In Switzerland, since the introduction of the Law on the Promotion and Coordination of Universities (LEHE), all universities, whether public or private, that wish to retain or obtain the right to be called a "university", "university of applied sciences" or "university of teacher education" must undergo institutional accreditation.
Institutional accreditation is also one of the conditions that universities must meet in order to receive federal funding.
Institutional accreditation is concerned with the quality assurance system of the universities, which enables them to guarantee the quality of their teaching, research and services. The aim is to assess whether the procedures and mechanisms form a comprehensive and coherent whole that guarantees the quality and continuous improvement of these activities, depending on the type and specific characteristics of the institution, while respecting the principle of proportionality between the means used and the results obtained.
The accreditation decision is taken by the Accreditation Council. Accreditation is valid for seven years.
The Institute has been accredited since 2009. A new institutional accreditation procedure began in 2020 and has been successfully achieved.
As part of this procedure, experts visited the Institute between March 4th and 6th, 2020. The Swiss Accreditation Council accredited the Institute as a university institute at its meeting on September 25, 2020, with four stipulations. The Institute submitted a report summarising its progress in meeting these conditions on March 25th, 2022. Following deliberations on September 23d, 2022, the Accreditation Council determined that conditions 1, 2 and 3 had been fully met, but that condition 4 was partially met. The Institute was given until June 30, 2023 to resubmit a report addressing the fulfilment of condition 4.
Namely, this condition outlined the internal and external communication of its Quality Assurance strategy. In response to this, an action plan was developed, which set up a Quality Steering Committee, Quality Working Group, and Project Team to enact short and long-term goals.