Quality Audit according to HS-QSG

Quality audits provide an important contribution to the further development of the Montanuniversität Leoben and its unique selling points in research, teaching, transfer and organization. The aim of a quality audit as an instrument of ex-post quality assurance is to prove that the university successfully fulfills its institutional responsibility for the assurance and development of quality in its performance and cross-sectional processes with a quality management system. Furthermore, a quality audit creates the framework for a reflection process that supports the management of the Montanuniversität Leoben in further developing the quality management system with the aim of ensuring excellent performance in research, teaching, transfer and organization. A quality audit according to HS-QSG has to be performed every seven years by an EQUAR-listed agency.

Evaluation of research and studies of the departments 

In the context of the further development of the quality management system, an evaluation procedure for research and studies was developed as an instrument of ex-post quality assurance. This is carried out by external experts according to the university's specifications in the various departments. In June 2017, a pilot procedure was successfully completed with the aim of supporting the further development of a department in a structured manner and with the involvement of external expertise. Specifically, the status and perspectives of the core activities of research (including promotion of young researchers and transfer) and studies of the pilot department were examined with reference to the quality objectives of the University of Leoben. The recommendations of the external peers form a basis for the target agreement discussions to support the formation of goals and strategies at the departmental and university level. The experiences of the department, but also of the external peers from the pilot and follow-up projects are integrated into the development of a standardized procedure. This process is intended to be cyclical.

Ex-ante quality assurance through process design is used to ensure the quality of service and cross-sectional processes.

In addition, the following evidence-based quality assurance procedures are used:

Review of the achievement of the quality objectives in the four performance areas by various reports on key figures and indicators from different data sources, e.g. SAP, MUonline, PURE

Study analysis (annually, the development of first-year students per academic year is observed) based on the evaluation of data from MUonline

Student course critique (feedback from students is collected each semester and among other things, the achievement of the defined goals of a course is checked from the students' point of view) based on questionnaire surveys