In view of the current situation surrounding the coronavirus, the Board of the German Accreditation Council decided on March 10, 2020:
Visits in the context of accreditations may be affected by, among other things, the closure of higher education institutions or travel restrictions ordered or recommended by the authorities or ordered by individual higher education institutions for their members. In view of the dynamically developing situation, the Board is holding firm for the time being:
- Agencies and higher education institutions in program and system accreditation as well as system-accredited higher education institutions must decide with their peer reviewers in internal procedures whether to cancel an on-site visit in individual cases in view of the specific situation.
- The higher education institutions should not suffer any disadvantages in the event of a rejection.
- The Board will therefore approve extraordinary extensions of accreditation upon request. Applications must be submitted in the usual way via ELIAS and justified with reference to the corona situation, if possible with reference to official orders/recommendations.
- This does not extend the accreditation period. This means that as soon as the inspection is made up for, the extension granted will be taken into account.
- The Board asks to check whether an inspection can be carried out virtually and/or whether a waiver of the inspection in accordance with Section 24 (5) MRVO is possible.
Technical implementation (23.03.2020): For the extension of the accreditation of study programmes, a new application type “extraordinary extension of acc reditation” has been set up in ELIAS, which is to be used for these cases. Applications for the extension of system accreditation can be submitted outside of ELIAS by email. In consultation with the agency representatives in the Accreditation Council, it is recommended to apply for an extension of one year.