Guidelines for FIBAA Experts in Accreditation & Certification Procedures

Guidelines for FIBAA Experts in Accreditation & Certification Procedures

Dear FIBAA Expert! We are very delighted to have you as a FIBAA Expert at our side! Accreditation and Certification procedures in Germany are based on the principle of peer review. Hence, without you, we would not be able to conduct such procedures. Even thought, we are often bound to tight time limits and strong requirements, we are fully aware that you are managing this voluntary task in addition to your daily work. Thank you very much for your support! Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 2 of 12

1. OVERVIEW OF ESSENTIAL INFORMATION Your task as a FIBAA Expert is to assess the quality of a study programme/ a course or an institution, to decide whether accreditation/certification should be recommended and to put this recommendation down in a report together with the other members of the expert team. Your assessment is based on the documentation of the Higher Education Institution (HEI) and the results of the on-site visit. As a FIBAA expert you do not represent any particular interests but you act as an independent expert. PREPARATION, TIME AND COSTS We will prepare you for your task in online trainings and face-to-face seminars. The current event dates and registration forms can be viewed on the FIBAA website (http://www.fibaa.org/de/termine.html). Before the beginning of the on-site visit, we ask you to thoroughly review the entire selfevaluation report of the HEI in question. When being assigned to an accreditation/certification project for the first time, your preparation will take more time as you have to become acquainted with the basic FIBAA quality criteria and the assessment procedure. One of the essential elements of the assessment is the on-site visit. The duration of the onsite visit depends on the kind of procedure: - Programme accreditation and certification: 1-2 days - System accreditation: 2 on-site visits with 1, respectively 2.5 days - Institutional Audit Austria: 2 on-site visits with 1, respectively 2.5 days (the first onsite visit is optional) - Institutional Strategic Management Accreditation: 2.5-3 days - Institutional Quality Management Accreditation: 2 on-site visits with 1.5 days each The responsible FIBAA project manager generates a draft assessment report on the basis of your appraisal. Afterwards, we ask you to contribute to the finalisation of this report. If conditions have been granted, we will ask you to submit your opinion in regard to compliance with the conditions. TRAVEL EXPENSES AND COMPENSATION FOR TIME/COSTS Participation in assessment procedures in the field of higher education is a non-salaried and voluntary activity. However, FIBAA pays you a flat rate for costs and input incurred. The amount of the honorarium depends on the type of the procedure and the number of study programmes or courses, if applicable. The honorarium covers preparation, participation in the on-site visit and follow-up. We will inform you about the honorarium in our e-mail to you in the run-up to each procedure. Booking for travelling is made by FIBAA, in consultation with you, of course. Hotel booking is taken care of by FIBAA or the HEI as well. All costs for travelling and accommodation are Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 3 of 12

covered by FIBAA. If there are justified reasons for you to book your tickets yourself, please contact us. Frau Kirstin Winkel (kirstin-winkel@fibaa.org) from the FIBAA office is at your disposal. The FIBAA has an accidental damage insurance which keep you covered against the cost of repairs or damage to your property or contents, following an unexpected accident or crisis on the way to or from the location of the on-site visit. Please use the form "Billing Statement", which is transmitted to you by FIBAA in the run-up of each procedure for invoicing the flat rate compensation for time and costs. APPOINTMENT OF FIBAA EXPERTS The process of appointing FIBAA Experts is as follows: Please complete and sign the CV for FIBAA Experts including its appendix and send it back to us. We evaluate your application and decide on your qualifications as a FIBAA Expert on trial for a programme accreditation or certification project or an institutional procedure. We keep you inform about this process. We notify you without delay after your appointment. After a completed trial assignment, the responsible FIBAA staff member provides a feedback about your commitment and expertise to the Head of Expert Management at FIBAA. In doing so, the staff member provides a reasoned recommendation whether further assignments should follow. You will then be asked for your impressions and whether you will be available for further assignments. By mutual agreement, we recommend you then to the responsible FIBAA Committee, which decides about the final appointment of you as a FIBAA Expert. You will be informed in writing about this decision. Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 4 of 12

2. THE ACCREDIATION PROCEDURE: ELEMENTS, COURSE, RESULT THE EXPERT PANEL As a FIBAA Expert, you are a member of a panel, which is composed by FIBAA in accordance with the relevant professional requirements. The panel also appropriately reflects social skills, experience in higher education didactics or adult education, international experience and knowledge of Bachelor's or Master's degree programmes. As a rule, the composition of an expert panel is notified to the HEI in question prior to the on-site visit. Any reasonable objection to the composition raised by the HEI will be taken into account as appropriate under the specific circumstances. Representative of: Science (university) Science (university of applied sciences, if applicable) Business / Industry The expert panel is, depending on the type of the procedure, usually composed as follows: Programme Accreditation 1 X X X Certification X (with experience in Continuing Education) X (with experience in Continuing Education) System Accreditation 2 Institutional Audit Austria Institutional Quality Management Accreditation 3 representatives with experience in: Institutional Strategic Management Accreditation - HEI management - HEI quality assurance - Programme design - Knowledge of strategic analysis - (for Institutional Strategic Management Accreditation) X (with experience in quality management) Students X (X) X Further expertise For example: - Dual study programmes - Distance learning courses - Country experts At least one expert from abroad (For Institutional Audit Austria: one Expert from Austria) In addition, FIBAA takes the following criteria into account when composing the expert panels: - internationality, - balanced gender representation, 1 Depending on the type of a procedure und the diversity of programmes assessed, the panel can be extended by more experts. 2 For institutional procedure you will elect a chairman among your panel. Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 5 of 12

- assignment of not more than one FIBAA Expert on trial per team, - assignment of only one academic representative from a particular HEI, - for Germany, in particular: no FIBAA Expert from the same federal state as the applicant HEI, - abroad: at least one FIBAA Expert must have the necessary expertise in regard to the higher education system and the accreditation system of the country in question, and must have the necessary language skills. CONFIDENTIALITY Before your first assignment as FIBAA Expert, we advise you of the confidentiality of the information obtained in the course of the procedures. Before receiving any documentation of the HEI, you are requested to fill in, sign and return the confidentiality statement to FIBAA. IMPARTIALITY At the start of each procedure, we ask you to declare your impartiality by submitting the impartiality statement form. Partiality exists if: you are employed by the applicant HEI or were employed during the past five years, a doctoral or habilitation project or an appeals procedure is pending at the applicant HEI or has taken place at the HEI during the past five years. you were enrolled as a student at the applicant HEI during the past three years, you have participated in joint research projects/consulting projects or other intensive cooperation projects, that have taken place in the past three years, your department has been audited by employees of the applicant HEI during the past three years (exclusion of a cross audit). If the applicant HEI offers a position or future cooperation in teaching or research to the expert in the course of the accreditation procedure, we urge you to notify us instantly. PREPARATION OF THE ON-SITE VISIT As part of an accreditation or certification procedure, the HEIs are requested to provide a comprehensive description of the study programme, continuing education course or quality management of the institution in accordance with the FIBAA Assessment Guide. This selfevaluation report is submitted to FIBAA in electronic format. After receipt of the selfevaluation report, FIBAA starts to prepare the on-site visit. The first step is to convene an expert panel. We contact you about six weeks prior to a scheduled on-site visit to ascertain your availability. At the latest three weeks before the on-site visit, you receive the HEI's self-evaluation report in electronic format. Usually, we dispense with the print version in order to protect the environment. If you prefer to work with the print version, though, the HEI sends the self-evaluation report in print directly to you. For this, we need your written permission to Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 6 of 12

pass your address on to the HEI. In this case, the HEI undertakes vis-à-vis FIBAA that the date will only be used for this purpose and will be deleted irrevocably afterwards. The self-evaluation report is the basis for the on-site visit. To prepare the on-site visit, we send you a folder containing the Assessment Guide with the audit criteria and the tiered assessment options ("quality profile") as well as the "document collection" with the accreditation/certification-related specifications. After reviewing the documents, and at the latest ten days before the on-site visit, we ask you to submit your initial assessment or analysis of the strengths and weaknesses to the FIBAA project manager in charge. He/She will then make the assessment or analysis available to the entire panel in a suitable manner. If you need further information from the HEI, the project manager transmits the request to the HEI concerned and informs the HEI about the issues that were identified by the initial assessments and that may have to be discussed at the occasion of the on-site visit. ON-SITE VISIT The responsible FIBAA project manager coordinates the schedule in advance with the HEI. The on-site visit includes among others separate talks with the HEI management, programme responsibles, lecturers and students (in re-accreditation/certification procedures also with graduates), an inspection of the available infrastructures (library, lecture halls, seminar rooms etc.) as well as a review of the documents to be provided on site (teaching and learning materials, tests with marks, evaluation results, etc.). Internal discussions of the expert panel are also expected to take place. As a rule, the expert panel will hold a preliminary deliberation. Then, compliance with the audit criteria will be evaluated to arrive at a recommendation for a decision on the accreditation/certification. Finally, the HEI will receive a brief feedback (summary of the strengths and weaknesses) on the overall impression of the expert panel. The scheduling and the selection of interview partners may deviate for the institutional accreditation. For some procedures the on-site visit may also take place in form of a conference call with you meeting in the FIBAA premises. THE EVALUATION REPORT The draft report compiled by the FIBAA project manager on the basis of your evaluations will be counter-read, supplemented and - if necessary - corrected by the experts. In addition to a description of the factual situation and your assessment, the report contains a recommendation of the expert panel in regard to the decision on the accreditation/certification. If all experts agree, the report will be submitted by the responsible project manager to the FIBAA Accreditation or Certification Committee for a decision. The FIBAA Accreditation or Certification Committee can also decide on an accreditation/certification subject to conditions. In this case, the HEI must provide proof of compliance with the conditions within a set period of time. If the HEI submits the documents intended to show compliance with the conditions within the set time-limit, the expert panel will review the documents. Subsequently, on the basis of the recommendation of the ex- Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 7 of 12

pert panel, the FIBAA Accreditation or Certification Committee will establish if the conditions have been complied with. Furthermore, the responsible FIBAA Committee may decide to stay the procedure. In this case, the HEI must submit, within the set time-limit, the accordingly revised self-evaluation report. The procedure will then be resumed on this basis, and if necessary, a new on-site visit will take place. FIBAA shall seek to perform this continued evaluation with the same expert team. When a procedure is resumed after a stay, a new evaluation report must be compiled; the Accreditation or Certification Committee will then issue a final decision on the basis of this report. After closing the procedure, the report, including the names of the experts, will be transmitted to the HEI and published in full length on the FIBAA website. In programme or system accreditation procedures in Germany the report is additionally transmitted to the Accreditation Council and, if appropriate, to the responsible state ministries. HANDLING INFORMATION After the close of the procedure (if necessary, with proof of fulfilling the conditions), you have to return the confidential documents to FIBAA or destroy them. FIBAA keeps one set of records in its archive. Confidential information and documents are all commercial, technical, financial or other information disclosed by an HEI, in particular as part of the selfevaluation report or of the on-site visit. Any information that is already in the public domain, becomes generally known without violation of the above stipulations or is disclosed by third party without violating a duty of confidentiality is non-confidential. Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 8 of 12

3. SUITABLE FOR AN ASSIGNMENT AS A FIBAA EXPERT? CRITERIA FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF FIBAA EXPERTS FIBAA bases its selection of experts on a number of criteria that are intended to ensure that FIBAA Experts have the relevant and comprehensive expertise. In doing so, FIBAA distinguishes between experts representing HEIs or academic work, professional practice and student representatives. FIBAA conducts two types of accreditation procedures: at programme (accreditation of study programmes and certification of continuing education courses) and institutional level (system accreditation, Institutional Strategic Management Accreditation and Institutional Quality Management Accreditation). In view of the difference in the object of the assessment, the requirements for FIBAA Experts are also defined differently. Criteria for FIBAA Experts in programme accreditation and certification Representatives from HEI The profile for FIBAA Experts from HEIs is based on basic academic competence in the academic disciplines in question (management, economics, social sciences and law). These FIBAA Experts have several years of teaching and research experience at HEIs. This experience is ideally proven by: - active membership in the scientific community concerned and - reputation and a broad range of academic competence. For certification procedures the FIBAA Experts also need to have experience with continuing education courses. Other desirable qualifications are for example: - experience in accreditation or evaluation procedures - open-mindedness vis-à-vis the developments in the frame of the Bologna Process - contact with businesses and/or experience in cooperating with businesses (in the field of research or consulting) - practical (operational) skills gained in business enterprises or - legal or commercial consulting organisations - international experience - foreign language skills. Representatives from business / industry The profile for FIBAA Experts from professional practice is essentially based on management experience - in this case specifically defined as experience in the management of human resources, organisations, finances/budgets and/or processes. Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 9 of 12

This experience is ideally proven by: - experience in entrepreneurial, strategic and not merely assisting administrative functions - personnel responsibility for more than five employees - budget responsibility, ideally with responsibility for the results - pertinent experience in employing staff members and/or placement of personnel in a business. For lawyers, these criteria apply by analogy to legal advisory work in companies, administrations, comparable organisations or in a liberal profession, combined with professional and personal responsibility. This experience is proven by: - experience in the strategic and responsible development of legal relations, e.g. in law firms, legal or HR departments of large and medium-sized companies - self-employed work as a lawyer or notary public - exercise of (predominantly legal) management functions in public administrations Other desirable qualifications are for example: - contact with HEIs and/or experience as regards cooperation with HEIs (in the field of research or in the recruitment of staff) - ideally experience in the use or management of quality processes Student representative The profile for FIBAA Experts from the student group is essentially based on pertinent experience in the field of HEI self-governance and accreditation as well as studies in the academic discipline in question. This is proven by an enrolment at an HEI. Additionally, FIBAA Experts representing the student perspective are or have been actively engaged in an HEI organ. These are, for example, the student council or HEI commissions. Other desirable qualifications are for example: - open-mindedness vis-à-vis the developments in the frame of the Bologna Process - contact with businesses and/or experience in cooperating with them - international experience - foreign language skills. Criteria for FIBAA Experts in institutional procedures Representatives from HEI The profile for FIBAA Experts from HEIs is based largely on academic competence and experience in the management of HEIs. These FIBAA Experts have to meet in particular the following criteria: - experience in the field of HEI management - experience in the field of internal quality management at HEIs - experience the field of in programme design Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 10 of 12

For Institutional Strategic Management Accreditation the FIBAA Experts need to have knowledge of strategic analysis (i.e. Balance Score Card etc.). Other desirable qualifications are for example: - experience in accreditation or evaluation procedures - open-mindedness vis-à-vis the developments in the frame of the Bologna Process - international experience - foreign language skills. Representatives from business / industry The profile for FIBAA Experts representing professional practice is essentially based on experience in regard to the introduction/deployment of quality management systems in professional practice. In particular, these FIBAA Experts have experience with the implementation and/or management of QM systems. Additionally, they have several years of management experience in business and/or industry. This experience is ideally shown by: - experience in entrepreneurial, strategic and not merely assisting administrative functions - personnel responsibility for more than five employees - budget responsibility, ideally with responsibility for the results - pertinent experience in employing staff members and/or placement of personnel in a business. Other desirable qualifications are for example: - experience in certification procedures (ISO, TQM etc.) - international experience - foreign language skills. Student representative The profile for FIBAA Experts from the student group is essentially based on pertinent experience in the field of HEI self-governance and accreditation as well as studies in the academic discipline in question. This is proven by an enrolment at an HEI. Additionally, FIBAA Experts representing the student perspective are or have been actively engaged in an HEI organ. These are, for example, the student council or HEI commissions. It is important for us that student representatives already have experience with accreditation procedures. Other desirable qualifications are for example: - open-mindedness vis-à-vis the developments in the frame of the Bologna Process - contact with businesses and/or experience in cooperating with them - international experience - foreign language skills. Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 11 of 12

4. FURTHER INFORMATION TRAINING AND SEMINARS The tasks of a FIBAA Expert necessarily require adequate knowledge of the assessment and accreditation/certification criteria and the procedures. For this reason, FIBAA offers onlinetraining sessions and face-to-face seminars for FIBAA Experts at regular intervals. It is desirable for FIBAA Experts to participate at regular intervals (approx. every two years) in FIBAA trainings or seminars to refresh their level of know-how. In addition, all FIBAA Experts are informed promptly by email about developments pertaining to accreditation and certification. Current dates and registration forms for training sessions and seminars are available on the FIBAA website. Moreover, FIBAA Experts regularly receive invitations. INFORMATION AND CONTACT Further information about FIBAA, the applicable legal framework of accreditation procedures, results of previous accreditation and certification procedures and other related materials are available on the FIBAA website. For personal information and advice, please contact the Head of Expert Management at FIBAA, Nina Hürter (huerter@fibaa.org). Guidelines for FIBAA Experts April 2015 Page 12 of 12