Quality Assurance

Defining, developing, assuring quality

A TU9 statement referring to quality management in higher engineering education at German universities
- This translation follows the original German text as close as possible; in cases of doubts only the German text is valid. -

1. The quality of a study programme should be primarily measured against its effects and results (outcome) and not against curricular provisions.

2. Two features primarily constitute the quality of a study programme:

• The quality of the acquired qualification, made up by the long-term relevance of the knowledge and competences for the profession in which the graduates are expected to work.
• The quality of the educational process indicated by the percentage of students who graduate from the study programme in the regular time.

3. Universities must have a comprehensive system of internal quality management comprising elements such as control of the quality of the educational process and of the quality of the final qualification of the graduates (outcome). A university must apply appropriate control methods and clear principles with respect to responsibilities and procedures.

4. Interviews of graduates give the best evidence of the quality of a study programmes and the quality of the qualification achieved.  Continuous evaluation of the retention rates, e.g. according to the method of HIS, reveals the quality of the educational process.

5. In order to facilitate competition the providers of study programmes should be free to determine the educational targets of their programmes as a result of a communication with their constituency. 

6. German accreditation needs to be developed further. It should move from simply stating that minimum standards are observed to stating the level that is effectively achieved. This can only be realised if the universities can define their own standards in the framework of their quality assurance system.
External accreditation by national or international agencies should focus on the validation of the university’s quality assurance system.

7. According to the TU9 definition of Bachelor/Master the Master is the university educated engineer. Consecutive  programmes of engineering education of universities require therefore comprehensive accreditation including the Master phase.