FAQ category: 03 Publication of accreditation reports

As a general rule, the publication requirement—that is, the obligation to publish the accreditation decision and the accreditation report—applies in accordance with § 29 MRVO to all program and system accreditations on which the Accreditation Council makes a final decision.

Accreditation information from program and system accreditation procedures (both positive and negative) is therefore published in a separate online database maintained by the Accreditation Council.

For study programmes that have been accredited through internal accreditation procedures at system-accredited higher education institutions, at least the accreditation decision and a brief summary of the quality assessment must be published in the Accreditation Council’s database (Section 18(4), second sentence, MRVO, thereby also applying to Alternative Procedures). In addition, basic information must be provided in each case regarding the study programme, the accreditation period or deadlines, any conditions imposed, and the external peer review reports involved.

The amended version of the MRVO dated November 21, 2024, no longer requires the publication of Quality Reports for internally accredited study programmes. However, system-accredited higher education institutions are, of course, still free to prepare Quality Reports as part of their internal accreditation processes and to publish them in the database. Given the varying structures of their quality management systems, system-accredited higher education institutions may decide on an appropriate reporting format; they are not required to follow the reporting template of the Accreditation Council for programme accreditation.

No, see Question 3.1

Note regarding the change: This question was originally part of FAQ 3.1.

In the new system, the institution responsible for entries in the database of accredited study programmes is always the institution that makes the decision on the accreditation of a study programme or quality management system (even for higher education institutions that are system-accredited under the old law): The Accreditation Council in the case of programme and system accreditation, the system-accredited higher education institution for its own study programmes (see § 18 para. 4 sentence 2 of the MRVO).

The Head Office of the Accreditation Council will continue to be responsible for checking and releasing individual database entries. All information entered in the database will be checked for technical accuracy and then released to the public.

Note on the change: This question was initially part of FAQ 3.1.

The database entries for the study programmes accredited internally by the system-accredited higher education institutions must contain the following information:

• Deadlines for accreditation of the study programme,
• Type of accreditation (initial accreditation, re-accreditation, provisional accreditation, deadline extension, other),
• a brief profile of the study programme including basic data contained in the Accreditation Council’s reporting grid for all procedure types*,
• a summarized assessment,
• Information on the participation of external peer review reports** and, if provided for in the QM system of the higher education institution, information on the conditions imposed (with details on the fulfillment of the conditions).

* Corresponding mandatory fields (with predefined formats) are provided for entering the basic data for the individual study programmes in the Accreditation Council’s digital application processing system to be set up.

** The data protection regulations pursuant to Section 29 sentence 2 apply accordingly.

Note on the change: This question was initially part of FAQ 3.1.

The Accreditation Council publishes information on the accreditation of Alternative Procedures in its database. Separate regulations apply to the internal accreditation of study programmes conducted as part of these Alternative Procedures; these regulations are based on the individual agreements between higher education institutions and the Accreditation Council regarding the implementation of the accreditation procedures. In principle, higher education institutions are also required to publish this information.