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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 AAQ – or its predecessor organisation OAQ – conducted quality audits at all public universities and at the two Swiss universities of science and technology on behalf of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Quality audits served as the basis for the entitlement to financial support under the Federal Act on University Funding (UFundA/UFG). The quality audits are superseded by institutional accreditation under the Federal Act on Funding and Coordination of the Swiss Higher Education Sector (HEdA/HFKG).

The respective groups of experts compiled their reports on the basis of self-evaluation reports and on-site visits: with the help of Swiss University Conference (SUC/SUK) quality standards, they assessed how the internal quality assurance system of a university works and what sort of impact it has on study programmes. The universities were able to choose the procedural language in which the reports were written. They are standardised in terms of form and layout; no direct comparison is possible in terms of content. After approval by the scientific advisory board, the reports were forwarded to the universities, the responsible cantons, the SERI and the SUC (up to the end of 2014).

There is no legal basis for the publication of the reports. On completion of the cycle, the AAQ asked Prof. Dr. Antonio Loprieno, president of the chamber of universities of swissuniversities, if they could be made public in the spirit of transparency. The universities gave their consent to this. By publishing the reports on the AAQ website, the agency is fulfilling the requirements set out in the Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) (ESG 2.6).

The AAQ synthesis report (currently in progress), which summarises the knowledge and findings gained from the 2013-2014 quality audit cycle, will be published at a later date.

Link:
Procedural quality audit reports

Download:
[wpfilebase tag=fileurl id=137 linktext='Quality audit guideline' /] (pdf, 587.8 KB)