SDU receives positive institutional accreditation

Last week saw the culmination of a long-lasting effort when SDU became the first Danish institution to receive a positive accreditation for the second time on the basis of the quality work that is carried out daily at the university. In other words, SDU’s system for ensuring quality work in its education programmes meets externally determined criteria for education quality, which are described in the Danish Accreditation Act.

The positive accreditation is awarded by the Accreditation Council and means, among other things, that SDU still has the freedom to create new education programmes, conduct tenders and make adjustments to existing programmes.

Great preceding effort
The positive feedback is the result of a massive effort with a self-evaluating institution report, panel visits and ‘random checks’ of individual programmes' quality work, led by a steering committee and a project group across departments and faculties.

The Accreditation Council praised SDU’s ongoing work since 2014, when the University was accredited for the first time. 

- SDU has spent the time that has passed since its first positive institutional accreditation well. Their quality assurance efforts appear more mature the second time around, and based on their ongoing experience, SDU reflects on how to develop its system as well as simplify it. SDU continues to systematically address quality challenges, right down to the individual programmes offered, and just like the first time around, the problems are addressed – now with even greater clarity in relation to responsibilities, initiatives, deadlines and assessment of whether the initiatives have worked, says Accreditation Council chairman Per B. Christensen.

Points of attention for the next few years
The decision is elaborated in an accreditation report, which now also contains reflections and points of development. The Council believes SDU can profit from focusing on these in the following areas:

• The role of students on study boards
• Coordination of cross-institutional education programmes
• Student participation in research-like activities
• Activating teaching and active learning

SDU’s Rector, Henrik Dam, is delighted by the Council’s feedback.

- We are pleased with the Accreditation Council’s stamp of approval of SDU's work in recent years, which is evident by its positive feedback. I would like to commend the great work of the project group and all the education programmes that have participated in the process. At the same time, we have received great and constructive input for points of attention, which we will look into and work on in the next few years.

The institutional accreditation is valid for six years.