News

Christoph Grolimund, AAQ director, has been nominated ENQA president during the annual General Assembly that took place in Sèvres, France, on Friday 27 October 2017. He takes over the presidency from his Irish predecessor Padraig Walsh from Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI).

In preparation of the UNESCO Global Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education (Paris, 2019), UNESCO is currently organizing regional events in different parts of the world in partnership with quality assurance agencies and relevant organizations. On 15-16 February 2018 Switzerland will be hosting the event for Western Europe.

In its meeting of 29 September 2017 the Swiss Accreditation Council granted accreditation to two higher education institutions. The Berner Fachhochschule BFH was accredited as university of applied sciences, whereas the PH Bern was accredited as university of teacher education.

The Accreditation Council duly accredited the University of Applied Sciences of Special Needs Education HfH (Interkantonale Hochschule für Heilpädagogik HfH) at its meeting on 24.03.2017. HfH is the first university of teacher education to have undergone and duly passed the procedure for institutional accreditation in Switzerland pursuant to HEdA.

The University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration (HWZ) is the first higher education institution to have undergone and duly passed the procedure for institutional accreditation in Switzerland pursuant to HEdA.

The first AAQ conference on Institutional Accreditation was held on Friday, 25 November 2016, focusing in particular the communication of quality assurance.

The AAQ is publishing the expert reports arising from the 12 quality audit procedures in the 2013-2014 cycle of procedures. The universities have consented to their publication.

The Swiss Higher Education Conference approved the accreditation guidelines pursuant to HEdA at its meeting on 28 May 2015. All the legal foundations for institutional accreditation are thus in place.

The EUR-ACE^® Label is an international label for engineering degree programmes. The Swiss Agency has recently been authorised to award the label. In February 2015 the label was awarded for the first time to a bachelor degree course at the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil (HSR). Further labels will be going to courses at HES-SO.

On 19 December 2014 the OAQ-led working group approved the draft for the accreditation guidelines under the HEdA, including comments, and submitted it to the SBFI. The mandate that the Agency had received from the State Secretary has thus been completed on schedule.

The Federal Act on Funding and Coordination of the Swiss Higher Education Sector (HEdA) that was introduced in early 2015 regulates the accreditation of Swiss higher education institutions: the Swiss Agency of Accreditation and Quality Assurance – or AAQ – will now conduct accreditations. The AAQ is under the authority of the Swiss Accreditation Council.

The University of Innsbruck has had its quality assurance system inspected by the Swiss Agency. The presentation of the certificate marked the official conclusion of the quality audit.