System Accreditation“, resolution of the Accreditation Council of 08.12.2009, last amended on 20.02.2013, as well as the “Common Structural Guidelines of the Länder“. Handouts and circulars on the previous law also continue to serve as an aid to interpretation for such accreditation procedures.

The old law applies for the entire accreditation period. This means that the old law also applies to the addition of further partial study programmes to an accreditation of a combined study programme under the old law. The Agencies that accredited the combined study programme are responsible for this.

A distinction must be made for essential changes to study programmes:
If a study programme accredited under the old law is offered by a non-system-accredited higher education institution, the Agencies that accredited the study programme under the old law are also responsible for assessing the changes in accordance with the aforementioned principle. The higher education institution must therefore report the change to the Agencies (see 3.6.3 of the Rules for the Accreditation of Study Programmes and for System Accreditation, resolution of the Accreditation Council of 08.12.2009, last amended on 20.02.2013).

If, on the other hand, a study programme accredited under the old or new law is offered by a system-accredited higher education institution (under the old or new law), the system-accredited higher education institution may evaluate changes to this study programme itself on the basis of the internal processes provided for in its QM system. This is due to the fact that system accreditation gives higher education institutions the right to make their own decisions on all accreditation-relevant issues relating to their study programs.

According to Clause 6.2 of the “Rules for the Accreditation of Study Programmes and for System Accreditation” (resolution of the Accreditation Council in the version dated 20.02.2013), compliance with the applicable Law is mandatory for such system accreditation or system accreditation procedures. This means that the higher education institution, by means of its internal quality management systems, must in principle only observe the formal and academic criteria for study programmes contained in the MRVO. It is obvious that any changes will take a certain amount of time; every system-accredited higher education institution should check the effects on the internal QM system immediately after the new rules have been issued and, if changes are required, initiate implementation with a timetable. In the subsequent system accreditation, it should be discussed whether the QM system has proven to be sufficiently adaptable to new framework conditions.

The rules of procedure contained in Part 4 of the MRVO and the criteria for internal quality management systems standardized in § 17 and § 18 MRVO themselves are not to be taken into account in such old cases. In this respect, the previous resolutions, handouts and circulars of the Accreditation Council continue to apply. See also FAQ 02.1.

However, since according to the new legal situation, proof of an interim evaluation in the previous accreditation period is no longer required to apply for system accreditation, this is also no longer necessary for system accreditations under previous law. This is clarified in the explanatory memorandum to § 37 of the specimen decree.

The new law applies comprehensively to such program and system accreditation procedures, i.e. the provisions of the StAkkrStV and the MRVO or the corresponding regulations of the federal states. This follows from Art. 16 StAkkrStV and the explanatory memorandum to § 37 of the MRVO.

See also the circular written by the Chairperson of the Accreditation Council on the validity of previous and new law in program accreditation.