Best practices
Accredition process in the Digital4Business project
Users: Training providers (public), Training providers (private), Policymakers (EU), Policymakers (Member states | Theme: Accreditation and certification | Action: Education programmes/courses | Beneficiaries: Training providers (public), Training providers (private)
Digital4Business
Digital4Business
Sophie Schultz
The aim of the Digital4Business project is the conception and development of a joint Master’s degree program by four (originally six) European universities from Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Sweden in collaboration with partners from industry. One of the milestones in the project is the accreditation of the Master’s program. Here, the consortium opted for an accreditation procedure under the European Approach, an accreditation methodology developed specifically for joint programs to facilitate external quality assurance through the application of common standards and guidelines. Otherwise, all four (originally six) universities would have had to carry out individual national accreditation procedures, which would have resulted in significantly more time and effort as well as higher costs.
The challenge?
The consortium faced two challenges during the accreditation process:
First, the consortium learned in the preparation phase that the European Approach was not implemented at national level in Italy and Sweden, which means that a European Approach accreditation is not possible at HEIs from these countries.
Second, the consortium had to compensate for the loss of two of the six universities in the middle of the accreditation process. One of the two had decided to withdraw from the consortium and only remain as an associated partner, while the other one could longer participate in the project as an academic partner as it was lacking official recognition as a university by the state/ministry.
Our solution
First, the fact that the European Approach is not available in all countries was solved by the decision that only the two universities from Ireland and Portugal (countries where the European Approach was implemented) will be degree-awarding institutions. The other two universities from Sweden and Italy are still fully and actively engaged in the design, implementation and delivery of the program but only act as providing (i.e. non-awarding) institutions.
Second, the loss of the two academic partners meant that the modules that had been developed by these two had to be redistributed among the four remaining universities. However, the redistribution worked smoothly and served as an opportunity to revise and update the module content.
Outcomes
The master’s program was accredited with requirements by a European registered accreditation agency (applying the European Approach).
The conception, development and delivery of all modules was ensured by the successful redistribution of modules among the remaining academic partners.
Key takeaways
- HEIs should inform themselves about the national accreditation requirements at an early stage (possibly even before a proposal is submitted).
- The status of HEIs, i.e. whether or not they are officially recognized in their contries, should be reviewed at an early stage (possibly even before a proposal is submitted).
- All (academic) partners should have a certain degree of flexibility (e.g. with regard to internal resource and budget allocation) in order to be able to react to unexpected problems or changing conditions.