Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria

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The Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria ( AQ Austria ) was founded on March 1st, 2012 on the basis of the Higher Education Quality Assurance Act (HS-QSG). It is a legal person under public law. According to the legal mandate, AQ Austria is responsible for the entire university sector (except for the universities of teacher education). The responsibilities are specified in § 1 HS-QSG as follows:

Section 1. (1) This federal law regulates external quality assurance at the following university post-secondary educational institutions:

  1. Universities according to the Universities Act 2002 (UG), Federal Law Gazette I No. 120/2002,
  2. University for Continuing Education Krems according to DUK Act 2004, Federal Law Gazette I No. 22/2004,
  3. Holder of university of applied sciences degree programs in accordance with the University of Applied Sciences Studies Act (FHStG), Federal Law Gazette No. 340/1993,
  4. Private universities according to the University Accreditation Act (UniAkkG), Federal Law Gazette I No. 168/1999, and according to the Private Universities Act (PUG), Federal Law Gazette I No. 74/2011 .

(2) The external quality assurance of the educational institutions according to Paragraph 1 is carried out by:

  1. Certification of the quality management system of educational institutions;
  2. Accreditation of studies;
  3. Accreditation of educational institutions;
  4. Supervision of the educational institutions accredited according to this federal law and the studies accredited according to this federal law.

organization

According to § 4 Abs 1 HS-QSG as amended it is regulated that the organs of AQ Austria are the board of trustees, the board, the general assembly and the complaints committee.

  • Board of Trustees § 5 HS-QSG as amended
  • Board § 6 HS-QSG as amended
  • General assembly § 11 HS-QSG as amended
  • Complaints committee § 13 HS-QSG as amended
  • Office

General Assembly and Board of Trustees

In the General Assembly, which meets at least twice a year, the relevant interest groups are represented, who send varying numbers of volunteer representatives. The representatives are appointed by the Federal Minister on the proposal of the sending associations for a period of five years; reappointments are permitted. The General Assembly elects a chairperson from among its members.

The tasks of the general assembly are in particular the election of the board of trustees, the nomination and appointment of the complaints committee and the nomination of members of the board, which must be done jointly with a two-thirds majority. All other resolutions are passed by a simple majority with at least fifteen members present.

As of January 2020, the members of the General Assembly are:

Representatives nominated by the Advisory Board for Economic and Social Issues

  • Gudrun Feucht
  • Bernadette Hauer
  • Bernhard Keiler
  • Melina Schneider
  • Alexander Prischl
  • Gabriele Schmid

Representative of the Austrian Students' Union

  • Anja Miscevic
  • Benedikt Sonnweber
  • Marie-Therese Schrentewein

Representatives of the university conference

  • Elisabeth Fiorioli
  • Bernhard Fügenschuh
  • Mario Kostal
  • Sabine Baumgartner
  • Anita Rieder (Chair)
  • Doris Hattenberger

Representative of the university conference

  • Erich Brugger (Deputy Chairman)
  • Gerald Reisinger
  • Barbara Bittner
  • Doris Walter

Representative of the Austrian Conference of Private Universities

  • Jutta Fiegl
  • Karl Wöber

Representative of the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research

  • Eva Erlinger-Schacherbauer
  • Elmar Pichl

The members of the Board of Trustees are:

  • Erich Brugger (Chairman)
  • Anita Rieder (Deputy Chair)
  • Gudrun Feucht
  • Anja Miscevic
  • Karl Wöber

board

The Board is the central, independent decision-making body of AQ Austria that is free of instructions. This committee of experts is responsible in particular for all decisions on accreditations and certifications, resolutions on procedural guidelines and standards, supervisory functions for accredited educational institutions in Austria, the publication of the results of quality assurance procedures and the organization of the office. Due to the different types of quality assurance procedures, the board has both sovereign and non-sovereign powers.

As of January 2020, the members of the board are:

Experts from the field of higher education

Student representatives

  • Melanie Good
  • Silke Kern

Representative of professional practice

  • Martha Eckl
  • Rudolf Lichtmanegger
  • Thomas Mayr
  • Peter Schlögl

Complaints Commission

The Complaints Commission deals with and decides objections by educational institutions against the course of the procedure and against certification decisions.

The members of the complaints commission are:

  • Bettina Perthold-Stoitzner (Chair)
  • Walter Berka
  • Jana Gerslova

The substitute members are:

  • Christiane game
  • Guy Haug

tasks

Austrian private universities and universities of applied sciences require accreditation as a prerequisite for their state recognition. With the accreditation, AQ Austria certifies that the universities have met the accreditation requirements. Public universities are not subject to any accreditation requirement. The only exceptions are doctoral studies at Danube University Krems, for which program accreditation is required in accordance with § 24 HS-QSG. Audits are carried out in Austria at public universities and technical colleges. Audits are an integral part of external quality assurance in Austria through the University Quality Assurance Act as amended. The organization and implementation of the internal quality management system of a university are examined in an audit. Since the 2014 amendment to the HS-QSG, AQ Austria has also made the mandatory reporting of cross-border studies by foreign universities in Austria in accordance with Section 27 HS-QSG. Foreign universities are allowed to conduct courses of study in Austria on the basis of the Higher Education Quality Assurance Act (HS-QSG), provided that these are training courses recognized in their home country or country of residence within the meaning of Section 51, Paragraph 2, Item 1 UG. The prerequisite for the implementation is the registration of the studies and their inclusion in a directory of AQ Austria. The notification of foreign study programs and their inclusion in this directory does not imply any determination of equivalence with Austrian study programs and corresponding Austrian academic degrees. The courses of study and academic degrees are deemed to be those of the home country or country of residence of the foreign university. According to the legal mandate, AQ Austria is responsible for the entire higher education sector (with the exception of teacher training colleges) in Austria. AQ Austria is also active outside of Austria and also offers voluntary accreditations for university training and carries out accreditations abroad.

Accreditation

In Austria , accreditation is required for private universities and technical colleges . The accreditation can only be granted by the agency; the accreditation procedure is a sovereign procedure that is concluded by notification .

A distinction is made between institutional accreditation and program accreditation . While the program accreditation, which has to be applied for for each new course, is granted for an unlimited period, the institutional accreditation is only granted for six years ( § 23 or § 24 HS-QSG ).

At private universities, accreditation is granted for twelve years after twelve years of existence. At universities of applied sciences, an audit process must be carried out after twelve years of existence, which must be repeated every seven years. With the positive completion of the audit process, the university of applied sciences continues to be regarded as accredited ( Section 23 (9) HS-QSG ).

Certification of the quality management system (audit)

The public universities and the universities of applied sciences that have been in existence for twelve years each have to carry out an audit procedure ( § 22 HS-QSG ). The internal quality management system of the respective university is checked in an audit process and the university receives a corresponding certificate if it meets the legal requirements. An audit procedure can be carried out by the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria or any other agency recognized by the Federal Ministry of Science and Research § 19 Paragraph 2 HS-QSG . If the quality management system of the university is not certified by the respective agency, a re-audit by the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria is mandatory after two years.

Further tasks

According to § 3 HS-QSG , the agency also has to fulfill the following tasks in the area of ​​external quality assurance:

  • Development and implementation of external quality assurance procedures, in any case audit and accreditation procedures, according to national and international standards;
  • Accreditation of higher education institutions and studies;
  • Reports to the National Council through the responsible federal minister;
  • Publication of the results reports of the quality assurance procedures;
  • continuous monitoring of accredited higher education institutions and studies with regard to the accreditation requirements;
  • Tasks in accordance with the provisions of the University of Applied Sciences Studies Act and the Private Universities Act ;
  • Certification of educational institutions after audit;
  • Implementation of studies and system analyzes, evaluations and projects;
  • Information and advice on questions of quality assurance and quality development;
  • International cooperation in the field of quality assurance

Due to the HS-QSG, the agency is also entitled to carry out accreditation procedures in other countries in accordance with the regulations applicable there. By decision of the German Accreditation Council on June 3, 2013 , the agency received the right to carry out system and program accreditations in Germany .

history

For the first time in Austria, an accreditation facility was set up in 1993 in the area of ​​technical colleges. Due to the peculiarity that in Austria universities of applied sciences (providers of university of applied sciences courses ) are organized under private law , the law of university of applied sciences provided that university of applied sciences courses require accreditation by the university council .

In 1999, the University Accreditation Act provided the possibility of creating private universities. A separate committee, the Austrian Accreditation Council, was founded to decide on the accreditation of private universities .

In the course of the implementation of the Bologna Process , the creation of a quality assurance facility also became loud for the universities. This was a private law association , the Austrian Agency for Quality Assurance realized (AQA). This association has no accreditation authority vis-à-vis the state universities, rather its tasks consisted in the implementation of quality assurance projects together with domestic and foreign universities. From June 2009 the AQA was authorized to offer system accreditation in Germany according to the guidelines of the German Accreditation Council .

In 2011 it was decided to merge the three named institutions into a single agency. The Higher Education Quality Assurance Act passed in autumn 2011 provided for the establishment of the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria on March 1, 2012. As a transitional provision, the law allowed the University of Applied Sciences Council and the Austrian Accreditation Council to complete ongoing procedures on March 1, 2012 by the end of August 2012. There were no special transitional provisions for the AQA, as it was organized as an association and should be handled as such. The new Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria received the right to carry out system and program accreditations in Germany by decision of the German Accreditation Council on June 3, 2013 , while the AQA's authorization ended on March 21, 2014.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] AQ Austria website, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  2. ↑ [2] HS-QSG, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  3. ↑ [3] UG 2002, accessed March 29, 2018.
  4. ↑ [4] DUK Act 2004, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  5. ↑ [5] FHStG, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  6. ↑ [6] UniAkkG, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  7. ↑ [7] PUG, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  8. ↑ [8] AQ Austria, accessed on January 21, 2020.
  9. ↑ [9] AQ Austria Board, accessed on January 21, 2020.
  10. ↑ [10] Accreditation, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  11. ↑ [11] Audit, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  12. ↑ [12] Amendment HS-QSG 2014, accessed on March 29, 2018.
  13. ↑ a b German Accreditation Council: Press release from June 4, 2013 (PDF; 73 kB), accessed on July 22, 2013.
  14. ↑ See the transitional regulations that were announced on the homepage ( Memento of December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); Retrieved August 5, 2012.