Universität Rostock - Structure - Quality Assurance - Assuring quality - Accreditation - Procedures

The accreditation procedures aim to ensure minimum professional and content standards and an examination of the professional relevance of the academic degrees. The guidelines defined by the German Higher Education Framework Act and the structural standards for study courses defined by the Conference of Cultural Ministers serve as the basis for the subject- and content-related accreditation of study courses. 

The structural standards refer to:

• General specifications on the standard period of study without subject- or degree-specific differentiations,
• Specifications on the structure of studies (staged, autonomous, job-qualifying) and on study organisation (modularisation and credit point system),
• Entrance requirements and transitions,
• Orientation of the study courses (more research oriented or practically oriented) and corresponding degree determinations and
• Value of the degrees in comparison with the traditional graduate system.

The accreditation procedure is implemented by agencies that organize and accompany the process of evaluation of single courses of study by external experts (peer review).

The procedure is mainly defined by the relevant agency which determines the specific course of the procedure. An internal course of procedure was elaborated by the University of Rostock on this basis - it is available for downloading here: 

There are agencies with different governing bodies and, partially, widely divergent orientations and objectives. The following types can be differentiated:

• Regional agencies, governed by one or several states or the universities of one or several states, responsible for study courses of the entire subject spectrum (ZEvA, ACQUIN, AQUAS) 
• Agencies with a specific professional orientation, co-governed by universities of applied sciences, professional associations or umbrella organisations (ASIIN, ACBS, AHPGS, FIBAA). 

At present, the following agencies are entitled to award the accreditation council’s seal of quality to accredited courses of study:

• AQAS - Agency of Quality Assurance by study course accreditation  
• ASIIN - Accreditation agency for the study courses Engineering Sciences, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Mathematics
• AHPGS - Accreditation agency for study courses in the fields Orthopedagogy, Care, Health and Social work, registered association
• ACQUIN - Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute 
• FIBAA - Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation 
• ZEvA - Central Evaluation and Accreditation agency Hannover
• AKAST - Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of canonical courses of study 
• AQA - Austrian Quality Assurance Agency
• OAQ - Institution for accreditation and quality assurance of the Swiss Universities

The University of Rostock is a member of the Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute (ACQUIN).

An overview of the agencies is available on the website of the accreditation council .