The University of Zurich Prepares for Its Institutional Accreditation

A new core team at UZH is dedicated to the institutional accreditation of the university.

By David Werner; English translation by Caitlin Stephens

All public and private higher education institutions in Switzerland must undergo an institutional accreditation process in order to be able to call themselves a “University”, “University of Applied Sciences” or “University of Teacher Education” and be eligible for state funding. This has been a requirement of the Higher Education Act (HFKG) since 2015. To be awarded the accreditation, the higher education institution must demonstrate that it has an appropriate quality assurance system in place for teaching, research and services.

In preparation for the accreditation process, UZH launched its “Accreditation 2022” project under the strategic direction of Deputy President Gabriele Siegert. A core team, headed up by Peter Collmer (see photo, right), kicked off the operational tasks of the project at the end of 2018. It will soon be supported by several working groups that will focus on specific issues. The accreditation process itself will start in June 2020 and will be carried out by the Swiss Agency for Accreditation and Quality Assurance (AAQ). The accreditation application will be submitted in September 2021 and the Swiss Accreditation Council (SAR) will announce its decision at the beginning of 2022.