Accreditation of Master programmes
The MES program has been re-accredited in 2009.
Accreditation aims to ensure that German academic degrees are recognised both in the national context as well as in the international field. Following an amendment to the Higher Education Act (HRG) in 1998, accreditation was introduced as a means of achieving recognition for German academic degrees. The international recognised Bachelor's and Master's degrees will be established all over Germany by 2010. This complex reform in higher education became a central objective of the higher education policy in Germany. Background is the Bologna Process with the establishment of an "European Higher Education Area" as one of its principal targets.
The implementation of Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Germany will not only replace the labels "Diplom" and "Magister", moreover it emerges a complete new system with newly designed study programmes. The Bachelor's and Master's degrees will be structured by a qualitative and quantifiable module system. Beside the acceptance of qualifications transparency and comparable standards regarding the contents of study programmes are basic requirements for the successful development of a transmissible "European Higher Education Area". As the operative instrument of quality assurance all new structured study programmes have to be accredited by one of the six accreditation agencies authorized by the Accreditation Council. This procedure is no longer carried out by the state itself, but rather by autonomous and competing agencies.
Bachelor's and Master's study programmes were introduced at German universities in response to an identified need for Germany to raise its internationality as a centre for academic study and higher education, especially for foreign students. Based on the HRG amendment of 20 August 1998 (last amended by Art. 1 of the Act of 8 August 2002), German universities can, in accordance with § 19 HRG, now introduce study programmes leading to the internationally known and recognised Bachelor's and Master's degrees. The guidelines produced within the Bologna Process, which are based on the assumption that students complete two consecutive graduation cycles, form the basis for the German Bachelor's/Master's system. Accordingly, the first stage (cycle) leads to a Bachelor's degree after a minimum of three and a maximum of four years. The second stage (cycle) leads to a Master's degree after a minimum of one year and a maximum of two years of study and - after a total of 300 ECTS points - qualifies holders for admission to doctoral programmes. All study programmes are subject to state approval which, besides the integration into the Länder (state) higher education planning and the provision of resources, above all relates to the observance of specific structural guidelines. In addition, all Bachelor's and Master's programmes must be accredited. Within the scope of reviewing the programme's academic and disciplinary content, accreditation particularly determines whether a programme meets the minimum standards and whether it is relevant to professional requirements in the field.
For further information about accreditation, please check www.accreditation-council.de.
Please let us know if there is anything else you need to know and we will be happy to assist you.
