Quality management in studies and teaching
What about the quality of my degree programme? Is the content up to date, scientifically sound, socially relevant and compatible with other universities and the job market?
The quality assurance of degree programmes in Germany is regularly reviewed by accreditation agencies. Universities whose internal quality assurance system has been successfully assessed as part of a so-called system accreditation can carry out these procedures on their own responsibility. Leuphana University Lüneburg has been one of these system-accredited universities since 2014 and has since been responsible for the quality assurance and further development of its degree programmes on its own.
In 2020, Leuphana's quality management (QM) was successfullysystem re-accredited by the German Accreditation Council after a comprehensive assessment accompanied by the accreditation agency ACQUIN. The accreditation period is eight years
Leuphana sets high standards for the quality of its programmes and teaching. All programmes are regularly reviewed and continuously developed. Lecturers and students actively participate in this improvement process through evaluations, feedback formats and collegial quality dialogues.
Leuphana's quality management team sees quality as a shared concern for everyone involved. Teachers, students and administrators continuously develop study programmes and teaching through dialogue. This is based on evaluations, internal review procedures and regular exchanges with external experts, in particular the programme advisory boards and the quality advisory board. In addition, the university strengthens its self-management capabilities through its membership in the Hanse University Alliance and gains further important impetus from collegial consultation and benchlearning processes.
Leuphana's QM is based on the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) and, in accordance with the university's mission statement, takes into account the requirements of society, science and the labour market. Other binding legal and university regulations are:
Evaluation
A central element of QM is feedback from students and lecturers.
Course evaluations, the qualitative format Shift!, regular surveys and quality circles ensure that experiences and assessments are directly incorporated into the further development of teaching.
Accreditation of study programmes
Thanks to the system accreditation of its QM, Leuphana can independently review and evaluate its study programmes with the participation of external programme advisory boards.
The focus is on the accreditation of individual study programmes through the internal review process, which replaces external programme accreditation.
Quality Advisory Board
The Leuphana Quality Advisory Board oversees quality management for studies and teaching. Its members – experts from other universities and industry partners – provide feedback and valuable suggestions for the further development of the system.
Complaint Management
Leuphana University has a regulated QM complaint management system for comments or complaints regarding the quality management system in studies and teaching. This serves to further develop processes, procedures and information and communication structures and is regulated in the guidelines for quality development in studies and teaching.