FAQ-Kategorie: 20 National study programme related cooperation

The following case groups belong to national study programme related cooperation in accordance with Section 20 (1) MRVO:

Case group 1: Several German higher education institutions jointly run a study programme.
Case group 2: Several German higher education institutions offer several identical or predominantly identical study programmes in parallel.

See FAQ 15 for the distinction between case groups 1 and 2. The higher education institutions define whether one or more study programmes exist in the (study and) examination regulations.
This FAQ only applies to cooperations in which at least two German higher education institutions are involved (in addition to foreign higher education institutions, if applicable) and only applies to this cooperation between German higher education institutions. For the application of the European Approach to international cooperation, see FAQ 07.

§ Section 20 (1) sentence 1 MRVO reads: “If a higher education institution carries out a study programme related cooperation with another higher education institution, the degree awarding institution(s) shall guarantee the implementation and quality of the study programme concept.”

This means that, regardless of the constellation involved, the peer review panel or the Agencies must examine the fulfillment of the formal and academic criteria at all locations or all parts of the study programme(s) contributed by the participating higher education institutions. In particular, the personnel and material resources at all participating higher education institutions must be assessed insofar as they are relevant to the study programme applied for accreditation. However, a joint peer-review procedure is not mandatory in case group 2, see below.

§ Section 20 (1) sentence 2 MRVO reads: “The nature and scope of the cooperation are described and the agreements on which the cooperation is based are documented.”

Sentence 2 thus refers to the fact that the structure of the cooperation relationship is to be assessed on the basis of a meaningful and up-to-date cooperation agreement, among other things.

When jointly implementing a joint study programme(case group 1, see FAQ 20.1), the degree-awarding institutions involved must commission a joint peer-review procedure with an Agencies. A joint self-evaluation report and a joint accreditation report are prepared. This is due to the fact that in this case an accreditation decision necessarily applies to the entire study programme, as it is the subject of accreditation as a whole (see FAQ 20.5).

In the event that several higher education institutions carry out several identical or essentially identical study programmes in parallel(case group 2, see FAQ 20.1), the higher education institutions are free to decide whether they carry out a joint bundle procedure for the study programmes with a joint self-evaluation report and joint accreditation report or whether each higher education institution carries out its own procedure for its respective study programme. In the event that a joint procedure is carried out, differences regarding the concept and implementation of the study programmes at the individual higher education institutions can be listed or assessed separately in the self-evaluation report and accreditation report.

However, a higher education institution that only provides modules but does not award a degree does not have to participate in the peer-review procedure. In this case, the degree awarding institution is obliged to regulate the cooperation relationship with the supplying institution in a transparent and binding manner, as the cooperation agreement is required in the peer-review procedure and later as part of the administrative procedure at the Accreditation Council.

In the cover sheet of the accreditation report, the study form “Cooperation § 20 MRVO” must be selected in all cases.

If several degree-awarding institutions jointly offer a study programme(case group 1, see FAQ 20.1) and if they include system-accredited higher education institutions, these higher education institutions must jointly decide whether the study programme should be program-accredited or whether the system-accredited higher education institution should award a seal for the study programme in accordance with Section 20 (2) MRVO.

Without the additional requirements according to § 20 para. 2 MRVO being fulfilled, a system-accredited higher education institution cannot issue accreditation for a joint study programme that would apply to the study programme as a whole, as it does not bear sole responsibility for the quality of the programme.

In addition, it is not legally possible for the system-accredited higher education institution to carry out an internal accreditation of a study programme jointly run by several higher education institutions and for the other participating higher education institutions to carry out an external programme accreditation of the same study programme, as only one accreditation decision can be made for a study programme or no further accreditation decision can be made due to the validity of an accreditation decision made for the same study programme.

An internal accreditation of the study programme and awarding of the seal by the system-accredited higher education institution in accordance with Section 20 (2) may take place if its requirements are met: “If a system-accredited higher education institution carries out a study programme-related cooperation with another higher education institution, the system-accredited higher education institution may award the Accreditation Council’s seal to the study programme in accordance with Section 22 (4) sentence 2, provided it is itself a degree-awarding institution and guarantees the implementation and quality of the study programme concept.”

The higher education institution is considered a degree awarding institution even if it only awards the degree to students enrolled with it.

If several higher education institutions offer several identical or essentially identical study programmes in parallel(case group 2, see FAQ 20.1) and if they include system-accredited higher education institutions, they can only award the seal for the study programmes they offer after they have passed their own internal quality management systems. In this case, the study programmes in the cooperation that are offered by higher education institutions that are not system-accredited must undergo separate program accreditations. The program accreditations can be carried out in joint accreditation procedures; however, this is not mandatory (see FAQ 20.3). § Section 20 para. 2 MRVO cannot be applied here.

A distinction must be made between a joint study programme(case group 1, see FAQ 20.1) and several identical or essentially identical study programmes conducted in parallel(case group 2, see FAQ 20.1).

In the case of a joint study programme(case group 1), an accreditation decision necessarily applies to the entire study programme, as it is the subject of accreditation as a whole. Since such an accreditation decision cannot be made without the consent of all degree awarding institutions involved, all degree awarding institutions involved in a study programme must agree to the application. Without such a declaration of intent, the Accreditation Council cannot accept the application for decision. For the application, the university submitting the application must enclose the informal declarations of consent of all other cooperating degree awarding institutions.

A higher education institution that does not award its own degree, but only provides modules, does not have to agree to the application.

This is to be distinguished from the constellation in which several higher education institutions offer identical or predominantly identical study programmes in parallel(case group 2). For this reason, each higher education institution must submit its own accreditation application.

In this case, a separate accreditation decision can legally be made for each higher education institution independently of any applications from the other participating higher education institutions.

In both constellations, the higher education institutions involved are requested to indicate in the application, e.g. by means of a message in ELIAS, that this is a study programme related cooperation in accordance with Section 20 MRVO, the nature of this cooperation (implementation of a joint study programme according to case group 1 or implementation of several identical or predominantly identical study programmes according to case group 2) and the application numbers of all applications submitted for the cooperation.

In the case of a joint study programme(case group 1, see FAQ 20.1), an accreditation decision necessarily applies to the entire study programme, as it is the subject of accreditation as a whole (see FAQ 20.5). If an accreditation application has been submitted by one of the cooperating degree-awarding institutions and declarations of consent have been received from the other degree-awarding institutions involved, all degree-awarding institutions involved in the cooperation will therefore receive a database entry about the accreditation decision. Resolutions and notifications are stored in the database entries of all participating higher education institutions. For technical reasons, these are addressed to the higher education institutions submitting the application. If you are a cooperating degree awarding institution and require an individual resolution or notice, please contact the Head Office.

If several higher education institutions offer identical or predominantly identical study programmes in parallel(case group 2, see FAQ 20.1), a separate accreditation decision is made for each higher education institution independently of any applications submitted by the other participating higher education institutions.

Case group 1 (several higher education institutions jointly run a study programme, see FAQ 20.1): As the Fee Regulations stipulate that the procedure-related fee (“per-case fee”) is payable per study programme, the per-case fee is only payable once. In ELIAS, this is mapped in such a way that only the higher education institution that submits the application receives a fee notification.

Case group 2 (several higher education institutions offer several identical or predominantly identical study programmes in parallel, see FAQ 20.1): The flat rate per case is incurred separately for each of the study programmes, as the Fee Regulations provide for one fee per study programme.