Key Points for an
Akkreditierungsrat (Accreditation Council) System
to Monitor the Accreditation Agencies

(adopted on 17 August 2000)

The responsibilities assigned to the Akkreditierungsrat include that of coordinating the review procedures for the new degree courses (see KMK Resolution of 3 December 1998). In particular, this involves ensuring that

• the agencies implement the conditions,
• minimum standards and criteria are observed by the agencies respectively in the review procedures carried out in the higher education institutions,
• other Akkreditierungsrat resolutions (e.g. student participation in the procedures) are implemented.

Monitoring procedures or procedures of "formative evaluation" start from the assumption that a process of "critical examination"/evaluation accompanies the project. Within this system, the "accompanying" institution is, at the same time, a participant in the procedure, meaning that it is not purely performing a controlling function, since an openness on the part of all participants should be assumed when it comes to addressing critical or unsolved questions. Monitoring procedures serve to clarify problems and analyse the execution of new procedures.

Previously, the Akkreditierungsrat concentrated on the obligation of the agencies to submit an annual report (accountability commitment) to the Akkreditierungsrat as well as on the additional meetings held between Akkreditierungsrat and agencies which the system provided for.

In addition to these elements, a number of further measures are now to be introduced:

• a member of the Akkreditierungsrat may participate in the sessions of an agency's decision-making body (by arrangement with the agency),
• a member of the Akkreditierungsrat may participate and accompany the accreditation work of an agency (by arrangement with the agency or review team).

Over and above this, agencies should make all their evaluation reports on completed accreditation procedures available to the Akkreditierungsrat for internal use, where publication of the reports by the agency itself is not provided for.

The Akkreditierungsrat's coordinating function and service function for agencies should, in agreement with the agencies, also include the following elements:

• jointly-produced information brochures on accreditation (e.g. for a broader public, e.g. for reviewers, e.g. for higher education institutions),
• organisation of joint seminars,
• the (non-public) administration of a joint database containing the accreditation applications submitted by higher education institutions.