Accreditation

No. The Higher Education Act (HEdA) calls for the uniting of research and teaching in HEIs.

No, the Higher Education Act (HEdA) permits no accreditation for affiliated entities. An HEI that wishes to be institutionally accredited must belong to a category defined by HEdA, such as a university, university of applied sciences, university of teacher education or an institute; other formats cannot be accredited.

For other institutions or entities, the AAQ offers evaluations.

According to the Higher Education Act (HEdA), the HEI must be a legal entity in Switzerland and possess infrastructure in Switzerland.

In principle it can, but it must observe the legal requirements of its canton. The federal government does not regulate the awarding of titles. Moreover, the right of an HEI to award a title is not tied to accreditation.

The Swiss Accreditation Council holds a list of accredited HEIs. A list of accredited and recognised HEIs can also be found at swissuniversities.

In Switzerland, no compulsory programme accreditation exists. In the context of its institutional accreditation, the HEI demonstrates that its quality assurance system extends to all areas, including of course its study programmes. However, these are not formally programme-accredited.

An HEI in Switzerland must be accredited in accordance with HEdA if it wants to use the name ‘university’, ‘university of applied sciences’ or ‘university of teacher education’ in a national language or in another language. This also applies to derived versions of the name.

The terms ‘higher education institute’, ‘business school’ or other such terms are not protected.

The competent body for admission to the procedure is the Swiss Accreditation Council. The admission form and a template for documentary evidence of how your institution meets the admission criteria (Art. 4, para 1, Accreditation Ordinance, Higher Education Act (HEdA)) can be downloaded from the website of the Accreditation Council. Please contact its office for information

The AAQ provides information on the institutional accreditation process and conducts personal discussions if necessary, but it does not offer advice.

The various forms and methods of quality assurance procedures are based on the relevant legal requirements of the different countries.

System accreditation is a procedure performed exclusively in Germany. It certifies a quality assurance system for a higher education institution that extends over parts of the HEI (study and teaching). In Germany, an HEI chooses between system accreditation and programme accreditation.

A quality audit is a procedure that is carried out according to the Austrian HS-QSG (Act on Quality Assurance in Higher Education). The AAQ carries out such procedures in Austria.

Quality audits in Switzerland were carried out between 2001 and 2014 at the universities and in both Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in three cycles; they were superseded by institutional accreditation with the introduction of HFKG in 2015.

In addition, the AAQ offers evaluations of institutions and study programmes; e.g. postgraduate master’s course. Evaluations are not tied to a legally valid decision.

No, the same standards apply to all universities. However, coverage of the specific profile is considered within the standards framework, and that is guaranteed by the respective expert group.

The basis of calculation of the process costs charged by the AAQ rests on the Fee Regulation of the Swiss Accreditation Council.

Public HEIs, where the competent authorities contribute to the financing of the Accreditation Council and the Agency, are charged for the direct costs: CHF 32,000.

Private HEIs pay the indirect costs in addition to the direct costs: CHF 59,000.

Payment is made in two partial invoices.

A later verification is invoiced separately.

There are no binding legal rules in Switzerland for the publication of evaluation reports. However, AAQ is committed to European best practice and to the requirements of ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), which defines a continuous publication of reports; swissuniversities, the Swiss Rectors’ Conference, has expressed its approval of this practice.

Institutional accreditation guarantees that the HEI in question has a quality assurance system in place and meets defined quality standards. It is a confirmation of compliance with specified standards (HFKG in Switzerland; ESG (European Standards and Guidelines) in Europe) both nationally and internationally. An institutionally accredited HEI is included on the Accreditation Council’s list of accredited HEIs and on swissuniversities’ list of recognised HEIs, which is of significance both nationally and internationally.

Institutional accreditation is the only national accreditation that covers an entire HEI. There are also optional programme accreditations (for HEIs that are already institutionally accredited), or programme accreditations offered by individual agencies and which are mostly subject-specific.

There is no other accreditation similar to this internationally. Institutional accreditation in Switzerland examines standards that apply to all areas of an HEI (i.e. not only teaching) and is therefore of high value.

The accreditation has no direct connection to the awarding of diplomas.

Admission to other HEIs depends on their local guidelines. In principle, the provisions of the Lisbon Convention that govern academic mobility apply.

No, that assumption cannot be made.

Seven years.

The procedure for institutional accreditation, from the opening of proceedings to the decision of the Swiss Accreditation Council, lasts from 18 months to two years. In order to comply with the current deadline of 2022, requests to the Swiss Accreditation Council should be submitted no later than the end of 2020.

No, the Swiss Accreditation Council maintains a list of approved agencies.

The AAQ carries out institutional accreditation procedures in German, French, Italian and English. The language of the procedure is uniform and is established at the beginning of the process.

Programme accreditations are voluntary and possible according to HEdA, but only for institutions that are already institutionally accredited. If that is not the case, evaluation is an option.