General Catalogue of questions for ESG-criteria

ESG 1.1.
 Please describe the main features of your policy for quality assurance?
 How are you involved in the further development of your policy for quality assurance?

ESG. 1.2
 Through which mechanisms are the curricula of the study programmes further developed?
 Please describe the structure of the Bachelor's and Master's programmes? What are
the different options for the Master's programme?
 What teaching methods do you use?
 How do you use blended learning concepts?
 Examination system:
 How does exam registration and deregistration work?
 Can you explain the midterm and final exams?
 What forms of examination do you use?
 Are these fixed in the module handbook, or can they be selected flexibly?
 How do you assess the learning outcomes in a competence-oriented way?
 How often can an examination be repeated? In the same semester?
 How is the Bachelor's or Master's thesis structured?
 How are these supervised?

ESG 1.3.
 Do you involve students in the development of the degree programmes?
 How do you assess the studyability of the study programmes?

ESG 1.4.
 How and where are students informed about admission, recognition and academic mobility?
 How do the scholarships work?
 Where can students complain about problems?

ESG 1.5.
 Teaching staff:
 How is the faculty recruitment process regulated?
 Is there a compulsory on-boarding programme for new teachers?
 Compulsory didactic seminars? Voluntary seminars?
  Are there continuing education programmes for teachers?
 How do you inform students about the study programmes?
 How do you evaluate the supervision ratio between teachers and students?
 What happens if the standard period of study is exceeded?

ESG 1.6.
 How do you evaluate learning resources and student support?

ESG 1.7.
 How do they ensure that relevant data is collected for further development? How are
they processed?

ESG 1.8.
 How do you deal with public information?
 Where do you publish all relevant activities?

ESG 1.9.
 Quality management system:
 How does the on-going monitoring and the periodic review of the programmes work?
 How is the improvement of programme quality ensured?
 What forms of evaluation are there?
 How often do you evaluate a course?
 What happens in the case of a poor evaluation?
 Are the evaluation results discussed with the students?
Questions for the university management
 You are a private university and have the legal form of a public limited company. How
does their structure work?
 How many faculties do you have and how are they structured?
 Please briefly explain the profile of the university, its mission and vision, and its strategic
goals? What makes you special compared to other universities? University of applied
sciences?
 How is the funding provided? Scholarships?
 How is strategic goal setting reflected in study and teaching? How are teachers and students
involved in the development of study programmes?
 What groups are involved in developing the university's mission and strategic goals?
 How are external stakeholders involved in developing the university's strategy and
degree programs?
 Where are external stakeholders involved in the university, connections to the labor market,
feedback from the labor market, formal affiliation?
 How did you discuss the strategy within the university?
 How do they differentiate themselves from their competitors? What is your unique selling
proposition?
 Further development for the future?
 Research:
o What is the importance of research?
o What is the motivation of teachers to conduct research?
o Are there possibilities to support the teachers, e.g. by reducing their deputations?
 Why do they have relatively few Master's and doctoral students?
 For which labor markets are students being trained?
 Why do they have relatively few Master's and doctoral students?
 What is your internationalisation strategy? Academic Mobility? Incomings-Outcomings?
Double-Degree and Joint Programmes?
 What does your digitalisation strategy look like? Which kind of distance-learning technology
do you use for becoming a “Digital University”?
 Teaching staff:
o Faculty recruitment process?
o Is there a compulsory on-boarding programme for new teachers?
o Compulsory didactic seminars? Voluntary seminars?
o Are there continuing education programmes for teachers?
o How is the foreign language level of the teachers ensured?
 How does your quality management system work?
 How do students participate in committees? General involvement concerning the students?
 Is a Software against plagiarism used?
Questions for the faculty members
 For which labor markets are students being trained?
 Do you get enough support from the administration?
 What foreign language level do they have to prove in order to be allowed to teach?
 What is the common mission in the study programmes in all study levels (BA, MA, PhD)?
 Further development for the future of the study programmes?
 Do you enough time for Research projects?
 Why do they have relatively few Master's and doctoral students?
 Academic Mobility?
o Concentration is very strong in some countries?!? What other cooperations would be
possible?
o Incomings-Outcomings?
o Double-Degree and Joint Programmes?
 Can you explain the structure of the internships?
 Do they use modules in the BA and MA polyvalently and how do they ensure a different
level in the forms of examination?
 If the module size differs between 1 and 6 ECTS credits:
o Why don't they use uniform module sizes?
o How do they ensure that there are not too many exams in the smaller modules?
o Quality Management System:
o What forms of evaluation do they carry out?
o Do you do workload surveys?
o How high is the Drop-Out-Rate?
o What happens if the evaluation results are bad?
o Do they reflect back the results of the courses?
Questions for the students - in the current programme(s)
 Why did you choose this university? Why did you choose this study programme? How did
you get into university? What are your expectations from studying within the framework of
study programme?
 Students Fees? How do they deal with?
 Scholarships?
 Are you involved in committees?
 General atmosphere at the university? Mind Set of the university? Academic honesty?
 Are you satisfied with your studies?
 What kind of teaching methods?
 What is the workload like?
 Are you involved in the development of the study programmes?
 How is blended learning integrated into the study programmes?
 How are the internships going, what are you doing there? What foreign internships have you
had? Who pays for the practice? How and by whom was the practice organized?
 How do they rate the supervision ratio?
 Do you feel well supervised?
 What can you say about the University Student Code?
Where do they go if you have problems? Is there a complaints office?
 What are your chances on the labor market? Are you well prepared for the job market?
 Are you planning to study abroad?
 When and how are you evaluated? Are the results discussed with you?
 How does the internship work? Do you do other internships besides the compulsory
internship?
 How do they rate the studyability?
 Do they have enough contact persons?
What can you say about your student life?
How is the living situation?
 Are the administrative processes well designed? Exam registration? Admission? Incentive
 Are gender equality, equal opportunities and inclusive education sufficiently taken into
account?
 Are they actively involved in committees?
Do you have all the scholarships?
 If you were advising the university, what would be your advice and what would you like to
see? Do you have any suggestions for improving the training program? What would you like
to change?
 How do you get the necessary information?
 How are the practices going, what are you doing there? What foreign practices have
you had? Who paid for the practice? How and by whom was the practice organized?
 What kind of training system do you have?
Questions for graduates
 A brief description of your company's activities?
 What are your job responsibilities?
 Do you have meetings with the department? How often?
 Do you participate in the review, change and approval of the educational program?
 In what kind of measures and surveys are you involved?
 Do you come back a practical lecturers?
 How useful is the knowledge gained at the university in practice?
 How do you keep in touch with the department after graduation? Through the alumni site?
Through an advisor?
 Is the department interested in your employment / employment after graduation?
 What was the benefit / advantage of studying in your university?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses of studying at the university / department /
programmes?
 What is the value of universities´ diploma in the labor market? What skills did you acquire at
the university, in addition to the acquired knowledge within the EP?
What disciplines would you like to study during your university studies? What disciplines
would be useful for your professional work?
 Would you like to include any courses in the curriculum of the department? Were your
opinions asked when the department developed the curriculum/catalog of disciplines?
Have you participated in such meetings?
Questions for Administrative Staff
 How can the administration/administrative departments contribute to the development of
the university’s strategy and the strategic process of the university?
 Curriculum planning: how is the administration and how are the relevant departments
involved in the planning of new programmes in the area of resources (e.g. library for
updating the book stock, buying new books, updating laboratory equipment, available
or required financial resources)?
o Is it a Top-Down-Process?
 Has each faculty its own budget and according to which indicators the budget is
allocated/how is the process of the distribution of the budget to the faculties? Can
faculties decide on their own how they spend the money?
 How is the workload in the administration? Are the financial and human resources in the
administration sufficient for all services which have to be provided/all tasks?
 Training possibility for staff in the administration (language courses, IT courses,
quality management etc.)?
 Internationalization/International Office:
o Which are according to your opinion the strategic partners of the university and
in which areas? (Companies, other universities etc.)
o How does the recognition of achievements obtained at foreign universities work?
o How does the university attract foreign teaching staff? Are there financial resources
for that?
o How is the International Office integrated into the internationalisation strategy of
the university management?
o Are there special target countries and focus regions?
 Examination System:
o How is it organised?
o Midterm and Final exam? How will the quality be measured?
o Are all exams really online and if, which form? Only Multiple Choice?
o Exam registration and deregistration? How many attempts do students have? Do
these take place in the same semester?
 Distance Learning? Platforms exist? How are they managed?
 Equipment: How does the acquisition of technical equipment work? Are there
inventory lists?
 Quality Management:
o How is quality management structured?
o Who is responsible for quality assurance?
o Are there handouts and process documentation that explain quality management?