Quality Management

The dovetailing of module and degree program objectives within the context of skills-focused curriculum development is of equal importance as the coordination of module objectives within the wider program. This consideration also applies to the coordination of the objectives of individual classes and modules and the selection of an examination form that matches the desired skills acquisition goal. The student workload and the general study experience (including obligatory skills acquisition sequences and dependencies) form framing guidelines in this area. Sufficient consideration must be accorded to the teaching—implicitly or explicitly—of general and interdisciplinary skills such as data literacy which are required to equip graduates to conduct further research or start a career.

These issues should be taken into account in the development of degree programs so as to ensure the following:

• Qualification and module objectives are to be formulated in an action-oriented manner and provide information regarding the specific skills and the point in the degree program at which students will acquire them.
• Objectives are matched to skills applications to ensure the sustainability of the learning processes (i.e. the form assumed by the teaching and examinations) and fit into the concept of lifelong learning, thereby avoiding habits of "teaching to the test" (also known as bulimic learning).
• The transparency of the study progression: every section of the degree program should make clear which skills it imparts and the interrelationship of each module and its skills focus to the others. This avoids both redundancy and mismatches between the skills of the students and the requirements made of them during the module.
• The requirements made of the organization and quality of degree programs necessitate regular analysis of the aspects outlined above and realization of the defined skills progressions and self-defined quality standards.