German Accreditation Council (GAC)
The main aim of the Accreditation Council (Foundation for the Accreditation of Study Programmes in Germany) is to contribute to the development in the quality of teaching and learning in Germany and, with this in mind, to contribute to the realisation of the European Higher Education Area.
To this end, on behalf of the German Federal States, the Foundation takes care that the accreditation agencies certified to carry out accreditation procedures demonstrate that they do this to the highest degree of quality, comparability and transparency. Before any Agency is given the authority to award the Quality Seal of the Accreditation Council, it must itself be subject to an accreditation process.On application from an accreditation agency, the accreditation process is carried out by the Accreditation Council which, as the central decision-making body of the Foundation, decides on the accreditation or reaccreditation of accreditation agencies in Germany.
Responsibilities
The Accreditation Council serves to fulfil the following tasks:
- Accreditation and reaccreditation of Accreditation Agencies by the time-limited granting of the entitlement to accredit study programmes through the award of the Foundation’s seal
- Compilation of the common and the specific structural guidelines of the Länder into binding guidelines for the Agencies
- Regulation of the requirements for accreditation procedures including the prerequi-sites and limits of bundled accreditations
- Monitoring of accreditations undertaken by the Agencies
- Ensuring a fair competition among the Agencies
- Definition of prerequisites for the recognition of accreditations by foreign institutions, taking account the developments in Europe
- Promotion of international cooperation in the field of accreditation and quality assurance
Focus of accreditation
The actual objects of the accreditation procedure are either higher education programmes that lead to Bachelor and Master's Degrees (programme accreditation) or the internal quality assurance systems of higher education institutions in the field of teaching and learning (system accreditation).
If a programme has successfully undergone an accreditation procedure carried out by one of the licensed Agencies, it has demonstrated the fulfilment of quality criteria set by the Accreditation Council.
Primarily the criteria for programme accreditation refer to the educational goals, the programme's concept and classification within the academic system, the realisation of the concept and the quality assurance activities of the Higher Edu-cation Institution. An accredited programme is awarded the quality seal of the Accreditation Council for a limited period of five to eight years.
In case of a system accreditation, programmes that already have been the subject of the institution's internal quality assurance system are accredited.
The evaluation of programmes and of the internal quality assurance systems is carried out by the licensed accreditation agencies in accordance with the given criteria adopted by the Accreditation Council. On the basis of the evaluation report drawn up by an expert group the responsible accreditation commission from the relevant accreditation agency decides either to grant an accreditation, to abandon the process, to reject the accreditation or – only in case of a programme accreditation – to grant an accreditation with conditions.
An accredited programme is awarded the quality seal of the Foundation (Accreditation Council) for a limited period of five to eight years.
A system accreditation is granted to a higher education institution for a period of six and – in case of a reaccreditation – up to eight years.
The consequences of accreditation
The accreditation of programmes leading to Bachelor and Master's Degrees is prescribed as a directive in the common structural guidelines of the Conference of German Cultural Ministers (KMK) and must, as a precondition for the granting of state approval, be embedded in the various individual laws concerning Higher Education in each of the Federal German States.
In case of a system accreditation all programmes that already have been the subject of the internal quality assurance system are accredited.
If the accreditation of the internal quality assurance system (system accreditation) is rejected, the higher education institution can still apply for the individual accreditation of their programmes (programme accreditation).
If the accreditation of a programme is rejected, the higher education institution is not authorised to designate that programme as accredited. In accordance with the individual laws concerning higher education in each of the Federal German States, a non-accredited programme will lose the state recognition of the degree.
Publication policy
The Accreditation Council publishes information on:
- accredited programmes
- including information on the profiles, the evaluations of the currently accredited programmes and – since July 2006 – the names of the involved experts (peers)
- licensed accreditation agencies
- including accreditation applications from accreditation agencies, the evaluation report, the agency's responses, the Accreditation Council's resolutions and other documents submitted by the accreditation agencies
- rules, regulations and recommendations concerning the accreditation of accreditation agencies and the accreditation of programmes
- members of the Foundation bodies
- contact persons at the head office
Furthermore, the Accreditation Council publishes an annual work report which provide details of the results of the Foundation’s work as well as of current developments in accreditation in a national and international context.
Mutual recognition agreements
At the moment, the German Accreditation Council has no mutual recognition agreements due to the German legal framework in which it operates.
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| Website of the German Accreditation Council (GAC) |
