Switzerland

image/svg+xml Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) A blank map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and countries fully surrounded by the EHEA. Every country has an id which is its ISO-3116-1-ALPHA2 code in lower case. Members of the EU have a class="eu", all EHEA countries have a class="europe", non-EHEA countries have a class="nonehea". Image based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_map_of_Europe_(with_disputed_regions).svg by Júlio "Tintazul" Reis and Marian "maix" Sigler. Made by Colin Tück, EQAR, 2017 Released under CreativeCommons Attribution ShareAlike (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/).
  • Governmental membership
    Switzerland has been a Governmental Member of EQAR since May 2009.

    Read more: all Governmental Members of EQAR

  • General information on higher education

    The higher education sector of Switzerland is defined by the Higher Education Act (see below) and includes two types of higher education institutions with the same status but with different goals: the research universities and the universities of applied sciences (UAS). The main task of the universities is to carry out basic research and teaching while the universities of applied sciences place a greater emphasis on practically oriented studies and on applied research and development. The Universities of Teacher Education are of the same type as the UAS. Only universities award PhDs but all higher education institutions in the tertiary sector are active in teaching, research, continuing education and training and the provision of services to third parties.

  • National external quality assurance requirements

    • Programme accreditation
      voluntary, except for medical and health professions according to public health regulations

    • Institutional accreditation
      Institutional accreditation according to Swiss law, with a decision by the Swiss Accreditation Council, is mandatory for all public higher education institutions of the tertiary sector and for private higher education institutions using a protected denomination (“University”, “University of Applied Sciences”, “ University of Teacher Education“). Successful accreditation has no legal impact beyond the right to use one of the protected denominations but is a testimony to a quality assurance systems covering all processes and suited to support the higher education institution to achieve its goals.

  • Cross-border quality assurance

    In Switzerland higher education institutions may choose a suitable EQAR-registered agency.

    • Eligibility requirements for foreign agencies: higher education institutions may choose an EQAR-registered agency recognised by the Swiss Accreditation Council (see below)

    • Conditions for the agencies’ work (e.g. criteria to be used): to agree to the Fee Regulations of the Accreditation Council, to align its accreditation procedures with the HEdA Accreditation Ordinance or alternatively to use the Accreditation Guide of AAQ

    • Recognition of reviews carried out by foreign agencies: the final accreditation decision is taken by the Swiss Accreditation Council.

    Read more: countries where higher education institutions may choose a suitable EQAR-registered agency

  • European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes

    In Switzerland the European Approach is available to higher education institutions.

    The European Approach can be used by EQAR-registered agencies operating in the country.

    Read more: countries where the European Approach is available to higher education institutions

  • Permalink
    https://sandbox.deqar.eu/kb/country-information/country/?id=167
  • Further information

Registered agencies operating in Switzerland