FAQ-Kategorie: 11 Fees for higher education institutions

The Fee Regulations of the German Accreditation Council provide for higher education institutions to pay an annual basic fee (basic flat rate) and procedure-related fees (case flat rates) for each accreditation decision, graduated according to the size of the higher education institution. The basic fee is due for each higher education institution that has at least one currently accredited study programme (including Bachelor’s degree courses at colleges of cooperative education).

The amount of the basic flat rate and all other fees can be found in the Fee Regulations (see p. 3). The following fee rates apply:

A fee of 600 euros per study program is charged for decisions in programme accreditation, whereby in the case of bundled procedures and combined study programmes, each partial study programme counts as a study programme within the meaning of the Fee Regulations. Decisions in system accreditation are subject to a fee of 5,000 euros.

A new Fee Regulations will come into force on 01.01.2026. The contributions to the basic flat rate will be increased. The new fees can be found here: Fee Regulations.

Additional taxes (VAT or similar) do not apply.

No separate fees are charged for applications for the approval of cluster accreditations, deadline extensions, condition reviews, entries in the database of accredited study programmes or the review of essential changes to an accredited study programme or a quality assurance system; this work is covered by the above-mentioned fees.

The basic flat rate is generally charged in the first half of each year.

With regard to the flat rate per case, the Foundation charges an advance payment in the amount of the total costs. A fee notice (advance payment) is issued for this and made available in ELIAS in the usual way.

The basis for this is Section 16 of the Fees Act of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia: “An official act that is to be carried out on application can be made dependent on the payment of an appropriate advance or an appropriate security deposit up to the expected amount of the costs.”

Program and system accreditations are official acts to be carried out upon application. The amount of the costs can not only be estimated, but can also be determined exactly on the basis of the Foundation’s Fee Regulations.

Fees are due at the Foundation within 4 weeks. In accordance with Section 18 of the NRW Fees Act, late payment surcharges will be levied.

The Accreditation Council always generates fee notifications electronically.

Basic flat rate:

The fee notifications (basic flat rate) are sent electronically via ELIAS every year. For this purpose, the account registered as the user administrator of the higher education institution receives a notification by e-mail in the following format*:

This notification is created and sent automatically by ELIAS, it is not SPAM. The fee notification for the basic flat rate can be found after logging in to ELIAS under Accreditation database / All higher education institutions by clicking on the entry of the higher education institution.

The link contained in the message leads to the login page https://antrag.akkreditierungsrat.de/login/.

As the fee notifications (basic flat rate) are not sent in parallel by post or by separate e-mail, we ask the user administrator to forward the notification to the budget department/accounting department accordingly. Only higher education institutions that have not yet registered in ELIAS will continue to receive the notification by post.

*: Please note that the message text may be worded differently in the future.

Flat rate per case:

The application-related fee notifications (case flat rates) are also sent via ELIAS.

Between application and treatment by the Accreditation Council, the applicant will receive notification that a fee notice (advance payment) has been issued. This can be accessed under the respective application, point 4 (Notifications).

The applicant is requested to forward the notification accordingly to the responsible department of the college of cooperative education.

According to footnote 2 in the Fee Regulations, “in the case of […] combined study programmes […] each partial study programme is considered a study programme” within the meaning of the Fee Regulations.

Section 32 (1) MRVO defines a partial study programme as any subject that can be chosen in the respective combined study programme.

• This means that each subject in each teacher training program is considered a separate partial study programme.
  For example, the subject German in the combined study programme “Teacher training for elementary school” is considered a separate partial study programme; the subject German in the combined study programme “Teacher training for grammar schools” is considered another partial study programme.
• In two-subject or multi-subject Bachelor’s degree programs outside of teacher training, there is often the option of studying a subject with different ECTS credits in a combined study programme, for example History with 60 ECTS credits, 90 ECTS credits, 120 ECTS credits, etc. However, the different variants are not separate partial study programmes, as the subject History is offered in the same combined study programme (e.g. the “Two-subject Bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Philosophy”). 

  Specifically: If the subject “History” can be chosen in a combined study programme “Two-subject Bachelor”, it is a partial study programme in terms of fees, regardless of whether it can be chosen as a major subject, minor subject or in any number of other forms. The fee is charged for each subject from the catalog of selectable subjects.

  However, if “History” were also offered as a “single-subject Bachelor” or “mono Bachelor”, i.e. as an independent study programme outside the two-subject combined study programme, it would then be an additional study programme in terms of fees.