Swissuni - University continuing education in Switzerland

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The Swiss interest group for university continuing education "Swissuni - University continuing education Switzerland / Formation continue universitaire suisse / Formazione continua universitaria svizzera / Swiss University Continuing Education" is an association based in Bern and founded in 2002. Its aim is to promote university continuing education in Switzerland and the cooperation between the further education departments of the universities (cantonal universities and federal technical universities). Members are the continuing education centers of all universities in German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland, Ticino and the Principality of Liechtenstein.

history

With its special measures in favor of university further education, the Swiss Confederation supported the universities from 1990 to 1999 with the aim of establishing further education centers and a range of courses. As part of these measures, those responsible for the training centers have met for regular work meetings since 1991. «These meetings of leaders serve to exchange information and experiences. Agreements enable partially uniform procedures that simplify the administrative process of study programs and, above all, the cooperation between the coordination offices and the universities. The implementation of joint projects (e.g. nationwide course overview on Videotex, setting up a module exchange) is prepared at these meetings. Further goals are the professional discussion of various topics and a common appearance towards the authorities ”. On the basis of an evaluation of the work of the continuing education centers, this cooperation was institutionalized in 1994 in the form of a working group of the continuing education commission of the Swiss University Conference. In 2001 the national university bodies were reorganized; in the process, however, the working group lost its institutional ties. The members - convinced of the need for organized cooperation - founded the Swissuni association in 2002, which has since maintained contact with the rectors' conference of the Swiss universities and their successor organization swissuniversities through permanent guest membership.

Goals and Membership

Swissuni promotes university further education through cooperation between all university further education centers, in particular through:

  • Exchange of information and experience
  • Cooperation with university and non-university organizations and institutions on a national and international level
  • Cooperation with the Swiss Rectors' Conference (swissuniversities)
  • Further education policy statements
  • Common quality criteria
  • Common database with the further training offers of all members
  • Joint innovation projects
  • Membership in international networks

Members are the continuing education offices of all Swiss universities (Basel, Bern, Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, Lausanne and Zurich, Friborg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Neuchâtel, St. Gallen, Svizzera Italiana, Zurich and distance learning universities in Switzerland) and the Principality of Liechtenstein. The advanced training offices and a representative of the Swiss Rectors' Conference swissuniversities (permanent guest) work together on issues relating to continuing education and coordinate their activities.

organization

The organs of the association are the general assembly and the executive board, which consists of the president and the vice-president.

Focus of work

Swissuni deals - mostly on its own initiative - with topics and was able to achieve results that were beneficial for the development of university further education:

  • Communication: Creation of a joint internet platform ( www.swissuni.ch ), individual joint trade fair appearances
  • Quality: Development of quality principles (1996) and recommendations for quality development in university further education (2010). In 2013, the Swiss University Conference approved special standards for the accreditation of continuing education courses that were formulated on the initiative of Swissuni.
  • European Credit Transfer System : preparation of recommendations (1998/2005)
  • Harmonization of the offer formats: The rapid development of further training offers due to federal funding was initially very disordered with regard to formats and qualifications and led to a confusing situation. In close contact with the university conference, the working group discussed harmonization from 1998 onwards and carried out an inventory in 1990. At the same time, with the Bologna Process, the European university landscape changed significantly , although continuing education was largely forgotten. Swissuni therefore soon formulated recommendations for new, “Bologna-compatible” training formats, which were finally put into effect in 2004 by the responsible authorities at federal level and defined four formats: one-day or multi-day training courses, certificate courses (at least 150 contact hours), diploma courses (at least 300 contact hours), Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) programs (at least 60 ECTS points). In the new edition of the 2008 recommendations, the scope of the certificate courses was set to at least 10 ECTS points and that of the diploma courses to at least 30 ECTS points. Finally, in the National Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (2009), the diploma of advanced studies (DAS) and certificate of advanced studies (CAS) proposed by Swissuni were made binding in addition to the MAS, after the first courses with these names were introduced a few years earlier were. Since the universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education also introduced this typification a little later, not least due to preparatory work by Swissuni, this clear structuring of the formats quickly established itself in the Swiss higher education area and on the job markets and is also attracting attention in German-speaking countries. So this is also the reason for the cross-border cooperation with the Albrecht Ludwig University of Freiburg, which has led to a guest membership of the local training center.
  • Enrollment: In 2004, Swissuni, with a working group from the Rectors' Conference, achieved that all MAS students were enrolled and thus recorded in the university statistics of the Federal Statistical Office .
  • Qualifications framework for the Swiss higher education sector: From 2007 to 2009, Swissuni contributed to the development of the National Qualifications Framework for the higher education sector (nqf.ch-HS) and was able to ensure that the continuing education courses are integrated with the corresponding descriptors.
  • Continuing Education Act: When drafting the Federal Act on Continuing Education (2009–2014), Swissuni was able to ensure that its interests were safeguarded through cooperation and with regard to parliamentary treatment.
  • Further education statistics: several attempts to improve the statistical situation of university further education failed. This is all the more regrettable as the integration of university further education into the further education and university statistics of the federal government is only incomplete.
  • Position formation: at the annual meetings, individual topics are specifically explored, which serve the exchange of knowledge and experience as well as the clarification of positions, for example developments in the future market / degrees (Vaduz 2017), profiling of university further education (Freiburg 2016), unique selling points / Brand (Basel 2015), e-learning (Geneva 2014), didactics (Bern 2013), cooperation with companies (Lausanne 2012), profile (Zurich 2011), distance learning and MAS profile (Brig 2010), cooperation (Lugano 2009), In-house programs (St. Gallen 2008), National Qualifications Framework (Neuchâtel 2007), inter-university cooperation (Lucerne 2005).

Publications

  • Recommendations for quality development. Swissuni, 2010 ( PDF; 165 kB ).
  • Recommendations for the use of ECTS in university continuing education. Swissuni, 2005 ( PDF; 77 kB ).
  • Quality principles of university further education / Principes de qualité de la formation continue universitaire (DE / FR). Swissuni, 1996 ( PDF; 15 kB ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Fischer: Effective representation of the interests of university further education in Switzerland: Swissuni . In: Beate Hörr and Wolfgang Jütte (eds.): Further education at universities. The contribution of the DGWF to the promotion of scientific further education . W. Bertelsmann Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-7639-5564-0 , p. 165-172 .
  2. ^ Karl Weber and Andreas Fischer: The university further education initiative of the Swiss government. A successful instrument in a federally organized higher education system . In: Bavarian State Institute for University Research and University Planning (Ed.): Contributions to University Research . Munich 1992, p. 441-465 .
  3. ↑ Swiss University Conference , Further Education Commission: Special Measures for University Further Education, Interim Report. Document 351 93 . Bern 1993, p. 7 (not published).
  4. ↑ A. Knaus et al.: The work of the further education centers at the cantonal universities in Switzerland: final report . Bern 1994 (not published).
  5. ^ Andreas Fischer: Effective representation of the interests of university further education in Switzerland: Swissuni . In: Beate Hörr and Wolfgang Jütte (eds.): Further education at universities. The contribution of the DGWF to the promotion of scientific further education . W. Bertelsmann Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-7639-5564-0 , p. 165-172 .
  6. ^ Andreas Fischer: Swissuni 2013: of harmful legal articles, useful quality standards and committed disputes . In: German Society for Scientific Further Education and Distance Learning e. V. (Hrsg.): University and further education . Issue 2, 2013, ISSN  0174-5859 , p. 84 ( hochschule-und-weiterbildung.net [PDF; 7.0 MB ; accessed on April 19, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Andreas Fischer: University training in a heterogeneous field . In: Working document SWIR office . tape 3 . Swiss Science and Innovation Council, Bern 2014.