Since the introduction of the HEdA in 2015, all higher education institutions in Switzerland must obtain accreditation in order to call themselves a ‘university. Institutional accreditation is also one of the requirements that higher education institutions must fulfil in order to receive federal funding.
The object of institutional accreditation is the quality assurance system of higher education institutions, with which they guarantee the quality of their teaching, research and services. The accreditation procedure is carried out by a recognised agency (listed here). It consists of three stages:
- Self-assessment stage
- External evaluation by independent experts
- Accreditation decision of the Accreditation Council
First institutional accreditation
The EPFL Direction set up a Steering Committee in 2018 to oversee the accreditation process at our School and commissioned the Swiss Agency of Accreditation and Quality Assurance (AAQ) to coordinate the various tasks required.
During the self-assessment step, which lasted two years, EPFL reviewed all our organizational processes and developed standardized files to formally document each one.
These reviewers’ comments were incorporated, and the report was presented to the EPFL Assembly for consultation on June 21st, 2021. The final version of the report was sent to the AAQ on September 3rd, 2020.
The AAQ’s experts read the report carefully and interviewed members of the EPFL community: Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students, faculty members, scientific and technical staff, school and college deans, Steering Committee members and the EPFL Direction.
The experts spotted weaknesses in how EPFL communicates to members of its community on its quality assurance efforts. They therefore recommended to the Swiss Accreditation Council that EPFL be accredited with one condition. The Council followed the AAQ’s recommendation.
In 2024, EPFL fulfilled this condition and is fully accredited until June 2029.
In 2020, EPFL has published a video informing about the procedure and its challenges.
Previous audits
Previous self-assessment reports were peer-reviewed. The audit results are available here.
Updated on January 8th, 2025, Ewa Mariéthoz