Privathochschule: Anerkennung

§ 64 and § 64 a Lower Saxony Higher Education Act (NHG)
European Union law
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If you want to operate a private (non-state) university as an independent institution, you need state recognition by the ministry responsible for universities. Only state-recognized universities are allowed to use a corresponding designation (university, college, university of applied sciences), conduct university examinations and award university degrees.

In addition to the state recognition of the institution as such, the establishment of new courses of study and significant changes to them also require approval by the Ministry of Justice.

The ministry advises all those interested in founding a company and provides information on all necessary steps for state recognition.

Institutional accreditation is required for state recognition of the institution, and program accreditation is required for the approval of the degree programs. This is used to check whether the requirements for state recognition are met. Subsequently, the application can be submitted to the relevant ministry.

An application by the sponsor of the university can only be approved if it conclusively sets out how the legal requirements are met

State recognition as a non-state university can be granted upon application if the educational institution guarantees teaching, study and research or artistic activity at university level, the protection of academic freedom is ensured, a minimum staffing, material and financial endowment can be proven and the educational institution can prove that it has taken precautions to ensure that the admitted students have a orderly completion of their studies can be made possible

The first step is to contact the relevant ministry. Before deciding on state recognition, the ministry obtains an expert opinion from an institution suitable for accreditation (accreditation institution), in which the submitted concept for the planned non-state university is evaluated on the basis of the criteria set out in § 64 (3) (concept review).

In the next step, the actual application for state recognition takes place.

The establishment of new degree programmes and significant changes to the subject of accreditation of a degree programme that are not covered by its existing accreditation require the approval of the relevant ministry and accreditation on the basis of an accreditation report from an agency designated by the relevant ministry. Therefore, the first step is the coordination of the accreditation agency, followed by the accreditation procedure and, if the conclusion is positive, the application for approval to the ministry.

Duration (with a fixed time): For accreditation alone, a period of around one year is to be expected, including the preparatory measures and the approval procedure, a total of around 1.5-2 years can be calculated.

There are no deadlines to be observed by the ministry.

In addition, reference should be made to the "Guidelines for Concept Testing" of the German Council of Science and Humanities.

The responsibility lies with the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture.