Services

Services are available to Members of CONIES including the following certifications; validation and accredition schemes. Additionally, the International Credential Evaluation Service is available to any graduate of any higher education qualification programme worldwide.

CONSIDERING

That national programme accreditation systems are limited by state boundaries and do normally not apply to international postgraduate programmes, trans-national higher education, inter-university joint, dual and double degree programmes across institutions and borders.

That university systems of self-accreditation and autonomy do not require external accreditation of programmes and that accreditation is a verification of the quality of a programme provided.

That university systems requiring the recognition or authorisation or national accreditation of programmes provision do often not include inter-university and trans-national provision of programmes, in this case accreditation provides the external verification.

Institutions of Higher Education, Universities and Colleges.
Other Learning Provider Services can apply for Affiliate Membership, if the Institution is interested in QM Certification and Programme Validation. Application for Quality Management Certification is available to any Learning Provider Service.

ISO 19011 Internal Auditor Certification

ISO 19011 External Auditor Certification
ISO 9004 Quality Manager Certification

The personal certifications are awarded with accredited certification bodies.

ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015

Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems

CONIES does cooparate with AAA to provide a dual accreditation scheme by both accreditation service providers and to conduct CONIES programmatic accreditations or validations based on the CONIES standards and checklists for auto-evaluation and peer-audit evaluation.

AAA will be the contact point for the potential universities, HEI’s and colleges to start the accreditation process according to the standards and requirements of CONIES in the conduct of an accreditation or validation audit.

AAA will conduct the audits and share the results to CONIES for issuing the digital certificate or validation certificate and the membership certificate via AAA to the respective HEI.

Accreditations by AAA

AAA ASTM E2659 Accreditation

AAA provides accreditation to the education training services providers, Academies, Centers, Agencies and organizations that provide different kinds of training courses in several fields and majors such as managerial, social, humanitarian, media, IT, vocational courses, continuing learning, blended learning and all other types of training and scopes. The accreditation is based on the International American Standard (ASTM E2659).

Getting accredited requires training agencies to demonstrate they are competent, that their trainers are qualified, and that the curricula meet the requirements.

The accreditation process involves an evaluation of the training providers corporate structure, facilities, staffing, curriculum, product development and administration.

AAA TRAINING/EDUCATION PROVIDER ACCREDITATION

Training & Education Providers Accreditation 

  • AAA accreditation for training& Education providers offers the opportunity to have their programs(s) formally recognized.
  • Accreditation brings together the value of AAA brand and your organization’s own knowledge and skills to create effective and validated training. 
  • Courses may be either classroom/workshop-based or e-learning. They can be of any length and delivered anywhere in the world.
  • Accreditation of a training& Education providers covers the training course materials and the individuals who perform the training

Quality Management System in Higher Education

ISO 21001 First Edition 2018-05 Educational organizations — Management systems for educational organizations — Requirements with guidance for use, provides a common management tool for organizations providing educational products and services capable of meeting learners’ and other beneficiaries’ requirements. 

There is a critical and continuous need for educational organizations to evaluate the degree to which they meet the requirements of learners and other beneficiaries, as well as other relevant interested parties and to improve their ability to continue to do so.

ISO 21001 is a stand-alone management system standard, aligned with ISO 9001. It focuses on the management systems of educational organizations as well as the impact of these on learners and other relevant interested parties.

of transnational, inter-institutional, distance or online postgraduate education programmes

Notice: CONIES-ICHE Accreditation does not cover undergraduate or first-cycle programmes subject to national recognition authorities and qualification frameworks. CONIES-ICHE Accreditation applies to the accreditation of distance and online education, trans-national, inter-university collaborative provision schemes. CONIES-ICHE Accreditation complements and does not substitute national recognition or accreditation. It applies to postgraduate distance education or online programmes not falling into the scope of national recognition procedures and responsibilities regarding collaborative trans-national provision. It applies to the accreditation of doctoral degree programmes of universities from countries lacking accreditation schemes for doctorates or programmes of the third cycle

  • Accreditation is evaluating the programme provided by an institution of higher education with degree awarding authority against CONIES-ICHE Board of Accreditation criteria. Accreditation attests to the public the compliance of a progamme with the Dublin Descriptors for second cycle (Master) and third cycle (Doctor) degree programmes and with the respective EQF level qualificaton requirements for Level 7 (Master) and Level 8 (Doctor) embedded in the CONIES Accreditation Criteria. 

    CRITERIA FOR PROGRAMME ACCREDITATION AND AUTO EVALUATION

     

    I           General Criteria

    • Rationale
    • Structure
    • Learning outcomes
    • Content
    • Assessment
    • Internal verification / review and evaluation
    • Market needs
    • Target group of learners
    • Resources (general)
    • Tutor details
    • Examination materials
    • Self evaluation for accreditation
    • Internal auditor qualification

     

    II          Provision Criteria

    • Provider
    • Collaborative Provision
    • Cross-border Higher Education
    • Trans-national Quality Assurance
    • Trans-national Academic Recognition
    • Trans-national Professional Recognition
    • Collaborative Trans-national Provision
    • Recruitment
    • Resources
    • Support
    • Outcomes

     

    III         E-Learning Criteria

    • Quality of Education
    • Technical Quality
    • The catalogisation of multi-media applications
    • The quality of visual features
    • Learning and cognitive theories
    • The functionality of the application

     

    IV         Criteria for Quality of Online Education

    • Online learning is appropriate to the institution’s mission and purposes
    • The institution’s plans for developing, sustaining, and, if appropriate, expanding online learning offerings are integrated into its regular planning and evaluation processes
    • Online learning is incorporated into the institution’s systems of governance and academic oversight
    • Curricula for the institution’s online learning offerings are coherent, cohesive, and comparable in academic rigor to programs offered in traditional instructional formats
    • The institution evaluates the effectiveness of its online learning offerings, including the extent to which the online learning goals are achieved, and uses the results of its evaluations to enhance the attainment of the goals
    • Faculty responsible for delivering the online learning curricula and evaluating the students’ success in achieving the online learning goals are appropriately qualified and effectively supported
    • The institution provides effective student and academic services to support students enrolled in online learning offerings
    • The institution assures the integrity of its online offerings

     

    V          Online Education and Open Educational Resources OER Auto-Evaluation

    • Extent of actual use of online education and OER in the institution
    • Assessing vision of openness and strategy for open educational practices
    • Implementing and promoting Open Educational Practices

    “The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accrediting agencies, which are private educational associations of regional or national scope, develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria are met. Institutions and/or programs that request an agency’s evaluation and that meet an agency’s criteria are then “accredited” by that agency. ” (Source: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/)

    CONIES ICHE accreditation either stands by itself as voluntary evaluation and accreditation or it can be complementary to the national systems which are in place. Accreditation by CONIES-ICHE may be formally recognised by national credential evaluation authorities and receiving universities. The quality assurance standards applied by CONIES-ICHE are state of the art and in line with internationally comparable standards.

  • Transnational Programme Accreditation

    Accreditation of programmes provided trans-nationally in more than one country by a university.

  • Inter-University Programme Accreditation

    Accreditation of programmes provided by more than one university as single, joint, dual, double or multiple degree award.

  • Distance Education / Online Programme Accreditation

    Accreditation of programmes provided in distance education or online modus.

  • Application Form for Accreditation

    Download the Application Form – contact us for a Word-format version of the form

     PDF (2.14 MB)

  • Auto Evaluation Form

    Download the Auto Evaluation Form – contact us for a Word-format version of the form

    PDF (3,75 MB)

  • Application Form for Programme Validation

    Download the Application Form – contact us for a Word-format version of the form

    PDF (1,73 MB)

Quality Certification is charged by AFQ or BQS or the QM certification body in charge according to actual cost for

  • Certification of Internal Quality Auditor
  • Certification of Quality Management System

Notice: If the HEI has an Internal Quality Manager and also a certified QMS this requirement can be waived and the immediate validation or accreditation phase can be started.

Notice: If the HEI has an Institutional Accreditation by a reputed accreditation agency this requirement can be waived and the immediate validation or accreditation phase can be started. 

Programme Validation is charged by CONIES

  • Audit fee 1,500 EUR per application
  • Validation fee 300 EUR per programme

Programme Accreditation is charged by CONIES

  • Audit fee 2,500 EUR per application
  • Accreditation fee 300 EUR per single or identical group of programmes

Notice: Audit fee per application refers to one programme or an identical group of programmes, including 2 related different courses, e.g. MBA + DBA as consecutive course combination, or including 3 similar courses, e.g. MBA in different specialisations

The Audit fee is based on three peer auditors for trans-national provision, online and LMS, and one discipline – if more than three auditors are required the additonal auditor fee is 500 EUR 

Validation is the evaluation of a programme provided by a Business School or College or Research Institute without degree awarding authority. CONIES-ICHE Board of Accreditation validates a programme against CONIES and international standards of degree programmes at the respective levels of postgraduate higher education.

Business Schools, Colleges and Research Institutes qualify for programme validation. Programmes in a variety of specialisations are subject to validation for the recommendation of the award of postgraduate degrees by awarding institutions.

An essential requirement for programme validation is the compliance with legal regulations in the countries where the validated programmes are provided. In the UK trans-national programme validation requires RSEO by QAA for the collaborative provision. Various countries and US states regulate restriction, registration, approval, audits or accreditation of foreign or out-of-state university programmes provided in their country or state. All CONIES validated programmes must be legally provided in the country or countries of provision. CONIES applies rigorous standards in the audit and validation of providers and programmes in line with CONIES regulations and standards. 

CONIES member universities and awarding institutions can accept the CONIES Validation for the award of the respective degrees in validated provision.

Conies offers credential evaluation services of higher education qualifications for individuals.

Eligible HEI´s and Universities

Conditions for applicants for accreditation

The applicant institution is one of the following

  • a nationally recognised IAU-WHED (UNESCO) listed university
  • a nationally recognised and accredited institution of postsecondary education with degree awarding powers
  • a state approved or licensed institution of postsecondary education with degree awarding powers
  • a legally established and operating institution of postsecondary education with degree awarding powers and with institutional accreditation by an accrediting agency recognised or listed by any government authority or board in charge of recognising accrediting agencies, or listed and recognised by CHEA, EQAR, ENQA, APQN or INQAAHE and other regional accreditation associations
  • a legally established and operating institution of postsecondary education with degree awarding powers offering programmes with programmatic accreditation by an accrediting agency recognised or listed by any government authority or board in charge of recognising accrediting agencies, or listed and recognised by CHEA, EQAR, ENQA, APQN or INQAAHE and other regional accreditation associations

The applicant institution is an accepted Affiliated Member of CONIES-ICHE

The programme is one or more of the following

any postgraduate programme leading to the qualification of Specialist, Master or Doctor provided under one or all of the following conditions:

  • distance education or online provision of the programme

  • the programme is provided by more than one institution (collaborative provision)

  • the programme is provided in more than one country (trans-national provision)

  • the programme is open for enrolment to international students.

Eligible study areas

The following ISCED fields of eduation and training are subject to an application for validation or accreditation. Fields not mentioned below are excluded.

If there is just a Broad field listed, the whole field is included. In case a Narrow field is listed, the whole Narrow field is eligible. When particular Detailed fields are listed, only the Detailed fields are applicable.

Excluded fields cover all medicine and engineering fields.

ISCED fields of education and training (ISCED-F 2013)

01 Education

02 Arts and humanities

03 Social sciences, journalism and information

04 Business, administration and law

05 Natural sciences, mathematics and statistics

        052 Environment

06 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

09 Health and welfare

         090 Health and welfare not further defined

         091 Health

                         0919 Health not elsewhere classified

                         092 Welfare

                         0921 Care of the elderly and of disabled adults

                         0922 Child care and youth services

                         0923 Social work and counselling

                         0929 Welfare not elsewhere classified

        098 Inter-disciplinary programmes and qualifications involving health and welfare

10 Services

         102 Hygiene and occupational health services

         108 Inter-disciplinary programmes and qualifications involving services

Language of Instruction

CONIES-ICHE Board of Accreditation will consider applications for validation or accreditation of a programme taught in one or more of the following languages:

English, Spanish, German, French, Slovak, Polish.

If a programme is instructed in another language, the applicant may suggest the nomination of independent peer auditors.

CONIES-ICHE Board of Accreditation reservers the right to reject applications for lack of capacity in the language of instruction

Data Protection and Privacy Policy

CONIES-ICHE Board of Accreditation Privacy Policy

This privacy policy will explain how CONIES uses the personal data we collect from you when you submit applications.

CONIES may use your personal data for the purpose of membership, certification of quality assurance systems, accreditation and validation of programmes and qualifications offered by a higher education provider online, transnational and/or by collaborative provision.

Data on institutions, the authorities, lecturers, programmatic information on courses.

CONIES collects the following data:

  • Personal identification information (Name, email address, phone number, etc.)
  • Company information as per the application forms submitted by applicant

By submission of the data in applications for membership, accreditation or validation.

You directly provide CONIES with the data we collect. We collect data and process data when you:

  • Register online or place an order for any of our products or services.
  • Voluntarily complete an application form via email.
  • Data you may additionally supply during the audit and evaluation phase of a programme accreditation or validation.

CONIES may also receive your data indirectly from the following sources given your written prior consent:

  • Government and public administration sources;
  • Accreditation bodies or Quality Assurance bodies;
  • Any other source that you recommend and suggest in order to conduct the audit and evaluation of the application subject.

For the purpose of evaluation and assessment of the quality of programmes provided regarding accreditation or validation.

CONIES collects your data so that we can:

  • Process your order and manage your account.
  • Email you with communications related to our services we provide.

Your data is protected.

CONIES securely stores your data at the head office of CONIES with limited access.

CONIES will keep your data for the period of accreditation or validation plus one year. Once this time period has expired, we will delete your data.

No, we are not using your data for marketing purposes.

CONIES would like to send you information about products and services of ours that we think you might like.

If you have agreed to receive marketing, you may always opt out at a later date.

You have the right at any time to stop CONIES from contacting you for marketing purposes or giving your data to other members of the CONIES Group.

If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please INFORM US.

Our Company would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You have the right to request CONIES for copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.

The right to rectification – You have the right to request that CONIES correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request CONIES to complete the information you believe is incomplete.

The right to erasure – You have the right to request that CONIES erase your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that CONIES restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to CONIES processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to data portability – You have the right to request that CONIES transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at our email.

If you have any questions about CONIES privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that CONIES has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact  the Data Manager’s Office.

DATA PROCESSING AGREEMENT IN PDF

RIGHT TO ERASE REQUEST FORM

CERTIFICATION AND VALIDATION OR ACCREDITATION PROCESS

The accreditation process at CONIES-ICHE is broadly broken into the following steps:

Step I – Affiliate Membership

The first step toward affiliate membership is to request an online membership evaluation form. Please send us your request by using our CONTACT US form. Please include your email address, name, position or title, institution name and address.

Payment of Affiliate Membership fee (1st year) is required.

Step I-A Certification of Internal Quality Auditor

Step I-B Certification of Quality Management System

This step is to audit and certify the QMS according to ISO 9001:2015 or ISO 29990:2010 standards.

Prior to step I Payment of QM Certification fee is required.

STEP II- Pre-Accreditation Evaluation

Your submitted application will be reviewed by the CONIES-ICHE and if considered, you will be contacted to send further details which will also be analysed regarding the eligibility policies of the Board of Accreditation. After the evaluation phase, you will be advised about the fees, policies and regulations. Once you agree, the next phase of evaluation commences.

STEP III- Self Evaluation, Audit and Accreditation

Your institution will go through self evaluation and external CONIES-ICHE audit phases through which the institution’s quality will be gauged and checked. After we spend a considerable amount of time reviewing the individual programme, it becomes CONIES-ICHE accredited.

The peers do not conduct an on-site audit on the physical premises of the institution – which have already been audited during QMS certification or institutional audit – rather than on the virtual premises, the online learning platform and ODL system environment of the provider, and by means of online video conferencing.

This virtual on campus audit explains why and how we can manage to offer the validation and accreditation services at reasonable prices covering the own cost of CONIES-ICHE Board of Accreditation for this member service.

Prior to step III Payment of Programme Validation or Programme Accreditation fee is required.