The German System of Accreditation

Abstract

The German accreditation policy was introduced in 1998 as a response to the Bologna Process and transition to a new degree structure. Accreditation was expected to ensure minimum quality standards in higher education curricula and to assess labour market relevance of newly established Bachelor and Master programmes in Germany. All new study programmes are expected to be re-accredited every five years. The structure of the German accreditation system consists of two levels. The Accreditation Council defines standards, procedures, and criteria for accreditation and Accreditation Agencies, accredited by the Council, perform the accreditation. The accreditation system has established a comprehensive, external quality assessment system for teaching and learning in Germany. The policy, however, suffers from several problems. A program accreditation is an expensive procedure and the expenses have to be covered by institutions without any additional support. The accreditation system cannot keep up with curricula reforms and many programmes therefore have had to start without accreditation. Furthermore, the accreditation system contributes to the emergence of an overly complex system of quality assurance that combines state level, federal level and European level responsibilities.KeywordsHigh Education InstitutionDegree ProgrammeGerman StateAccreditation CouncilQuality Assurance SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.