RWU's Office of Academic Affairs Receives ISO Certification

RWU Ravensburg-Weingarten University has successfully obtained certification for its academic administration in accordance with the European ISO 9001 standard. The certification audit was conducted between April and June 2026 and was successfully completed on the first attempt. This provides independent validation of the university’s efforts to establish reliable, transparent administrative processes. With this step, RWU is taking an approach that has traditionally received less attention at universities than quality assurance in academic programs and teaching.

“Following the accreditation of our academic programs, we deliberately shifted our focus to quality management in administration. The fact that we achieved ISO certification on our first attempt speaks to the excellent work we’ve done over the past few years,” says RWU Chancellor Henning Rudewig.

How It All Began: Good Processes Should Not Be Left to Chance

RWU has been committed to ensuring the sustainable quality of its work for many years. An important milestone was the institutional accreditation in 2016. It confirmed the quality management of academic programs and teaching and gave the university the opportunity to further develop its degree programs independently.

But the university did not want to focus solely on this area. After all, well-organized academic administration is also crucial to ensuring that day-to-day university operations run smoothly. Human resources, finance, procurement, and many other tasks are all interconnected. It is important that information is reliably shared, responsibilities are clearly defined, and processes continue to function even when staff members change or need to be covered by substitutes.

The starting point, therefore, was the question of what structures would be needed to set up the administration in such a way that it could continue to function reliably even in the face of change. The knowledge and commitment of the staff were to continue playing a central role—at the same time, processes were to be documented in a clear and understandable manner, and lessons learned were to be made available to the entire organization.

In the early years, this led to the creation of, among other things, a university-wide overview of the most important processes and a central process portal. A working group guided the further development. Gradually, this evolved into a shared approach aimed not only at describing processes but also at scrutinizing and improving them.

From Individual Problems to Collective Solutions

Two examples from everyday university life illustrate how the work has changed in concrete terms. Applying for a business trip was one of the early processes identified as ripe for improvement. Instead of handling individual steps exclusively on paper or through various channels, the process was digitized. The goal was to simplify the application process and speed up its processing. Improvements should start where they bring tangible benefits in everyday life.

Another key area of focus was the process portal. Administrative procedures are documented there so that employees can understand how a process works and who is responsible for which tasks. This is also helpful when new colleagues are being trained or when task substitutions are necessary.

Setting up the portal was not without its challenges. Different filing structures, documents stored in multiple locations, and unclear responsibilities made a revamp necessary. RWU reorganized the filing system, restricted access permissions, and defined who is responsible for maintaining the content.

The lessons learned from this experience show that it is not enough to simply document processes once. They must be understandable, up-to-date, and helpful in day-to-day work. This is precisely what the university has been working on continuously in recent years.

How does this benefit employees?

Clear procedures make it transparent which steps are necessary, who makes decisions, and what information must be shared with other departments. This facilitates collaboration between organizational units and helps prevent misunderstandings, follow-up questions, and unnecessary delays.

In addition, important knowledge is better preserved when tasks are reassigned or employees leave the university. This allows employees to focus more on their professional responsibilities rather than having to clarify procedures over and over again.

The way problems are handled has also changed, says the RWU Chancellor. When difficulties arise, the focus is no longer simply on determining who made a mistake. Instead, greater attention is paid to whether responsibilities, handoffs, or the process itself can be improved. At the same time, employees from various departments are increasingly contributing their own suggestions and proposing that processes be reviewed collaboratively.

The head of the QM team emphasizes that the employees’ experiences are crucial in this regard. “They know the processes and understand where things get stuck in practice. Quality management can only work if employees are involved and improvements are developed collaboratively,” says Dr. Mareike Berger.

ISO 9001: Confirmation and a Mandate for the Future

With its certification under DIN EN ISO 9001, RWU has established a recognized framework for its ongoing quality work. The standard stipulates that objectives, responsibilities, and procedures must be clearly defined and regularly reviewed. The university retains the autonomy to determine exactly how it structures its processes.

Certification is therefore not an endpoint. It confirms the level achieved and, at the same time, creates a stronger commitment for the coming years. Regular external audits are intended to help ensure that the agreed-upon working methods are maintained over the long term and that improvements do not fall by the wayside.

“What matters is not that we have documented as many processes as possible. What matters is that the processes work in everyday practice and that we learn from our experiences,” says Henning Rudewig regarding the guiding principle for the QM team’s future work. “After all, a high-performing university needs not only good teaching and research, but also an administration that reliably supports them.”

Text: Christoph Oldenkotte