Quality Management and Digitalization Unit for Teaching and Learning
The Quality Management and Digitalization Unit for Teaching and Learning (SQDSL) is made up of two teams: the Teaching and Learning Quality Management team and the Process Management and Digitalization team.
The Teaching and Learning Quality Management team is responsible for guiding the University of Bonn toward formal system accreditation and coordinating the overarching project. Following the University of Bonn’s certification as a system-accredited university, the team will serve as the first port of call for all questions relating to the accreditation of its degree programs as well as its internal quality loop. In cooperation with various organizational units, we will provide support, templates and assistance with organizing processes to faculties and the Bonn Center for Teacher Education (BZL).
The Process Management and Digitalization team is working to create a professional process management setup within the division. To this end, it is modeling the relevant processes using BIC Process Design software and making them available as well as carrying out digitalization projects within the division and across the whole University. In particular, the unit management is leading on the project to introduce electronic student files.
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What we do
Teaching and Learning Quality Management
System accreditation
Universities in all German states are required to undertake regular quality assurance of their bachelor’s and master’s degree programs under an interstate treaty governing the accreditation of study programs. A key part of this is the accreditation of degree programs, which must be done regularly (at least once every eight years). Whilst the University of Bonn, with its over 200 degree programs, already has a wealth of experience in program accreditation, it is nonetheless aiming to accredit its degree programs itself as part of a formal system accreditation procedure based on an internal quality audit and thus to assume full responsibility for meeting its high quality standards and for reviewing and continuing to develop its degree programs. A positive system accreditation decision by the German Accreditation Council serves as confirmation that the University of Bonn’s quality management system for teaching and learning is capable of ensuring that qualification objectives and the quality standards for its degree programs are met.
Internal accreditation
Internal accreditation procedures at the University of Bonn are geared toward fostering the quality culture that is actively embraced within it and supplement the insights gained from the ongoing evaluation process with the views of external experts. They also serve to provide evidence of the fulfillment of requirements set externally, to identify areas with potential for development and to devise measures for optimizing the aspects covered in the relevant procedure. The University of Bonn’s internal accreditation procedures thus serve a range of purposes, including demonstrating legitimacy and accountability to the outside world, providing impetus, forging a sense of identification and, if relevant, laying the groundwork internally for ongoing development measures.
Program accreditation
Every degree program at the University of Bonn that is subject to accreditation requirements must be (re-)accredited internally. If internal accreditation is not the aim, the degree program in question is required to undergo program accreditation, which involves a certified accreditation agency being commissioned to write an accreditation report.
Note that any program accreditation procedures that are already ongoing are being handled by Section 9.1. Any such procedures that become necessary from winter semester 2023/2024 onward will be supported by the Teaching and Learning Quality Management Unit.
Internal evaluation
Courses, modules and whole degree programs are evaluated regularly for the purposes of systematic analysis and to ensure and improve the quality of teaching and learning in the spirit of a closed operational PDCA (“plan, do, check, act”) loop. The evaluation officers and evaluation project groups for the various subjects play an especially important role in this regard. They discuss and recommend interventional measures to improve the degree programs under their responsibility based on the results produced by various evaluation methods and instruments.
Inter-faculty meetings
The Rectorate convenes inter-faculty meetings on a regular basis between it, the individual faculties and the BZL. Based on the faculties’ evaluation reports, these meetings provide a forum for discussing ideas and perspectives for development derived from the mission statement for teaching, for example, which are set out in framework agreements. These opportunities for dialogue ensure appropriate quality development for every aspect of the mission statement for teaching and close the PDCA loop at institutional level too.
Quality Conference
Institutionalized Quality Conferences involving the various evaluation project groups, deans of studies, degree program managers and everyone else involved in quality management for teaching and learning are held regularly at the University of Bonn under the responsibility of the Rectorate. These conferences serve to assess the development of the internal quality management system for teaching and learning and discuss any areas requiring improvement.
You can find a report on the first Quality Conference here.
Process Management and Digitalization
Process management
For process management within the division, key relevant processes are identified in the various sections, optimized where it makes sense to do so and mapped in BIC Process Design using the modeling language BPMN 2.0. Once they have been signed off, they are made available in the same locations for members of the University to view and thus become an integral part of its overarching process management system. Overall, process management within the division complements existing knowledge management and forms the starting point for the continued optimization and digitalization of the division’s procedures.
Digitalization
The unit helps all departments within the division to make workflows and processes digital.
Electronic student files
The inter-university project to introduce electronic student files will be launched in summer 2024. Led by the SQDSL, it will represent a key element in the digitalization of student administration. The project is geared toward transferring all documents that are generated as part of application, student and examination management and that need to be kept on file into a single document management system in a systematic way. Once there, they will be able to be managed and stored in compliance with auditing, privacy and data protection requirements.
