System Evaluation as part of the Accreditation Procedures of the University of Kassel
With regard to overarching aspects of the system of study programs leading to Bachelor's and Master's degrees, which are reviewed in accreditation procedures, the University of Kassel successfully underwent a 'system assessment' procedure by the accreditation agency ZEvA Hannover in 2014/15.
About the procedure
The background for the implementation of the system evaluation was to relieve the program accreditations, which are predominantly bundled in clusters, of general aspects, to concentrate the procedures on the subject matter and at the same time to develop the overarching regulations for the Bachelor's and Master's programs in a targeted manner. In addition to these objectives, the implementation also takes up the recurring criticism in the internal university discussion that the procedures are labor-intensive, in particular due to redundancies, that dealing with general aspects and university-wide framework regulations in the procedures takes up too much space at the expense of the assessment of the individual study programs, and that the assessments of these aspects also differ from procedure to procedure.
On the basis of a 'System Report of the University of Kassel', the university-wide framework regulations and measures for the implementation of accreditation-relevant criteria of teaching and studies in the Bachelor's and Master's programs were considered within the framework of an on-site visit by an external expert group.
The system evaluation will be used as a basis for the program/cluster procedures at ZEvA from 2015. The goal on the part of the university was to ensure that the results of the system evaluation would also be fundamentally taken into account in the procedures conducted at other agencies. In the meantime, the agencies ASIIN and AHPGS have confirmed that they will also take the results of the system evaluation into account for the procedures carried out at their agencies and recommend that the respective reviewers follow the assessments from the system evaluation when examining facts that have already been established.
Result of the system evaluation
In the "Decision on System Assessment", the University of Kassel was found to have a very good overall level of development with regard to procedures and processes, and the extensive conformity of the overarching regulations with the requirements of the accreditation system was certified. Some recommendations for implementation were made.