AAQ - Swiss Agency of Accreditation and Quality Assurance

Agence suisse d’accréditation et d’assurance qualité

Agenzia svizzera di accreditamento e di garanzia della qualità

Schweizerische Agentur für Akkreditierung und Qualitätssicherung

Information on the agency's work

Founded in 2001, the OAQ has been renamed Agency for Accreditation and Quality Assurance (AAQ), as a consequence of the entry into force of the Federal Act on Funding and Coordination of the Swiss Higher Education Sector (Higher Education Act, HEdA 414.20) on January 1st 2015. The AAQ safeguards and promotes the quality of teaching and research at higher education institutions in Switzerland. It is independent, uses internationally recognised methods and is able to draw upon the knowledge and experience of leading experts. The AAQ develops guidelines and quality standards, conducts accreditation and evaluation procedures, and works at an international level. It perceives its role as an external partner for quality assurance and development, and provides a range of supporting services. The AAQ acts under the authority of the Swiss Accreditation Council.

The core business of the AAQ is institutional accreditation of HEIs.
In addition, the AAQ has discipline specific fields of competence:
1) The AAQ is regularly mandated by the Federal Department of Public Health to conduct external assessments in the field of graduate and postgraduate medical education, as well as in the field of the psychology professions.
2) The AAQ is entitled to deliver the EUR-ACE label to accredited engineering higher education programmes.

Activities within the scope of ESG

Higher education systems where AAQ carried out external QA activities

Contact details