Legal basis

The Fachhochschule Studies Act (Fachhochschul-Studiengesetz, FHStG), Federal Legal Gazette I no. 340/1993 as amended serves as the legal basis for the operations of the FH Council. With regard to the accreditation procedure, the General Law on Administrative Procedure (Allgemeines Verwaltungsverfahrengesetz, AVG) is applicable. The FH Council will decide on an application for accreditation or re-accreditation as an FH degree programme without unnecessary delay, but after a period of nine months after the application was filed at the latest (cf. section 17 sub-section 1 FHStG as amended).

The course-providing body which has filed the application has a legal right that its application be decided by the FH Council by administrative decision. If an application has deficiencies, the authority is to ask the applicant to remedy the application within a specified period of time. If an incomplete application is not remedied within the specified period of time, it will be denied; if one of the requirements for recognition specified under section 12 FHStG as amended is missing, the application will be denied. The Ministry for Science and Research reserves the right to approve the result of the accreditation procedure (cf. section 6 sub-section 5 FHStG as amended).

The FH Council is subject to the supervision of the competent federal minister and to the review of the Austrian Court of Audit. Subject to supervision are the compliance with rules and regulations as well as the FH Council’s execution of its tasks. No ordinary appeal can be filed against the FH Council’s administrative decisions. The FH Council is a body that decides on complex quality issues. Due to its comprehensive expertise, the Fachhochschule Studies Act rules out a higher instance deciding on content and technical issues; appeals to the public courts of law are allowed.

Further Information:
» Fachhochschul Studies Act
 

Accreditation and evaluation

On the basis of the Fachhochschule Studies Act, the FH Council has set out guidelines for the accreditation of FH degree programmes as well as a regulation on the performance of evaluation procedures. The FH Council has defined the requirements (both as to form and content) for filing and reviewing an application for the accreditation of an FH degree programme in its guidelines for the accreditation of Bachelor's, Master's and diploma degree programmes. The FH degree programmes are accredited for no more than five years. Each decision of the FH Council on re-accreditation is based on evaluation results. Evaluation procedures are performed on the basis of the FH Council’s regulation on the evaluation in the Austrian FH sector.

Further Information:
» Accreditation Guidelines
» Evaluation Regulation