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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
Quality Assurance

Last update: 27 November 2023
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Quality development and quality assurance in the education sector aim to record the quality of education and to continually target improvements. Quality development and quality assurance instruments and measures can be used at various levels of the education system: at system level, at institutional level of the individual school, or at the individual level of teachers or learners.


Swiss education monitoring


Under the Federal Constitution (Article 61a), the Confederation and the cantons jointly ensure the high quality and permeability of the Swiss education area within the scope of their responsibilities. As a key instrument for this cooperation the Confederation and the cantons have set up the education policy objectives for the Swiss education area in 2011. In 2015 they confirmed and expanded them. The competent authorities of the Confederation and/or the cantons have taken measures in all of these fields of action in recent years. Achieving the objectives is, however, a long-term vision and cannot yet be definitively assessed. The 2014 Education Report contains the first indications of where Switzerland stands in this process. The Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education (SCRE) is responsible for producing the Education Report.

Approaches and methods for quality assurance

Other approaches and methods for quality assurance and quality development in the Swiss education system include, inter alia:

  • State supervision of institutions at the different levels of the education system;
  • the adoption of quality assurance and quality development in cantonal school and education acts and cantonal concepts on quality assurance and quality development for the education sector or cantonal education monitoring processes;
  • nationwide education targets and educational standards for compulsory education;  
  • through increased autonomy for the schools and the professionalisation of school administrations in compulsory education, quality assurance and quality assurance measures have found their way into schools;
  • intercantonal, regional or nationwide curricula and framework curricula in compulsory education, upper secondary level and the tertiary level (tertiary level B professional education and training);
  • legal anchoring of quality assurance in the Federal Vocational and Professional Education and Training Act and the efforts by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) in this regard ("Qualität leben" project);
  • legal anchoring of quality assurance and quality development in the Federal Act on Funding and Coordination of the Higher Education Sector (HFKG);
  • Accreditation of tertiary level A educational establishments;
  • Recognition of leaving certificates from upper secondary level and tertiary level B qualifications;
  • Recognition of higher education teacher training courses;
  • the introduction and further development of quality assurance systems at higher education institutions in line with the legal bases and the corresponding guidelines;
  • indicators on the education system through the statistical education reporting of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO);
  • participation in international comparative studies or country reviews (inter alia PISA, OECD comparative studies or country reviews);
  • national research or development programmes, studies of educational research (inter alia Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education [SCRE], Swiss Council for Educational Research [CORECHED]), the Leading Houses for research in vocational and professional education and training and other studies which explore the education system or evaluate aspects of it.


Legislative References

Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft [Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation]
Bundesgesetz über die Berufsbildung [Federal Act on Vocational and Professional Education and Training] Bundesgesetz über die Förderung der Hochschulen und die Koordination im schweizerischen Hochschulbereich (Hochschulförderungs- und koordinationsgesetz, HFKG) [Federal Act on Funding and Coordination of the Higher Education Sector, HFKG]
Interkantonale Vereinbarung über die Anerkennung von Ausbildungsabschlüssen [Intercantonal Agreement on the Recognition of Educational Qualifications]