Federal Act
on Funding and Coordination of the Swiss
Higher Education Sector
(Higher Education Act, HEdA)

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion works with the Can­tons to co­ordin­ate, main­tain the qual­ity and en­sure the com­pet­it­ive­ness of the en­tire high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor in Switzer­land.

² For this pur­pose, the present Act es­tab­lishes the ba­sic prin­ciples ap­ply­ing to the fol­low­ing:

a.

co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor, par­tic­u­larly through the spe­cific­a­tion of joint bod­ies;

b.

qual­ity con­trol and ac­cred­it­a­tion;

c.

fund­ing of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor;

d.

al­loc­a­tion of tasks in par­tic­u­larly costly areas;

e.

grant­ing of fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions.

¹ This Act ap­plies to high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons.

² High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions un­der the terms of this Act are:

a.

can­ton­al uni­versit­ies and fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy (FITs);

b.

uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences (UAS) and uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion (UTEs).

³ With the ex­cep­tion of the pro­vi­sions on ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions and con­tri­bu­tions to cov­er ex­pendit­ure for con­struc­tion and use of build­ings, this Act ap­plies to all FITs and oth­er fed­er­al high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions.

⁴ The pro­vi­sions of Chapter 5 and Chapter 9 of this Act shall ap­ply for the ac­cred­it­a­tion of private uni­versit­ies, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences, uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion and oth­er private in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor. Art­icle 19 para­graph 2 ap­plies to the par­ti­cip­a­tion of these high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions in the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions.

As part of its co­oper­a­tion activ­it­ies with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pur­sue the fol­low­ing ob­ject­ives in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

es­tab­lish­ing gen­er­al con­di­tions that fa­vour high-qual­ity teach­ing and re­search;

b.

fos­ter­ing a high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor com­prised of dif­fer­ent but equi­val­ent types of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions;

c.

work­ing to raise the pro­file of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and en­cour­age com­pet­i­tion, par­tic­u­larly with re­gards to re­search;

d.

craft­ing a co­her­ent Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion policy that is aligned with the fed­er­al policy to en­cour­age re­search and in­nov­a­tion;

e.

achiev­ing per­meab­il­ity and mo­bil­ity between high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions;

f.

cre­at­ing uni­form study struc­tures, study levels and trans­itions and en­sur­ing mu­tu­al re­cog­ni­tion of qual­i­fic­a­tions;

g.

provid­ing fund­ing to high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions on the basis of uni­form and per­form­ance-based prin­ciples;

h.

en­sur­ing co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and al­loc­at­ing tasks in par­tic­u­larly costly areas;

i.

avoid­ing com­pet­it­ive dis­tor­tions between high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions with re­gard to the pro­vi­sion of ser­vices and con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing courses.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion is re­spons­ible for lead­ing co­ordin­a­tion of the joint activ­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

² It shall provide con­tri­bu­tions un­der the terms of this Act.

³ It shall man­age and fund FITs un­der the terms of the FIT Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1991³ as well as oth­er fed­er­al high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions by vir­tue of their re­spect­ive leg­al basis.

⁴ The Fed­er­al As­sembly may is­sue de­crees en­abling the Con­fed­er­a­tion to fully or par­tially take over high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions, with the con­sent of the re­spons­ible body, if the said in­sti­tu­tions are par­tic­u­larly im­port­ant for fed­er­al activ­it­ies. Be­fore tak­ing such ac­tion, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall hear the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

⁵ Un­der the terms of spe­cial le­gis­la­tion, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall make con­tri­bu­tions to the Swiss Na­tion­al Sci­ence Found­a­tion, to the Swiss In­nov­a­tion Agency (In­no­suisse) as well as to na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al edu­ca­tion and re­search pro­grammes.⁴

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall re­spect the autonomy gran­ted by re­spons­ible bod­ies to high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions as well as the prin­ciples of free­dom and the unity of teach­ing and re­search.

² When per­form­ing its tasks, it shall con­sider the spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter­ist­ics of can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences, uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

¹ Basing them­selves on this Act and on the In­ter­can­t­on­al Agree­ment on Co­oper­a­tion in High­er Edu­ca­tion, the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons shall enter in­to a Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment on ful­fil­ment of their re­spect­ive tasks.

² This Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment shall cre­ate the joint bod­ies re­quired un­der this Act.

³ It may trans­fer the powers es­tab­lished in this Act to the joint bod­ies.

⁴ Un­less already es­tab­lished in cor­res­pond­ing pro­vi­sions in this Act, the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment shall reg­u­late the fol­low­ing:

a.

cla­ri­fic­a­tion and im­ple­ment­a­tion of shared ob­ject­ives;

b.

re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, struc­ture and pro­ced­ures of joint bod­ies.

⁵ If the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment con­tra­dicts a pro­vi­sion con­tained in this Act, the Act shall take pre­ced­ence.

⁶ This Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment shall be signed by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil on be­half of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

The joint bod­ies are:

a.

the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions in its com­pos­i­tion as the Plen­ary As­sembly or as the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil;

b.

the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions;

c.

the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil.

¹ The Fed­er­al Per­son­nel Act and fed­er­al li­ab­il­ity law ap­ply to em­ploy­ees of joint bod­ies and the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency. The High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil may de­part from the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Per­son­nel Act un­der the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment when this is re­quired for the pur­poses of ful­filling the man­date.

² The joint bod­ies and the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency are sub­ject to fed­er­al data pro­tec­tion and pub­lic pro­cure­ment le­gis­la­tion.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pay the costs of man­aging the af­fairs of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions un­der Art­icle 14.

² Re­main­ing costs of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions shall be equally shared by the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons.

³ The Plen­ary As­sembly shall de­cide on the basis of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment who will pay the costs of the oth­er joint bod­ies and the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency.

¹ The Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions is the highest poli­cy­mak­ing body with­in the Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor. It is re­spons­ible for Swiss-wide co­ordin­a­tion of the activ­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

² It con­venes either as the Plen­ary As­sembly or as the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

³ It has its own budget and its own ac­count­ing.

⁴ Its Or­gan­isa­tion­al Reg­u­la­tions are is­sued by the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

¹ As the Plen­ary As­sembly, the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions has the fol­low­ing com­pos­i­tion:

a.

the des­ig­nated mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

b.

one mem­ber of each can­ton­al gov­ern­ment.

² With­in the frame­work of this Act, the Plen­ary As­sembly handles mat­ters per­tain­ing to the rights and ob­lig­a­tions of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and all can­tons. The fol­low­ing areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity may be trans­ferred to it un­der the terms of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment:

a.

de­term­in­a­tion of the gen­er­al fin­an­cial con­di­tions for co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor by the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons sub­ject to their re­spect­ive fin­an­cial au­thor­ity;

b.

de­term­in­a­tion of ref­er­ence costs and con­tri­bu­tion cat­egor­ies;

c.

for­mu­la­tion of re­com­mend­a­tions on pay­ment of schol­ar­ships and is­su­ance of loans by the Can­tons;

d.

oth­er areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity arising from this Act.

¹ As the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil, the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions has the fol­low­ing com­pos­i­tion:

a.

the des­ig­nated mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

b.

four­teen mem­bers of the gov­ern­ments of can­tons that sub­sid­ise can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences and uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion.

² Each Can­ton has only one seat on the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil. The In­ter­can­t­on­al Agree­ment on Co­oper­a­tion in High­er Edu­ca­tion de­term­ines how sub­sid­ising can­tons are rep­res­en­ted on the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

³ With­in the frame­work of this Act, the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil shall handle mat­ters per­tain­ing to the tasks per­formed by Can­tons that sub­sid­ise high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions. The fol­low­ing areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity may be trans­ferred to it un­der the terms of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment:

a.

en­act­ment of reg­u­la­tions on:

1.

study levels and trans­itions between levels, uni­form names of titles as well as per­meab­il­ity and mo­bil­ity between and with­in can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences and uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion,

2.

the hand­ling of qual­ity con­trol and ac­cred­it­a­tion at the re­quest of the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil,

3.

re­cog­ni­tion of qual­i­fic­a­tions and pro­ced­ures for the re­cog­ni­tion of pri­or learn­ing,

4.

con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing in the form of uni­form gen­er­al reg­u­la­tions;

b.

de­term­in­a­tion of the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of dif­fer­ent types of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tion;

c.

for­mu­la­tion of re­com­mend­a­tions on the par­ti­cip­a­tion rights of mem­bers of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions, par­tic­u­larly stu­dents, as well as on tu­ition and fees;

d.

for­mu­la­tion of re­com­mend­a­tions on the use of re­served des­ig­na­tions un­der Art­icle 29;

e.

is­su­ance of a res­ol­u­tion on co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and the al­loc­a­tion of tasks in par­tic­u­larly costly areas;

f.

de­cisions on the grant­ing of fed­er­al pro­ject con­tri­bu­tions;

g.

co­ordin­a­tion of any ne­ces­sary re­stric­tions on ac­cess to in­di­vidu­al study pro­grammes;

h.

over­arch­ing su­per­vi­sion of the bod­ies chosen by it;

i.

oth­er areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity arising from this Act.

Act­ing in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city, the fol­low­ing in­di­vidu­als shall take part in the meet­ings of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions:

a.

the head of the State Sec­ret­ari­at for Edu­ca­tion and Re­search⁵;

b.⁶

…

c.

the Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Can­ton­al Min­is­ters of Edu­ca­tion (EDK);

d.

the Pres­id­ent and Vice Pres­id­ent of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions;

e.

the Pres­id­ent of the Fed­er­al In­sti­tutes of Tech­no­logy Board;

f.

the Pres­id­ent of the Na­tion­al Re­search Coun­cil of the Swiss Na­tion­al Sci­ence Found­a­tion;

g.⁷

a rep­res­ent­at­ive of In­no­suisse;

h.⁸

the Pres­id­ent of the Swiss Sci­ence Coun­cil⁹;

i.

one del­eg­ate rep­res­ent­ing the in­terests of stu­dents, one del­eg­ate rep­res­ent­ing the in­terests of mid-level fac­ulty and one del­eg­ate rep­res­ent­ing the in­terests of pro­fess­ors at Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions;

j.

the chair­per­sons of stand­ing com­mit­tees, provided that they are not a mem­ber of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions; the stand­ing com­mit­tee un­der Art­icle 15 para­graph 1 let. b shall take part with two del­eg­ates rep­res­ent­ing the in­terests of trade uni­ons and two del­eg­ates rep­res­ent­ing the in­terests of em­ploy­er uni­ons;

k.

oth­er rep­res­ent­at­ives of or­gan­isa­tions as well as in­di­vidu­als who have been in­vited for the pur­pose of dis­cuss­ing spe­cif­ic items on the agenda.

¹ The Presi­di­um of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions com­prises a Pres­id­ent and two Vice-Pres­id­ents.

² The Pres­id­ent is the des­ig­nated mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil. This per­son serves as head of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides who shall act as deputy.

³ The Vice-Pres­id­ents are rep­res­ent­at­ives of can­tons that sub­sid­ise high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions. They take part in the man­age­ment of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall as­sign one Fed­er­al De­part­ment to man­age the af­fairs of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions.

⁵ When pre­par­ing im­port­ant res­ol­u­tions, the Presi­di­um shall ask in­ter­ested parties to sub­mit their stances.

¹ The High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil shall cre­ate the fol­low­ing bod­ies for the pur­pose of pre­par­ing de­cisions:

a.

one stand­ing com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for mat­ters per­tain­ing to med­ic­al re­search and study pro­grammes at high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions;

b.

one stand­ing com­mit­tee com­prised of rep­res­ent­at­ives of pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions;

c.

oth­er stand­ing and non-stand­ing com­mit­tees as needs re­quire.

² These com­mit­tees may also com­prise per­sons who are not mem­bers of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions.

³ The stand­ing com­mit­tee com­pris­ing rep­res­ent­at­ives of pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions shall take a stance on the af­fairs of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions un­der Art­icle 11 para­graph 2 and Art­icle 12 para­graph 3.

⁴ The stand­ing com­mit­tees men­tioned in Art­icle 15 para­graph 1 let­ters a and b above may, at their own ini­ti­at­ive or on be­half of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions, take a stance on in­di­vidu­al de­vel­op­ments af­fect­ing na­tion­al high­er edu­ca­tion policy and may sub­mit pro­pos­als.

⁵ The Presi­di­um of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions shall main­tain ties with the stand­ing com­mit­tees men­tioned in Art­icle 15 para­graph 1 let­ters a and b above. It shall peri­od­ic­ally or­gan­ise gath­er­ings with these two com­mit­tees.

¹ Each mem­ber of the Plen­ary As­sembly has one vote.

² De­cisions of the Plen­ary As­sembly re­quire:

a.

a qual­i­fied ma­jor­ity of two-thirds of the votes of the mem­bers present; and

b.

ap­prov­al by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³ In­stead of the rule es­tab­lished in para­graph 2, the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment may provide for a simple ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers present in the case of elec­tions, pro­ced­ur­al de­cisions and of­fi­cial stances.

¹ Each mem­ber of the Swiss High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil has one vote. In ad­di­tion, rep­res­ent­at­ives of the Can­tons have a spe­cif­ic num­ber of points de­term­ined on the basis of the num­ber of stu­dents. The al­loc­a­tion of points is de­cided in the In­ter­can­t­on­al Agree­ment on Co­oper­a­tion in High­er Edu­ca­tion.

² The de­cisions of the Swiss High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil re­quire:

a.

a qual­i­fied ma­jor­ity of two-thirds of the votes of the mem­bers present;

b.

ap­prov­al by the Con­fed­er­a­tion; and

c.

the simple ma­jor­ity of points.

³ In­stead of the rule es­tab­lished in para­graph 2, the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment may provide for a simple ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers present in the case of pro­ced­ur­al de­cisions and of­fi­cial stances.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall in­form the par­lia­ment­ary com­mit­tees re­spons­ible for edu­ca­tion and re­search of im­port­ant de­vel­op­ments in Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion policy as well as on the al­loc­a­tion of tasks in par­tic­u­larly costly areas.

¹ The Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions com­prises the rect­ors or pres­id­ents of Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions.

² It con­sti­tutes it­self. It shall es­tab­lish its own Or­gan­isa­tion­al Reg­u­la­tions. This doc­u­ment also gov­erns the par­ti­cip­a­tion of rect­ors or pres­id­ents of ac­cred­ited private high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions un­der this Act. These Or­gan­isa­tion­al Reg­u­la­tions re­quire ap­prov­al by the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

³ The Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions has its own budget and shall main­tain its own ac­count­ing re­cords.

The Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions has the tasks and re­spons­ib­il­it­ies trans­ferred to it un­der the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment.

¹ The Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil com­prises 15–20 in­de­pend­ent mem­bers; these mem­bers rep­res­ent in par­tic­u­lar high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions, pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions, stu­dents, mid-level fac­ulty as well as pro­fess­ors and lec­tur­ers. Teach­ing and re­search fields at high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions as well as gender must be ad­equately rep­res­en­ted. Three to five mem­bers must be mainly in­volved in activ­it­ies abroad.¹⁰

² On the basis of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment, the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil elects Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil mem­bers for a four-year term of of­fice. Each mem­ber may only be re-elec­ted once.

³ On the basis of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment, the Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil de­cides on ac­cred­it­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with this Act.

⁴ It is in­de­pend­ent.

⁵ It or­gan­ises it­self. It is­sues its own Or­gan­isa­tion­al Reg­u­la­tions; these Or­gan­isa­tion­al Reg­u­la­tions re­quire ap­prov­al by the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

⁶ The Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil man­ages its own budget and the budget of the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency; each main­tain their own ac­count­ing re­cords.

⁷ It may re­cog­nise oth­er Swiss or for­eign ac­cred­it­a­tion agen­cies.

⁸ At the re­quest of the Dir­ect­or of the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency, it is­sues Or­gan­isa­tion­al Reg­u­la­tions for the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency; these Or­gan­isa­tion­al Reg­u­la­tions re­quire ap­prov­al by the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

¹ The Swiss Agency of Ac­cred­it­a­tion and Qual­ity As­sur­ance in High­er Edu­ca­tion (Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency) is a leg­ally de­pend­ent en­tity.

² It is un­der the au­thor­ity of the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil.

¹ Ad­mis­sion to the first level of stud­ies at can­ton­al uni­versit­ies and fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy is open to hold­ers of a bac­ca­laur­eate.

² They may grant ad­mis­sion to the first level of stud­ies on the basis of equi­val­ent pri­or edu­ca­tion and train­ing. For qual­ity con­trol pur­poses, the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil is­sues guidelines on equi­val­ency un­der the terms of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment.

¹ Ad­mis­sion to the first level of stud­ies at uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion is open to hold­ers of a bac­ca­laur­eate.

² Ad­mis­sion to the first level of stud­ies for those wish­ing to teach at pre-school and primary school level is open to hold­ers of a bac­ca­laur­eate or a spe­cial­ised bac­ca­laur­eate in ped­agogy or, un­der cer­tain con­di­tions, a Fed­er­al Vo­ca­tion­al Bac­ca­laur­eate; the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil es­tab­lishes the re­quire­ments.

³ They may grant ad­mis­sion to the first level of stud­ies on the basis of equi­val­ent pri­or edu­ca­tion and train­ing. For qual­ity con­trol pur­poses, the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil is­sues guidelines on equi­val­ency un­der the terms of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment.

¹ Ad­mis­sion to the first level of stud­ies at uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences is open to hold­ers of:

a.

a Fed­er­al Vo­ca­tion­al Bac­ca­laur­eate in com­bin­a­tion with a Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma in the de­sired field of study;

b.

a bac­ca­laur­eate and at least one year of work ex­per­i­ence that has en­abled the hold­er to gain prac­tic­al know-how and know­ledge in an oc­cu­pa­tion re­lated to the de­sired field of study; or

c.

a spe­cial­ised bac­ca­laur­eate in an oc­cu­pa­tion re­lated to the de­sired field of study.

² In the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment, the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil es­tab­lishes spe­cif­ic ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments for in­di­vidu­al fields of study. It may also de­cide that ad­di­tion­al ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments are needed.

¹ Through a blend of prac­tic­al stud­ies and ap­plied re­search and de­vel­op­ment, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences pre­pare stu­dents to carry out activ­it­ies as­so­ci­ated with spe­cif­ic pro­fes­sions that re­quire the use of re­search find­ings and meth­ods as well as, de­pend­ing on the field of study, cre­at­ive and artist­ic tal­ents.

² On com­ple­tion of the first level of stud­ies, stu­dents nor­mally ob­tain a qual­i­fic­a­tion that en­ables them to work in a giv­en pro­fes­sion.

At reg­u­lar in­ter­vals, high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor re­view the qual­ity of their teach­ing, re­search and ser­vices and pur­sue long-term qual­ity con­trol and de­vel­op­ment of qual­ity.

¹ The fol­low­ing are ac­cred­ited:

a.

high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor (in­sti­tu­tion­al ac­cred­it­a­tion);

b.

study pro­grammes of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor (pro­gramme ac­cred­it­a­tion).

² In­sti­tu­tion­al ac­cred­it­a­tion is a pre­requis­ite for:

a.

right to use titles;

b.

grant­ing of fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions;

c.

pro­gramme ac­cred­it­a­tion.

³ Pro­gramme ac­cred­it­a­tion is vol­un­tary.

¹ With in­sti­tu­tion­al ac­cred­it­a­tion, high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor have the right to use the re­served des­ig­na­tion ‘uni­versity’, ‘uni­versity of ap­plied sci­ences’ or ‘uni­versity of teach­er edu­ca­tion’ or de­rived des­ig­na­tions such as ‘uni­versity in­sti­tute’ or ‘UAS in­sti­tute’.

² The right to use re­served des­ig­na­tions also ap­plies to equi­val­ent terms in lan­guages that are not na­tion­al lan­guages of Switzer­land.

¹ For in­sti­tu­tion­al ac­cred­it­a­tion, the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments must be met:

a.

High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor have a qual­ity con­trol sys­tem in place to en­sure that:

1.

teach­ing, re­search and ser­vices are of high qual­ity and staff are qual­i­fied in their po­s­i­tions;

2.

ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments un­der Art­icles 23, 24 or 25 and, where ap­plic­able, also the gen­er­al prin­ciples on the struc­ture of stud­ies at uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences un­der Art­icle 26 are met;

3.

the high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tion is struc­tured and man­aged ef­fi­ciently;

4.

the mem­bers of the high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tion have an ad­equate role in de­cision-mak­ing;

5.

tasks are car­ried out in a man­ner that en­cour­ages equal op­por­tun­it­ies and true gender equal­ity;

6.

tasks fur­ther the aims of eco­nom­ic, so­cial and en­vir­on­ment­al sus­tain­ab­il­ity;

7.

it is pos­sible to veri­fy that the in­sti­tu­tion ful­fils its man­date.

b.

Can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy and uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences shall provide teach­ing, re­search and ser­vices in sev­er­al dis­cip­lines or fields of study.

c.

High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and their re­spons­ible bod­ies shall take steps to en­sure that the in­sti­tu­tion can be sus­tain­ably man­aged.

² The Swiss High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the re­quire­ments in an or­din­ance.¹¹ When do­ing so, it shall con­sider the spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter­ist­ics and autonomy of can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences, uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

The fol­low­ing re­quire­ments must be met for pro­gramme ac­cred­it­a­tion:

a.

High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor shall take steps to en­sure high-qual­ity teach­ing.

b.

High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and their re­spons­ible bod­ies shall take steps to en­sure that study pro­grammes may be com­pleted.

The Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency and oth­er ac­cred­it­a­tion agen­cies re­cog­nised by the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil shall carry out the ac­cred­it­a­tion pro­ced­ure ac­cord­ing to this Act and un­der the terms of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment. The ac­cred­it­a­tion pro­ced­ure must meet in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ards.

Re­fer­ring to the re­quest sub­mit­ted by the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency or by an­oth­er Swiss or for­eign ac­cred­it­a­tion agency re­cog­nised by the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency, the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil shall de­cide on in­sti­tu­tion­al ac­cred­it­a­tion and pro­gramme ac­cred­it­a­tion.

The Swiss High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil shall de­cide on the dur­a­tion of ac­cred­it­a­tion.

¹ The Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil and the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Agency shall charge gen­er­al cost-cov­er­ing fees for its de­cisions and ser­vices.

² The Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil is­sues a reg­u­la­tion on fees; this doc­u­ment re­quires ap­prov­al by the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

¹ Through the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions, the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons shall work to­geth­er to en­sure co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and de­cide on the al­loc­a­tion of tasks in par­tic­u­larly costly areas; this shall be done re­spect­ing the autonomy of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and in con­sid­er­a­tion of the dif­fer­ent re­mits of can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences and uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion.

² Co­ordin­a­tion shall in­clude:

a.

es­tab­lish­ing pri­or­it­ies in re­la­tion to com­mon ob­ject­ives un­der Art­icle 3 let­ters a–g and the re­quired meas­ures to be taken throughout the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor;

b.

es­tab­lish­ing the fin­an­cial plan at the na­tion­al level, namely with re­gards to co­ordin­a­tion of fed­er­al and can­ton­al con­tri­bu­tions as well as fund­ing of sub­sid­ising can­tons.

³ The al­loc­a­tion of tasks in par­tic­u­larly costly areas is in­ten­ded to en­sure that edu­ca­tion and re­search pri­or­it­ies re­ceive ef­fect­ive and ad­equate at­ten­tion with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

¹ High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor shall pre­pare a multi-an­nu­al de­vel­op­ment and fin­an­cial plan. This doc­u­ment shall in­clude multi-an­nu­al ob­ject­ives and pri­or­it­ies as well as fund­ing re­quire­ments.

² High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and their re­spons­ible bod­ies shall com­ply with the re­quire­ments of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions and heed the re­com­mend­a­tions made by the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions.

¹ The Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions shall provide the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions with a pro­pos­al on na­tion­al co­ordin­a­tion of high­er edu­ca­tion policy as well as on the al­loc­a­tion of tasks in par­tic­u­larly costly areas.

² When do­ing so, it shall base it­self on the de­vel­op­ment and fin­an­cial plans pre­pared by high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and shall con­sider:

a.

the re­quire­ments of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions;

b.

the fin­an­cial plans of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons.

³ For each plan­ning peri­od, it shall high­light co­ordin­a­tion needs among the vari­ous high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and shall take cor­res­pond­ing meas­ures to ad­dress these needs.

¹ The High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil shall de­cide on co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and the al­loc­a­tion of tasks in par­tic­u­larly costly areas. It shall de­term­ine the cor­res­pond­ing pri­or­it­ies as well as the meas­ures that must be taken throughout the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor in or­der to reach com­mon ob­ject­ives.

² It shall peri­od­ic­ally provide the cor­res­pond­ing fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies with an up­date on the amount of fund­ing needed to reach these ob­ject­ives.

³ It may provide for meas­ures to be taken to ex­pand study op­tions that serve the in­terests of the whole of Switzer­land but which are not yet ad­equately offered by in­di­vidu­al high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions.

¹ At the re­quest of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions, the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil shall de­term­ine par­tic­u­larly cost-in­tens­ive areas and de­cide how tasks should be al­loc­ated in these areas.

² When de­term­in­ing par­tic­u­larly cost-in­tens­ive areas, ex­pendit­ure in a giv­en field of study or dis­cip­line shall be com­pared with over­all ex­pendit­ure with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor. Ex­pendit­ure for a par­tic­u­larly cost-in­tens­ive area must com­prise a sig­ni­fic­ant share of over­all ex­pendit­ure with­in the Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

³ If a re­spons­ible body is un­able to com­ply with the de­cisions reached un­der para­graph 1, then the fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions un­der this Act may be re­duced or denied.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons shall see to it that pub­lic fund­ing of the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor is enough to en­sure high-qual­ity teach­ing and re­search.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons shall co-fund high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and shall do so on the basis of uni­form fund­ing prin­ciples.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons shall see to it that pub­lic con­tri­bu­tions are used in a prudent and ef­fect­ive man­ner.

⁴ High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor shall seek to se­cure ad­equate third-party fund­ing.

¹ For each fund­ing peri­od, the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the pub­lic fund­ing re­quire­ments of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

² When do­ing so, it shall con­sider the fol­low­ing in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the rel­ev­ant stat­ist­ic­al find­ings of the Fed­er­al Stat­ist­ic­al Of­fice;

b.

the cost ac­count­ing of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor;

c.

the de­vel­op­ment and fin­an­cial plans of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor;

d.

the ref­er­ence costs;

e.

the ex­pec­ted num­ber of stu­dents;

f.

Co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

On the basis of fin­an­cial plans pre­pared by the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons, the Plen­ary As­sembly shall es­tab­lish the gen­er­al fin­an­cial con­di­tions for the giv­en fund­ing peri­od; be­fore reach­ing its de­cision, it shall first hear the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions.

¹ Ref­er­ence costs are the ex­penses re­quired in or­der to provide high-qual­ity teach­ing to each stu­dent.

² Out­put val­ues used to es­tab­lish ref­er­ence costs shall re­flect the av­er­age costs of teach­ing ac­cord­ing to cost ac­count­ing re­cords of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions.

³ Out­put val­ues shall be ad­jus­ted so that pub­lic fund­ing is enough to en­sure high-qual­ity teach­ing and the re­search re­quired for this. Here, con­sid­er­a­tion shall be giv­en to the spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter­ist­ics of can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy and uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences as well as their spe­cif­ic fields of study and dis­cip­lines.

⁴ The Plen­ary As­sembly shall de­term­ine ref­er­ence costs and re­view these peri­od­ic­ally.

¹ A high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tion may be re­cog­nised by the Con­fed­er­a­tion as en­titled to re­ceive fund­ing if it:

a.

is in­sti­tu­tion­ally ac­cred­ited;

b.

of­fers pub­lic edu­ca­tion ser­vices; and

c.

is a mean­ing­ful ad­di­tion, ex­pan­sion or al­tern­at­ive to ex­ist­ing in­sti­tu­tions.

² Oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor may be re­cog­nised by the Con­fed­er­a­tion as qual­i­fy­ing for fund­ing if they:

a.

are in­sti­tu­tion­ally ac­cred­ited;

b.

of­fer pub­lic edu­ca­tion ser­vices;

c.

can­not be in­cluded as part of an already ex­ist­ing high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tion; and

d.

car­ries out tasks that fur­ther high­er edu­ca­tion policy in­terests and may be in­cluded in co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor de­cided by the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

³ Pub­lic edu­ca­tion ser­vices are edu­ca­tion ser­vices:

a.

that sat­is­fy a pub­lic need;

b.

that are provided with­in the frame­work of a pub­lic and leg­ally es­tab­lished man­date; and

c.

where the cur­ricula or qual­i­fic­a­tions is­sued are aligned with pub­lic edu­ca­tion policy.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides on the eli­gib­il­ity of fund­ing of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

² It shall first hear the Plen­ary As­sembly.

¹ With­in the frame­work of ap­proved budget ap­pro­pri­ations, the Con­fed­er­a­tion provides fin­an­cial sup­port to eli­gible can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor. This fin­an­cial sup­port shall be provided in the form of:

a.

ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions;

b.

con­tri­bu­tions to cov­er ex­pendit­ure for con­struc­tion and use of build­ings;

c.

pro­ject con­tri­bu­tions.

² Uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion may only re­ceive pro­ject con­tri­bu­tions.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide fin­an­cial sup­port in the form of con­tri­bu­tions to shared in­fra­struc­ture fa­cil­it­ies of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor if the said in­fra­struc­ture fa­cil­it­ies are used to carry out tasks of im­port­ance to the whole of Switzer­land. These con­tri­bu­tions may not ex­ceed 50 per cent of the total op­er­a­tion­al costs.

¹ The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall de­term­ine the fin­an­cial re­sources to be set aside for fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions. It shall es­tab­lish multi-an­nu­al budget ap­pro­pri­ations and fund­ing com­mit­ments.

² It shall is­sue simple de­crees for each budget ap­pro­pri­ation:

a.

for ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions for can­ton­al uni­versit­ies and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor;

b.

for ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions for uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor.

³ Budget ap­pro­pri­ations must be es­tab­lished in such a way as to en­sure that cor­res­pond­ing an­nu­al pay­ment budgets match con­tri­bu­tion rates.

⁴ The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall is­sue simple de­crees for each fund­ing com­mit­ment for:

a.

con­tri­bu­tions to cov­er ex­pendit­ure for con­struc­tion and use of build­ings as well as con­tri­bu­tions to shared in­fra­struc­ture fa­cil­it­ies avail­able to high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor;

b.

pro­ject con­tri­bu­tions.

Ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions shall be used to cov­er op­er­a­tion­al costs.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pay the fol­low­ing share of the total amount of the ref­er­ence costs:

a.

20 per cent in the case of can­ton­al uni­versit­ies;

b.

30 per cent in the case of uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences.

¹ The total an­nu­al amount is de­term­ined mainly on the basis of teach­ing and re­search per­form­ance achieved by in­sti­tu­tions that are deemed eli­gible for fund­ing.

² The pro­por­tion of teach­ing shall be de­term­ined on the basis of ref­er­ence costs. When do­ing so, the fol­low­ing cri­ter­ia shall be con­sidered:

a.

the num­ber of stu­dents en­rolled;

b.

the num­ber of stu­dents who suc­cess­fully com­plete their stud­ies;

c.

the av­er­age dur­a­tion of stud­ies;

d.

teach­er-stu­dent ra­tios;

e.

the num­ber of stu­dents en­rolled in spe­cif­ic dis­cip­lines or fields of study;

f.

the qual­ity of edu­ca­tion and train­ing.

³ The pro­por­tion of re­search is de­term­ined on the fol­low­ing basis:

a.

re­search per­form­ance;

b.

ac­quis­i­tion of third-party fund­ing, par­tic­u­larly fund­ing from the Swiss Na­tion­al Sci­ence Found­a­tion, EU re­search frame­work pro­grammes, the Com­mis­sion for Tech­no­logy and In­nov­a­tion as well as from oth­er pub­lic and private sources.

⁴ No more than 10 per cent of the total an­nu­al amount shall be paid to eli­gible in­sti­tu­tions on the basis of the pro­por­tion of their for­eign stu­dents to the total num­ber of for­eign stu­dents en­rolled in Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the pro­por­tions un­der para­graphs 2–4 as well as the com­bin­a­tion and weight­ing of as­sess­ment cri­ter­ia. It shall es­tab­lish these pro­por­tions in such a way as to en­sure that they fur­ther the ob­ject­ives set out in Art­icle 3. When do­ing so, it shall con­sider the fol­low­ing:

a.

the cat­egor­ies of dis­cip­lines and fields of study es­tab­lished by the Plen­ary As­sembly by vir­tue of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment as well as their cor­res­pond­ing weights and max­im­um dur­a­tions of study;

b.

the spe­cial char­ac­ter­ist­ics of can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy and uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences as well as of their fields of study.

⁶ It shall re­view these pro­por­tions peri­od­ic­ally.

⁷ It shall is­sue im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions re­quired for as­sess­ment.

⁸ It shall first hear the Plen­ary As­sembly.

¹ The com­pet­ent De­part­ment shall de­cide on ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions.

² It may del­eg­ate this de­cision to the cor­res­pond­ing Fed­er­al Of­fice.

¹ The com­pet­ent Fed­er­al Of­fice may is­sue man­dates to or sign per­form­ance agree­ments with oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor that are eli­gible for con­tri­bu­tions and may pay fixed con­tri­bu­tions to cov­er op­er­a­tion­al costs in­stead of pay­ing the ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions set forth in Art­icle 50–52.

² Such con­tri­bu­tions may not ex­ceed 45 per cent of op­er­a­tion­al costs.

³ Un­der the terms of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment, the Swiss High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil shall is­sue ba­sic prin­ciples on the pay­ment of fixed con­tri­bu­tions.

¹ Con­tri­bu­tions to cov­er ex­pendit­ure for con­struc­tion and use of build­ings are in­ten­ded for the ac­quis­i­tion, long-term use, cre­ation and trans­form­a­tion of build­ings for teach­ing, re­search or oth­er high­er edu­ca­tion pur­poses.

² No con­tri­bu­tions are paid to cov­er:

a.

costs as­so­ci­ated with the pur­chase of land and land de­vel­op­ment;

b.

costs as­so­ci­ated with build­ing main­ten­ance;

c.

pub­lic fees, de­pre­ci­ation and in­terest ex­penses.

³ For uni­versity clin­ics, no con­tri­bu­tions are provided to cov­er ex­pendit­ure for con­struc­tion and use of build­ings.

¹ Con­tri­bu­tions are paid for build­ing con­struc­tion if the build­ing pro­ject:

a.

costs more than CHF 5 mil­lion;

b.

is cost-ef­fect­ive;

c.

sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments for the al­loc­a­tion of tasks and co­oper­a­tion among high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions;

d.

meets strin­gent en­vir­on­ment­al and en­ergy ef­fi­ciency stand­ards; and

e.

in­cludes fa­cil­it­ated ac­cess for the dis­abled.

² Con­tri­bu­tions for build­ing us­age are paid if:

a.

us­age en­tails re­cur­ring costs ex­ceed­ing CHF 300,000;

b.

us­age has been agreed for a peri­od of at least five years;

c.

us­age is cost-ef­fect­ive;

d.

us­age sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments for the al­loc­a­tion of tasks and co­oper­a­tion among high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions;

e.

the build­ing used meets strin­gent en­vir­on­ment­al and en­ergy ef­fi­ciency stand­ards; and

f.

the build­ing used in­cludes fa­cil­it­ated ac­cess for the dis­abled.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion provides a max­im­um con­tri­bu­tion of 30 per cent of eli­gible costs.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides on the cal­cu­la­tion of eli­gible costs. It shall first hear the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

² It may provide for a lump-sum cal­cu­la­tion meth­od, namely max­im­um threshold val­ues per square metre of useable area.

¹ The com­pet­ent De­part­ment de­cides wheth­er to ap­prove or deny ap­plic­a­tions for con­tri­bu­tions to cov­er ex­pendit­ure for con­struc­tion and use of build­ings.

² It may del­eg­ate this de­cision to the cor­res­pond­ing Fed­er­al Of­fice.

¹ Multi-an­nu­al pro­ject con­tri­bu­tions may be paid for ex­pendit­ures that serve na­tion­al high­er edu­ca­tion policy in­terests.

² Tasks that serve na­tion­al high­er edu­ca­tion policy in­terests in­clude the fol­low­ing in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

cre­ation of na­tion­al or re­gion­al com­pet­ence centres jointly sup­por­ted by sev­er­al high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions or oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor;

b.

es­tab­lish­ment of in­ter­na­tion­ally prom­in­ent pro­grammes;

c.

de­vel­op­ment of pro­files and al­loc­a­tion of tasks among high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions;

d.

meas­ures to en­cour­age mul­ti­lin­gual­ism in Swiss na­tion­al lan­guages;

e.

meas­ures to en­cour­age equal op­por­tun­it­ies and true gender par­ity;

f.

meas­ures to en­cour­age sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment for the be­ne­fit of cur­rent and fu­ture gen­er­a­tions;

g.

meas­ures to en­cour­age stu­dent par­ti­cip­a­tion in de­cision-mak­ing pro­cesses.

³ The Can­tons as well as high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor in­volved in the pro­ject must con­trib­ute their own re­sources to an ad­equate de­gree.

⁴ Pro­ject fund­ing for uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion re­quires the in­volve­ment of sev­er­al uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences or can­ton­al uni­versit­ies or fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy.

¹ Pro­ject con­tri­bu­tions are de­term­ined on the basis of costs for plan­ning, de­vel­op­ment and im­ple­ment­a­tion of a giv­en pro­ject.

² They are provided for a lim­ited peri­od of time.

¹ The High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil de­cides on the award­ing of pro­ject con­tri­bu­tions.

² Based on the de­cision reached by the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil, the com­pet­ent De­part­ment shall enter in­to a per­form­ance level agree­ment with the re­cip­i­ent. This agree­ment cov­ers the fol­low­ing:

a.

the ob­ject­ives to be reached;

b.

the man­ner in which res­ults will be mon­itored;

c.

con­sequences of fail­ure to reach es­tab­lished ob­ject­ives.

¹ The re­served des­ig­na­tions ‘uni­versity’, ‘uni­versity of ap­plied sci­ences’, ‘uni­versity of teach­er edu­ca­tion’ and de­rived des­ig­na­tions (e.g. ‘uni­versity in­sti­tute’ or ‘UAS in­sti­tute’), wheth­er ex­pressed in a na­tion­al lan­guage of Switzer­land or in any oth­er lan­guage, may only be used by in­sti­tu­tions that have been ac­cred­ited un­der this Act.

² The titles giv­en to gradu­ates of can­ton­al uni­versit­ies, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy, uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences, uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor sub­ject to this Act shall be pro­tec­ted un­der the cor­res­pond­ing leg­al basis.

¹ If an in­sti­tu­tion lack­ing ac­cred­it­a­tion un­der this Act uses the title ‘uni­versity’, ‘uni­versity of ap­plied sci­ences’, ‘uni­versity of teach­er edu­ca­tion’ or a re­lated title, wheth­er ex­pressed in a na­tion­al lan­guage of Switzer­land or in any oth­er lan­guage, the man­agers of that in­sti­tu­tion are li­able to the fol­low­ing pen­al­ties:

a.

a fine not ex­ceed­ing CHF 200,000 in cases of wil­ful con­duct;

b.

a fine not ex­ceed­ing CHF 100,000 in cases of neg­li­gent con­duct.

² The Can­ton in which the in­sti­tu­tion is es­tab­lished is re­spons­ible for pro­sec­ut­ing such cases.

¹ If the re­quire­ments for ac­cred­it­a­tion are no longer met or if cer­tain con­di­tions have not been sat­is­fied with­in the es­tab­lished time­frame, then the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil shall take the ne­ces­sary ad­min­is­trat­ive meas­ures.

² The fol­low­ing ad­min­is­trat­ive meas­ures shall be con­sidered:

a.

re­mind­er let­ter;

b.

im­pos­i­tion of con­di­tions;

c.

re­voc­a­tion of ac­cred­it­a­tion.

³ The ad­min­is­trat­ive meas­ures taken by fed­er­al sub­sid­ising au­thor­it­ies are based on the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1990¹² on Fin­an­cial As­sist­ance and Sub­sidies, those taken by the Can­tons are based on the In­ter­can­t­on­al Agree­ment on Co­oper­a­tion in High­er Edu­ca­tion.

¹ De­cisions reached on the basis of this Act, its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions or the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment may be con­tested by ap­peal to the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court.

² De­cisions of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil on fund­ing en­ti­tle­ments are not ap­peal­able.¹³

³ Fur­ther­more, the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice ap­ply.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may sign in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments on be­half of the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor for:

a.

in­ter­na­tion­al co­oper­a­tion, par­tic­u­larly the struc­tur­ing of stud­ies as well as re­cog­ni­tion of stud­ies, qual­i­fic­a­tions and equi­val­en­cies with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor;

b.

meas­ures to en­cour­age in­ter­na­tion­al mo­bil­ity;

c.

par­ti­cip­a­tion in in­ter­na­tion­al sup­port pro­grammes and pro­jects.

² In the in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments men­tioned in para­graph 1, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may also agree on:

a.

fin­an­cial con­trols and audits;

b.

per­son­al safety in­spec­tions;

c.

the pro­tec­tion and as­sign­ment of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty arising from or re­quired for sci­entif­ic co­oper­a­tion;

d.

fed­er­al par­ti­cip­a­tion in leg­al en­tit­ies es­tab­lished un­der pub­lic law or private law;

e.

mem­ber­ship with in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions.

³ Un­der the terms of the Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment, the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil and the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Rect­ors of High­er Edu­ca­tion In­sti­tu­tions shall take part in pre­par­a­tions for such agree­ments. The Co­oper­a­tion Agree­ment shall es­tab­lish the con­di­tions for par­ti­cip­a­tion in this pro­cess.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions if im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act falls un­der its area of au­thor­ity.

The de­clar­a­tion on the gen­er­ally bind­ing nature of in­ter­can­t­on­al agree­ments re­lat­ing to the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor is based on Art­icle 14 of the Fed­er­al Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 2003¹⁴. on Fisc­al Equal­isa­tion and Cost Com­pens­a­tion

¹ Every four years, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall provide the Fed­er­al As­sembly with a re­port on:

a.

the ef­fect­ive­ness of pub­lic ex­pendit­ure;

b.

the ef­fects of the fund­ing sys­tem on the fin­ances of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons, on their high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions, on dis­cip­lines and on oth­er high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions re­ferred to in this Act;

c.

the com­pet­it­ive­ness of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions;

d.

the em­ploy­ab­il­ity and activ­it­ies of gradu­ates after com­ple­tion of their high­er edu­ca­tion stud­ies.

² It shall first hear the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil.

¹ On re­quest, the com­pet­ent Fed­er­al Of­fice shall de­cide wheth­er to re­cog­nise a for­eign high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tion as be­ing val­id for work in a reg­u­lated pro­fes­sion.

² The re­cog­ni­tion of equi­val­ence may be del­eg­ated to a third party; the third party may charge a fee for its ser­vices.

³ The au­thor­ity of the can­tons over re­cog­ni­tion of for­eign qual­i­fic­a­tions re­lat­ing to pro­fes­sions reg­u­lated at in­ter­can­t­on­al level shall re­main re­served.

The re­peal and amend­ment of cur­rent le­gis­la­tion are reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

¹ If the level of av­er­age an­nu­al ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions de­term­ined by the Con­fed­er­a­tion for the first time un­der this Act is con­sid­er­ably dif­fer­ent from the level ef­fect­ively paid on av­er­age to can­ton­al uni­versit­ies and uni­versit­ies of ap­plies sci­ences with­in a four-year peri­od un­der pre­vi­ous le­gis­la­tion, then the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall re­quest an ad­just­ment of the con­tri­bu­tion rates un­der Art­icle 50 when it sub­mits the first budget ap­pro­pri­ation re­quest for ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions un­der this Act.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the four-year fund­ing peri­od and the rel­ev­ance cri­ter­ia un­der para­graph 1.

³ It shall first hear the Plen­ary As­sembly.

¹ Un­til de­cided by the High­er Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil, ad­mis­sion to uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences is sub­ject to the con­di­tions set forth in para­graphs 2–4.

² Ex­am­in­a­tion-free ad­mis­sion to Bach­el­or’s de­gree pro­grammes in the fields of en­gin­eer­ing and in­form­a­tion tech­no­logy, ar­chi­tec­ture, con­struc­tion and plan­ning, chem­istry and life sci­ences, ag­ri­cul­ture and forestry, busi­ness and ser­vices and design at uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences shall re­quire:

a.

a Fed­er­al Vo­ca­tion­al Bac­ca­laur­eate is­sued on com­ple­tion of a VET pro­gramme for an oc­cu­pa­tion re­lat­ing to the de­sired field of study;

b.

a Fed­er­al Bac­ca­laur­eate or fed­er­ally re­cog­nised bac­ca­laur­eate and at least one year of work ex­per­i­ence that has en­abled the pro­spect­ive stu­dent to gain prac­tic­al know-how and know­ledge in an oc­cu­pa­tion re­lat­ing to the de­sired field of study.

³ The fol­low­ing rel­ev­ant de­crees ad­op­ted on 31 Au­gust 2004¹⁶ ap­ply for ad­mis­sion to Bach­el­or’s de­gree pro­grammes in the fields of health, so­cial work, mu­sic, theatre and oth­er arts, ap­plied psy­cho­logy and ap­plied lin­guist­ics at uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences:

a.

Res­ol­u­tions ad­op­ted by the Plen­ary As­sembly of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Can­ton­al Min­is­ters of Health in re­la­tion to study pro­grammes in health care at uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences;

b.

Res­ol­u­tions ad­op­ted by the Plen­ary As­sembly of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Can­ton­al Min­is­ters of Edu­ca­tion in re­la­tion to study pro­grammes in so­cial work at uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences;

c.

Res­ol­u­tions ad­op­ted by the Plen­ary As­sembly of the Swiss Con­fer­ence of Can­ton­al Min­is­ters of Edu­ca­tion in re­la­tion to high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions spe­cial­ised in mu­sic, theatre, art and design as well as in re­la­tion to study pro­grammes in ap­plied psy­cho­logy and ap­plied lin­guist­ics at uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences.

⁴ The cor­res­pond­ing De­part­ment shall de­cide:

a.

what ad­di­tion­al ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments may be in­cluded;

b.

what ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments shall ap­ply to gradu­ates of oth­er edu­ca­tion and train­ing pro­grammes;

c.

the learn­ing ob­ject­ives for one-year train­ee­ships in in­di­vidu­al fields of study.

¹ In the first years fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of this Act, an av­er­age of six per cent of fund­ing al­loc­ated for ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions may be used in sup­port of high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions whose ba­sic con­tri­bu­tions fall by more than five per cent as a res­ult of the changes made to fund­ing cal­cu­la­tion meth­ods.

² The award­ing of co­he­sion con­tri­bu­tions shall be di­gress­ive and shall cease no later than eight years fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of this Act.

¹ High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor must seek in­sti­tu­tion­al ac­cred­it­a­tion no later than eight years fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of this Act.

^1bis The ap­plic­a­tion for en­ti­tle­ment to con­tri­bu­tions must be sub­mit­ted with­in a month after in­sti­tu­tion­al ac­cred­it­a­tion is gran­ted.¹⁷

² The en­ti­tle­ment to con­tri­bu­tions by vir­tue of the Fed­er­al Act of 8 Oc­to­ber 1999¹⁸ on Uni­versity Fund­ing and Co­oper­a­tion in the Field of Uni­versity Edu­ca­tion (Uni­versity Fund­ing Act, UFundA) and the Fed­er­al Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 1995¹⁹ on the Uni­versit­ies of Ap­plied Sci­ences (Uni­versit­ies of Ap­plied Sci­ences Act, UASA) re­mains in ef­fect un­til the Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides on the en­ti­tle­ment to con­tri­bu­tions un­der the present Fed­er­al Act.²⁰ Uni­versit­ies of teach­er edu­ca­tion, fed­er­al in­sti­tutes of tech­no­logy and oth­er fed­er­al high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions shall re­tain their en­ti­tle­ment to pro­ject con­tri­bu­tions un­til the in­sti­tu­tion­al ac­cred­it­a­tion de­cision is made by the Swiss Ac­cred­it­a­tion Coun­cil, no later than eight years fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of this Act.

³ High­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor that were ac­cred­ited after 1 Janu­ary 2011 un­der pre­vi­ous le­gis­la­tion re­main in­sti­tu­tion­ally ac­cred­ited for a peri­od of up to eight years fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of this Act.

For high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions with­in the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor that are not in­sti­tu­tion­ally ac­cred­ited un­der this Act or are not deemed in­sti­tu­tion­ally ac­cred­ited un­der Art­icle 75 para­graph 3, the right to use re­served des­ig­na­tions and the cor­res­pond­ing crim­in­al and ad­min­is­trat­ive law pen­al­ties shall be based on pre­vi­ous le­gis­la­tion for a peri­od of up to eight years fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of this Act.

¹ Ap­plic­a­tions that were pending at the time of com­mence­ment of this Act shall be ex­amined on the basis of the new le­gis­la­tion.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make ex­cep­tions in jus­ti­fied cases.

¹ The titles of fed­er­ally re­cog­nised UAS de­grees, Bach­el­or's de­grees, Mas­ter's de­grees or Mas­ter of Ap­plied Sci­ences (MAS) de­grees un­der pre­vi­ous le­gis­la­tion re­main pro­tec­ted.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the pro­ced­ure for the trans­fer of re­cog­nised pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions to uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences as well as the titles that may be used by alumni of these pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions.²¹

³ The com­pet­ent Fed­er­al Of­fice shall see to it that titles awar­ded un­der pre­vi­ous le­gis­la­tion are con­ver­ted ac­cord­ingly. It may del­eg­ate this task to third parties. These parties may charge fees for the ser­vices provided.²²

For a peri­od of five years fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of this Act, can­ton­al gov­ern­ments may is­sue or­din­ances for the pur­pose of mak­ing ad­just­ments to their le­gis­la­tion on uni­versit­ies of ap­plied sci­ences, provided these ad­just­ments are ab­so­lutely ne­ces­sary.

In the event of com­mence­ment un­der Art­icle 81 para­graph 3, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­cide that the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions shall re­main ap­plic­able for no more than five years:

a.

Uni­versity Fund­ing Act of 8 Oc­to­ber 1999²³: the pro­vi­sions on fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions (Art. 13–21) and Art­icle 23;

b.

UAS Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 1995²⁴: the pro­vi­sions on fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions (Art. 18–21) and Art­icle 23.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

³ It shall es­tab­lish the pro­vi­sions on co­ordin­a­tion of the en­tire Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor and the al­loc­a­tion of tasks (Chap. 6; Art. 36–40), on fund­ing (Chap. 7; Art. 41–44) and on fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions (Chap. 8; Art. 45–61) no later than five years after the re­main­ing pro­vi­sions go in­to ef­fect.

Com­mence­ment Date:²⁵
Art­icles 1–35, 45, 46 and 62–81 on 1 Janu­ary 2015;
Art­icles 36–44 and 47–49, 51–61 on 1 Janu­ary 2017;
Art­icle 50 on 1 Janu­ary 2020²⁶.