German Higher Education in the Framework of the Bologna Process

Abstract.

In 1997/98, the 16 German Länder tentatively agreed on the establishment of a new degree structure for German higher education in the form of Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes. Moreover, the German government passed federal legislation that officially adopted accreditation as a new steering instrument to approve these newly established Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes. Thus, since 1998 almost all universities, Fachhochschulen (FH), faculties, and especially the engineering departments have been busy designing new Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes. On the other hand, accreditation of programmes as a means of quality assurance has become the new pre-requisite for state recognition, which is operated by an overarching national Accreditation Board that on it turn recognises agencies that accredit particular degree programmes. All these changes will be a challenge and are likely to change the overall structure of the traditional German higher education system severely.