Baden-Württemberg’s State Higher Education Act stipulates in Sec. 30(4) that all degree programs must be accredited by the Accreditation Council. Details are regulated in the Study Accreditation State Agreement and the respective state ordinances (Study Accreditation Ordinance). Universities can decide from among three different procedures: Program accreditation, system accreditation, and alternative procedures.
The Study Accreditation State Agreement went into effect on 1 January 2018. In this document, the states amended the German accreditation system.
Additional information: Accreditation Council
For program accreditation, a degree program is reviewed - or several degree programs (clusters) that are closely related in terms of subject matter are reviewed. The review is conducted with the participation of an external accreditation agency. The accreditation is granted by the Accreditation Council for the degree program for a limited period of time. Until now, the University's faculties were responsible for the program accreditation of their degree programs. System accreditation does not start at the level of individual degree programs: The subject of the review is the University's quality management system. The QM system is reviewed with the participation of an external accreditation agency and accredited by the Accreditation Council. System accreditation is also granted for a limited period (for 8 years).
With the system accreditation, the University receives the authorization to accredit its study degree programs itself, i.e. internally, to award the accreditation seal and to enter this in the central database of accredited degree programs. It is the University's responsibility to internally review all Bachelor's and Master's degree programs during the 8-year term.
At a glance
The University establishes a quality management system for studies and teaching. This must include procedures by which the University itself checks the quality of the individual degree programs. As a result, the University must be able to ensure that its degree programs meet the formal and subject-related criteria of the Study Accreditation Ordinance.
The University has the freedom to develop an suitable procedure for itself. Certain requirements regarding participation and documentation must be followed.
In addition, at least one degree program must have gone through this internal QM system before the University can start the system accreditation process.
The University selects an accrediting agency: The University of Hohenheim commissioned the agency ACQUIN.
The University submits its self-report to the accreditation agency: completed in July 2019
1. On-site visit to the University: Agency evaluators visit Hohenheim to learn about the University and its QM system (completed on November 7-8, 2019)
2. On-site visit to the University: Agency evaluators review the QM system and effectiveness using selected degree programs. The examples are chosen by the agency on the justified suggestion of the reviewers (completed on March 2-3, 2020).
The agency prepares an accreditation report (completed in July 2020).
The University submits the accreditation report to the Accreditation Council and thus starts the administrative accreditation procedure (completed in July 2020).
The Accreditation Council decides on the accreditation (completed on September 29, 2020).
During the preparation of the procedure and for the duration of the accreditation process, the previously program-accredited degree programs continue to be considered accredited, as expiring accreditations can be extended.
Further details: Presentation of the Acquin Agency
The Vice President for Academic Affairs is responsible for preparing and implementing the system accreditation. Coordination is the responsibility of the Quality Management | Teaching Strategy Unit with support from the Teaching Development Office.
A cross-faculty team led by the Vice President for Academic Affairs is tasked with preparing for system accreditation. Members of this core team system accreditation are
- Deans of Studies from the faculties
- one person from each faculty administration
- students
- the chairperson of the Senate Committee for Quality Management
- Director of the Department of Academic Affairs
- the staff unit for Teaching Development
- Director of the Quality Management | Teaching Strategy unit
The core team system accreditation is
- a working group that prepares the content of the basic work packages (e.g. design of the QM system)
- the steering group for several downstream thematic work packages, which are handled by the respective project managers with their project groups.
The core team reports at regular intervals on the progress of preparations at university-wide information events. The committees (student parliament, faculty councils, President's Office) are each informed about the status of the preparations by members of the core team. The core team prepares the content of the project to the point where the relevant University committees can pass the corresponding resolutions.
Since the University is currently operating within a legal framework that was redefined in 2018 and there are no precedents yet for the interpretation of the new set of rules by the Accreditation Council, the University is being advised by the agency evalag as needed.
The QM system takes up a fundamental idea of the University's understanding of quality: the actors are decisive for quality - with regard to their qualification, motivation, and their interaction. Therefore, the QM system aims to promote dialog between the lecturers in a degree program (with the participation of the students) and to create set times for joint reflection on teaching and studying.
The QM system is intended as a monitoring system in which
- a defined group of persons
- on the basis of defined information
- discuss the further development of teaching and studies at defined intervals and agree on development measures.
The monitoring system provides for two stages: The discussion processes take place in cycles, with different people involved depending on the cycle. Every 8 years, in the large cycle, external participation is included. In addition, the program is discussed with the President's Office from a strategic perspective and a development agreement is set down between the faculty and the President’s Office. This large cycle is completed by the legally required internal accreditation decision.
In order to test this theoretically outlined procedure, each faculty named a model degree program that went through this large cycle with an internal accreditation decision in the winter semester 2018/19. As a basis of information, data from student operations were compiled for the model degree programs and supplemented with results from the 2018 graduate survey. After completion of the model run, the experiences were jointly evaluated in order to adjust the QM system.