The accreditation panel has just selected six audit trails which will shed light on quality assurance at Aarhus University. This is another important milestone in the process of achieving institutional accreditation (IA).

2016.07.01 | Signe Opstrup

[Translate to English:] Seks såkaldte audit trails skal belyse arbejdet med kvalitetssikring på AU i praksis. Foto: Lars Kruse, Aarhus Universitet.

In April of this year, Aarhus University submitted a self-evaluation report (in Danish) to the Danish Accreditation Institution. In June, the accreditation panel appointed to assess AU’s quality assurance system visited the university for the first time. On the basis of the report and the visit, six audit trails have been selected which will shed light on how educational quality assurance functions in practice at AU. The audit trails identify developments or issues across degree programmes or disciplines which the accreditation panel is interested in examining more closely.

The accreditation panel will visit AU again in the first week of October. Fifteen degree programmes have been selected for assessment by the panel, in order to gain insight into how AU ensures and develops degree programme quality. Some degree programmes will be evaluated on the background of a single audit trail, while others will be evaluated on the basis of several. The degree programmes have been selected to reflect the breadth of the university’s degree programmes and with reference to AU’s quality indicators and accreditation history.

Prior to the visit, AU will submit documentation on the degree programmes in question to the accreditation panel, such as degree programme evaluations, teaching evaluations, action plans, minutes from meetings of the boards of studies, status meetings, and so on. During the visit, the accreditation panel will interview numerous managers, employees and students. All interviews will be informed separately when the programme for the visit has been finalised.

A final decision is expected in June 2017. Read more about the process.

The audit trails selected:

1. Annual status review
The aim is to illuminate how ‘annual status reviews’ are used in order to identify the challenges facing the individual degree programmes, as well as to assess how effectively the university follows up on the status reviews, for example in action plans.

2. Securing programmes’ knowledge base and students’ contact to the knowledge base
This audit trail focusses on how the programmes handle and monitor students’ contact with the relevant research environments in connection with teaching and student guidance, as well as how this is integrated into the future staffing and design of the degree programme. 

3. Quality assurance in the interactions between boards of studies and degree programme boards/committee at Arts and ST.
The aim is to shed light on the flow of information, division of responsibility and follow-up on problems in the interactions between boards of studies and degree programme committees/boards/heads of degree programmes.

4. Teaching evaluations
The aim is to examine how procedures and practices regarding teaching evaluations ensure that problems at course and semester level are effectively identified and addressed.

5. Five-yearly degree programme evaluations
The aim is to illuminate how degree programme evaluations help ensure and develop the quality and relevance of the degree programmes.

6. External stakeholders and ensuring relevance
The aim is to clarify how external stakeholders, including employer panels and graduates, contribute to developing the quality and relevance of existing degree programmes, with a special focus on degree programmes with post-graduate employment problems.

Further information

• Facts about the accreditation panel (in Danish. Note: page is not fully updated)
• Institutional accreditation at AU
• FAQ about institutional accreditation at AU (in Danish)
• Article from 14 April 2016

If you have any questions, please contact Kirsten Brusgård, adviser to the pro-rector, at kb@au.dk.