06.1 What regulations apply to program accreditation procedures with contracts concluded up to and including 31.12.2017 and to completed program accreditations based on such old contracts?

For such procedures or completed program accreditations, the previous law continues to apply. Resolutions of the Accreditation Council, in particular on the criteria and rules of procedure, which were adopted up to and including 31.12.2017, apply to such old procedures; see in particular the “Rules for the Accreditation of Study Programmes and for System Accreditation“, resolution of the Accreditation Council of 08.12.2009, last amended on 20.02.2013, as well as the “Common Structural Guidelines of the Länder“. Handouts and circulars on the previous law also continue to serve as an aid to interpretation for such accreditation procedures.

The old law applies for the entire accreditation period. This means that the old law also applies to the addition of further partial study programmes to an accreditation of a combined study programme under the old law. The Agencies that accredited the combined study programme are responsible for this.

A distinction must be made for essential changes to study programmes:
If a study programme accredited under the old law is offered by a non-system-accredited higher education institution, the Agencies that accredited the study programme under the old law are also responsible for assessing the changes in accordance with the aforementioned principle. The higher education institution must therefore report the change to the Agencies (see 3.6.3 of the Rules for the Accreditation of Study Programmes and for System Accreditation, resolution of the Accreditation Council of 08.12.2009, last amended on 20.02.2013).

If, on the other hand, a study programme accredited under the old or new law is offered by a system-accredited higher education institution (under the old or new law), the system-accredited higher education institution may evaluate changes to this study programme itself on the basis of the internal processes provided for in its QM system. This is due to the fact that system accreditation gives higher education institutions the right to make their own decisions on all accreditation-relevant issues relating to their study programs.