Expert assessor

1. the need to reform higher education - my view

There may be many reasons to criticize the reform, the aim of which is to merge national higher education courses into a European higher education area with comparable certified standards. In essence, and therefore comprehensible to me, the criticisms address the administrative part of the changes implemented at universities in recent years, which in my view was and is not the essence of the so-called Bologna reforms. The administrative part could be reduced with good will and mutual trust - perhaps even while retaining the advantages - to a level that the reformed degree programs of earlier days already demanded.

In my view, removing study programmes from a knowledge-mediating framework and focusing on competence-oriented goals was a forward-looking response to emerging changes in science, the networking of its sub-disciplines, social interaction and the inexorable advance of internationalization in all areas of life. The Bologna reforms gave upcoming and necessary changes in university teaching a framework, a name, a goal and an impetus to initiate changes that could not have been more beneficial to the academic approach.

Universities and lecturers who recognized the perspectives on offer felt comfortable in the structures that were breaking up. Describing goals together, documenting ways to achieve these goals and entering into a structured dialog with students to communicate this knowledge was a privilege for those who see themselves as servants in their teaching position - an expression of respectful cooperation. Agreeing on goals and defining ways to achieve these goals, constantly questioning them and thus adapting them are an expression of management options that the Bologna reform encouraged universities to use.

The basic idea of writing down the unspoken in student life in a way that is equally understandable for all sides led to documented course objectives and handbooks for documenting learning content, and above all to teaching and learning objectives in the form of well thought-out competencies. I personally feel that placing thematically supporting and enriching content next to each other, linking it in a targeted manner and allowing it to merge into an overarching idea as a module is an added value that the diploma program did not offer.

The Bologna Agreements make no statements about examination regulations that are comparable in scope and complexity to academic theses. Transparency of course admissions, compliance with legal framework conditions, implementation of legally anchored recognition procedures, comparability of degrees, examination procedures that are proportionate and regulated for the benefit of students, teaching standards, principles of equality and the promotion of student mobility are the actual topics of the reform. The reform cannot be blamed for the regulations installed by the universities over and above these issues.

In my view, the accreditation procedure is beneficial for degree programs that have emerged from the Bologna reform, as external experts are often able to suggest solutions with a view to existing university structures and processes that help those being assessed. Not all colleagues are as pleased with external observations and the resulting consequences that they give me for further development. Some colleagues wrongly feel that they are in an examination situation. An assessor of today is an assessor of tomorrow. As everywhere and everywhere and at all times, fairness is the order of the day - especially in the assessment of degree programs.

The idea of being able to contribute to the exchange of ideas between my colleagues in a form of cooperation on an equal footing, to put the study program objectives of other universities into context with the paths taken and with the means and possibilities negotiated there, as an assessor, convinced me from the moment of the first request from an agency a good fifteen years ago.

In the meantime, I have assisted three agencies as an appraiser and consultant. This task fills me with joy because it gives me the feeling that I am contributing to one of the most privileged tasks, the task of education and the well-being of the individual for the unique gift of being able to accept and develop their life path in a self-determined way in order to be able to contribute in a similar way in a different environment.

I also feel privileged to be able to work with the specialist agencies. Agencies bundle expertise, have an overview of framework conditions that are constantly subject to change and enable a more objective view of the task at hand, detached from the actual academic operation.

I am always pleasantly surprised by the sensitivity with which agency referees are able to put together teams that come together from the very first contact in a respectful and professional manner in order to implement a task in an environment that is new to them and to advance content that is of further relevance to those affected.

I see the review system for degree programs as an added value of the Bologna reform, which is why I am extremely happy to respond to requests in this matter, because every procedure teaches me something new and thus always takes me a step forward professionally, in terms of content and personally.

2. experience

Since 2005, I have gained experience as a reviewer for the following degree programs

(i) Chemistry (Bachelor's and Master's degree, subject-specific science and teaching degree, state examination teaching degree)

(ii) Chemistry with a Focus on Economics (Bachelor and Master)

(iii) Chemical Engineering (Bachelor and Master)

(iv) Food Chemistry (Bachelor, Master, State Examination)

(v) Industrial Chemistry (Bachelor)

(vi) Analytical and Applied Chemistry (Bachelor)

Since then I have been working for the agencies ASIIN (currently 12 accompanied procedures), AQAS (4 procedures) and FIBAA (2 procedures).

My tasks started with evaluations of degree programs within Germany and expanded over the years to Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia. In addition, there was a pandemic-related desktop procedure on degree programs in Tunis.

In addition to agencies, university quality management departments asked me to prepare expert reports on chemistry-related degree programs at system-accredited universities - activities that taught me, in an intensive exchange of ideas with colleagues on what seemed to be the opposite side, to come from different directions and to target and shape an overarching common goal in a limited time: the further development of teaching standards and educational quality.

Kaiserslautern, 26.04.2023

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Hartung