03.1 To which accreditation decisions does the obligation to publish accreditation results apply and where are these published?

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.