The jurisprudential dissertation on the topic of quality assurance in the Swiss higher education system “Qualitätssicherung im schweizerischen Hochschulwesen – Verfassungsrechtlicher Rahmen und Leitlinien für die Umsetzung an den Hochschulen”, completed in 2013, was supervised by Prof. Dr. Andreas Lienhard. Second supervisor was Prof. Dr. Walter Kälin.
The Swiss Constitution and the higher education legislation obligate the higher education institutions to guarantee quality assurance. The different actors aren’t free in the implementation of the economic conception. Rather the constitutional order determines the freedom of design. Especially the imperative to accomplish tasks effectively and economically composes an essential constitutional guideline. Simultaneously the freedom of science sets limits to government action. The higher education autonomy determines the organisational scope. Thereby are various, in principle coequal constitutional parameters decisive for the implementation of quality assurance. The inherent real or potential tensions require a coordination and need to be cleared.
The study indicates the requirements and limitations of quality assurance in the Swiss higher education system flowing from the Constitution. For this purpose the study determines the constitutional framework, highlights its parameters and puts them in relation to each other. Based on this, guidelines for the implementation at the higher education institutes are developed. They’re concretized application-oriented by using the example of research and course evaluation.
On 19 December 2013 Fabian Amschwand graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Berne as a Doctor Iuris summa cum laude. This jurisprudential dissertation will be published in the series “Abhandlungen zum Schweizerischen Recht ASR” in March 2014.
