Quality Management

Quality Management

The AHPGS has a formalized quality management whose principles have been defined in a “System for internal quality management of the AHPGS”.

The key goal of AHPGS’s internal quality assurance is the continuous review and improvement of internal processes in order to achieve effective and efficient fulfilment of goals and tasks. The continuous analysis and reflection of the processes for the implementation of accreditation procedures is thereby ensured. The measures take into account the “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG)” and the membership criteria of the “European Association for Quality Assurance” (ENQA).

All documents are only available in German:

External surveys

Once a year, a questionnaire survey of the experts involved in accreditation procedures and of the commissioning universities is carried out to evaluate the performance of the AHPGS. The results of the surveys of the years 2013-2019 can be found here (available only in German):

In summary, it can be said that customer satisfaction is of utmost importance for the AHPGS. The results of the survey of the cooperating universities show that it has been possible to meet the mutual expectations in the professional, expert implementation of accreditation procedures. The suggestions for improvement are carefully examined and implemented as far as possible. Overall, we see the high satisfaction rate not only as confirmation, but also as a challenge for future work.

With regard to the cooperation with the experts, it should be noted that the work of the AHPGS was assessed very positively by the experts. The AHPGS succeeded in providing the necessary support to the experts in the various phases of the accreditation procedures.

Complaints procedure

The AHPGS has formalised, internal procedures which grant the universities the right to appeal or object in relation to the implementation of an accreditation procedure and to complain in regard to accreditation decisions:

a) The universities are informed about the appointed reviewers prior to the on-site review and can submit justified complaints to the office. These complaints will be granted if they are conflicts of interest that are sufficiently substantiated.

b) Following the on-site review, a joint report is prepared by the expert group. The university receives the report (without recommendation for a decision) for comments. The higher education institution is entitled to assert factual corrections and submit them to the AHPGS office. The Accreditation Commission examines the objections, but is entitled, stating reasons, not to follow the objections.

c) The AHPGS has a complaints committee to which the university concerned can submit a complaint in relation to a procedure of the AHPGS. The committee listens and examines with regard to the proper execution of the procedure.

Complaint Procedure
Complaint Comitee

Ensuring the impartiality of the experts

In order to exclude conflicts of interest, all experts submit a signed declaration of their impartiality in the accreditation procedure prior to the on-site assessment.