ORGANIZATION

SECRETARIAT

The secretariat manages the agency’s business and assists the Accreditation Commission, the standing expert committees and the expert groups. It prepares proposals for evaluation criteria and procedural principles as well as the guidelines for self-documentation and for the assessment of study programmes, examines applications and forwards them to the responsible committees, instructs the members of the expert groups on procedural practice, informs the applicant universities about the status of the procedures. Further, the secretariat is responsible for the organisational support of the assessment and accreditation procedures, maintains and documents a list of the accreditations carried out, informs the Accreditation Council and is responsible for public relations.

The team is committed to continuous professional development in the field of quality assurance, which is made possible through:

      • Regular in-house training events
      • Attendance of relevant National and International relevant Events, Conferences and Workshops conducted by all types of stakeholders
      • Training in areas requiring specialized expertise of employees
      • Training in areas required for building and further developing of general project management and communication skills, including the possibility to combine the study with work, application of the acquired knowledge and skills in work is encouraged (for example, in form of a research project using ACQUIN data)
      • ENQA training programs
      • ENQA staff exchange program
      • Conducting Thematic Analyses, the agency aims to collaborate with the external stakeholders, thus providing additional opportunities for professional development in the field of quality assurance

Contact details for all contact persons can be found under Team.

ACCREDITATION COMMISION

At the general assembly of ACQUIN on May 7, 2025, the Accreditation Commission was newly elected and is composed as follows (in the order of achieved votes)

  • Professor Dr. Hans Gruber (Educational Science, University of Regensburg)
  • Professorin Dr. Maria Peters (Artistic Education / Aesthetic Education, University of Bremen)
  • Professorin Dr. Claudia Wich-Reif (History of the German Language, University of Bonn)
  • Dr. Barbara Gant (Rector, Private University of the Principality of Liechtenstein)

Substitute representatives: 

  • Professor Dr. Andreas Borowski (Didactics of Physics, University of Potsdam)
  • Professorin Dr. Anita Rieder (Head of the Center for Public Health, Vice Rector of Education, Medical University of Vienna)
  • Dr. Oliver Vettori (Director of Program Management and Teaching/Learning Support, Dean of Accreditation & Quality Management, Vienna University of Economics and Business)
  • Professor Dr. Eric Schoop (Business Informatics, specializing in Information Management, Dresden University of Technology)

  • Professorin Dr. Helene Ignatzi (Action Theory and Methods of Social Work, Vice President, Protestant University of Applied Sciences Nuremberg)
  • Professor Dr.-Ing. Steffen Riedl (Civil Engineering/Road Engineering, University of Applied Sciences Erfurt)
  • Professor Dr. Ulrich Brecht (Business Administration, Vice President, Heilbronn University)
  • Professorin Dr. Iris Steinberg (Organic-Based Circular Economy, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences)

Substitute representatives:

  • Professor Dr. Tilo Wendler (Quantitative Methods, Berlin University of Applied Sciences)
  • Professor Dr. Helge Wild (Business Informatics, Wilhelm Büchner University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt)
  • Professor Dr. Christian Ganseuer (Research and Innovation Management, Koblenz University of Applied Sciences)
  • Professor Dr. Erich Keller (Derivative Financial Instruments, Banking Supervision, Rector, University of the Deutsche Bundesbank Hachenburg)

  • Professorin Dr. Panja Mücke (Historical Musicology, Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts)

Substitute representative:

  • Professor Dr. Reinhard Schäfertöns (Music Theory, Berlin University of the Arts)

  • Professorin Dr. Christel Salewski (Health Psychology, DGPs Berlin)
  • Dipl.-Kfm. Alexander Zeitelhack (Consulting & Coaching, Zeitelhack Communications Consulting and Training)

Substitute representatives:

  • Dr. Carole Probst (Partner and Member of the Executive Board, econcept AG Zurich)
  • Dipl.-Inf. Walter Leonhardt (Project Manager, Datev eG)

  • Helen Würflein (Mathematics, University of Jena)
  • Leonard Preß (Historical Linguistics, Literature, and Cultural Studies, University of Marburg)

Substitute representatives:

  • Lukas Hässner (Media Management, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences)
  • Peter Schroeder (Business Informatics, Berlin School of Economics and Law)

The chair is Professor Dr. Aloys Krieg as Chairman of the Board.

COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS COMMISSION

In accordance with ACQUIN’s Articles of Association (§11), the Complaints and Appeals Commission was established to ensure an orderly and independent complaint procedure for objections of ACQUIN’s contractual partners against decisions on accreditation.

At the ACQUIN General Assembly on 25 May 2023, the Complaints and Appeals Commission was elected and is composed as follows:

  • Prof. Dr. Verena Blechinger-Talcott, Freie Universität Berlin

  • Prof. Dr. Stefan Handke, HTW University of Applied Sciences Dresden (Speaker)

  • Prof. Gero Schmidt-Oberländer, Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar

  • Philipp C. Schulz, M.Sc., PD-Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH

  • Christopher Bohlens, student at Leuphana University Lüneburg