DAR （German Accreditation Council）
The Foundation for the Accreditation of Study Programmes in Germany has the statutory mission to organise the quality assurance system for study programmes and teaching by accrediting study programmes.
The Foundation sees itself as an organisation that – by carrying out these tasks – makes a key contribution to ensuring and developing the quality of study programmes and teaching at German Higher Education Institutions, and that documents this quality, thereby ensuring and improving the reputation of German study programmes in Germany and abroad.
The Foundation performs its mission,
· certifying accreditation agencies and establishing procedural rules and criteria for accreditation,
· informing all those interested at Higher Education Institutions and within the society about the objectives and results of accreditation procedures,
· refining the accreditation system such that Higher Education Institutions can better assume their responsibility for the quality of teaching and learning,
· representing the German accreditation system in the international context and participating in the development of the European Higher Education Area,
· trustingly cooperating with accreditation agencies and other – also foreign – partners from Higher Education Institutions and the student community, government and the profession.
The Foundation's activities are based on an understanding of quality that follows the below mentioned maxims:
· The Higher Education Institutions are primarily responsible for the quality and quality assurance of teaching and learning.
· Good quality of teaching and learning can be defined as a quality feedback control system and is therefore verifiable.
· Evaluation of teaching and learning is based on the combined fitness of und fitness for purpose approach and hence on the verification of the validity of the study goal in conjunction with the goal performance.
· Transparency of the accreditation system and independence of the players are indispensable requirements for quality and essential for competition and mobility in an open higher education system that is transparent both horizontally and vertically.
· Identification of good quality characteristics of teaching and learning and their evaluation requires participation of the Higher Education Institutions and their members, of the government, of international experts and of representatives from the profession.