"Description of the future higher education landscape and development of the profiles of the types of higher education institutions."

On 4 March 2019, swissuniversities received an additional mandate from the Swiss Conference of Higher Education Institutions (SHK) to further explore, among other things, the focal areas of “profile enhancement” and “proposals for portfolio streamlining and task allocation”, “so that the Higher Education Council can hold further discussions about specific measures in the course of the ERI period 2021–24”.

swissuniversities has already comprehensively discussed the topic in its 2021–24 strategic plan and has drafted an addition and continuation to these principles. Here, swissuniversities is pursuing the overarching goal of strengthening the overall system of Swiss higher education institutions. It is more than the sum of its parts. The specific characteristics of the different types of higher education institution, existing collaborations and the autonomy of the individual higher education institutions are therefore taken into account. The profiles and portfolios should be developed with this in mind.

"The general ability to study must be safeguarded. swissuniversities is involved in the development of the secondary school baccalaureate. "

The Swiss secondary school system must adapt to current and future requirements. In September 2018, the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (Schweizerische Konferenz der kantonalen Erziehungsdirektoren, EDK) and the federal government (EAER) set up a steering group to clarify the need to update the legal basis for the secondary-school system. swissuniversities was involved in this work from the outset, and a representative of the universities and a representative of the universities of teacher education were also involved in the second phase of the project. The higher education institutions continue to regard the basic educational objectives of the secondary school baccalaureate, the ability to study and social maturity as valid and essential criteria. For the institutions, it is important that everything possible is done to safeguard the high standard of the Swiss secondary school baccalaureate and maintain the broad diversity of subjects.

"swissuniversities’ key figures paper on continuing education has been completed and approved at policy level."

Pursuant to Article 12 of the Federal Act on the Funding and Coordination of the Higher Education Sector (HEdA), the Higher Education Council of the Swiss Conference of Higher Education Institutions may issue requirements in the form of standardised framework regulations for continuing education. swissuniversities submitted an initial proposal on this to the SHK in 2017. After it was considered by the SHK, some of the principles in the paper needed to be reviewed. The further revision of the “Key figures for continuing education” by swissuniversities was approved by the Higher Education Council in November 2020, and the work could thus be concluded. The key figures provide context for continuing education, define continuing education qualifications, admission and the relation to preparatory courses for PET examinations, describe central features of continuing education and, last but not least, outline the application of the five principles of the Federal Act on Continuing Education and Training (CETA) in continuing education.

"Identify issues at an early stage and communicate concerns in a timely manner."

The aim of the Issue Management working group is to identify at an early stage the social and political issues that affect the framework conditions of academic education, research and teaching. Argumentation scenarios for the prioritised topics are developed in a timely manner and communication measures are defined. The Future network is also represented in the working group. This ensures that the interests are also represented in the Federal Council. In September 2020, the Board of swissuniversities extended the mandate for the Issue Management working group following a comprehensive evaluation.

The coronavirus crisis dominated the communications agenda in 2020. Higher education institutions had to take rapid action to contain the pandemic and communicate the measures in a plausible way to their own communities and the public. Other items on the agenda were the political issues of the Limitation Initiative and the initiative to ban animal and human experimentation and the framework agreement, as well as developments in political decisions in Switzerland and the EU relating to Horizon Europe and Erasmus+. The ERI institutions were able to draw attention to their concerns with a joint press conference before the vote on the Limitation Initiative.

"The national open research data strategy complements the open access strategy and will support the open science policy."

At the beginning of 2020, SERI, swissuniversities, the SNSF and the two Federal Institutes of Technology signed an agreement to define a national open research data strategy. The ORD strategy will define the overarching goals and principles in relation to ORD for Switzerland as an ERI location. The strategy is designed to complement the open access strategy and should define a long-term and ambitious open science policy for Switzerland in line with developments at European and global level. The draft strategy and the basic report were presented to the sounding board led by the State Secretary in December 2020 and submitted to the higher education institutions and the ERI partners for consultation.

The strategy describes through four “objectives” the direction in which the landscape of ORD infrastructures and services should develop. To enable this to happen, the future ORD landscape needs to be managed by means of efficient and effective governance. For this reason, an ORD strategic council is to be set up for the purpose of steering the overarching strategy.

"The EMS could be carried out successfully and safely in the pandemic year 2020 thanks to the protective measures taken."

As part of the governance of the admissions procedure to study medicine, swissuniversities is responsible for organising the aptitude test for medical studies (EMS). Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was uncertain whether the 2020 EMS would be held. Together with the SHK, various risk scenarios were developed in the spring in case the EMS could not take place as planned. In particular, postponement of the EMS to a later date, as well as basing selection on cantonal success rates including secondary school baccalaureate grades, was considered.

Thanks to the specially developed protection concept and the elaborate protective measures (which included shortening the test), the EMS could finally be carried out without problems on the planned date in cooperation with all partners. If necessary, the concepts developed for the alternative selection procedures can be used in subsequent years.

"The transitional provisions for admission to Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts have been consolidated and transferred to an ordinance. The Chamber of Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts has been heavily involved in this work and has contributed the viewpoint of the universities."

On behalf of the Higher Education Council, SERI initiated the consultation procedure for the draft Ordinance on Admission to Universities of Applied Sciences in January 2020. The Board asked the Chamber of Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts to formulate the corresponding position of swissuniversities. The universities of applied sciences and arts were keen to emphasise that the best way of gaining access to most Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts degree courses is, and should continue to be, via the federal vocational baccalaureate. However, it should also be possible for people with several years of work experience to be admitted to universities of applied sciences and arts. This option has taken on an important role in terms of permeability in the education system. Another important aspect in the ordinance concerns making the admission requirements for the Design subject area more similar to those of the Music, Theatre and Other Arts subject area, as Design has evolved considerably in terms of its content and organisation. The admission regulations in the area of health are still being clarified.

"Best practices are designed to ensure equal opportunities during the appointment process."

All higher education institutions are committed to promoting equal opportunities and diversity. Nevertheless, despite a steady improvement over the past few years and an encouraging female proportion of almost 40% among new professors appointed under the tenure-track system between 2017 and 2019, women still make up fewer than 25% of all professors.

In addition to numerous measures already implemented, the Chamber of Universities has therefore adopted recommendations and best practices to ensure equal opportunities during the appointment process. Transparent and professional recruitment is not only in the interest of diversity and gender equality, but also benefits the performance and competitiveness of universities.

The aforementioned recommendations and best practices also relate to the university management, as well as to appointment committees and the corresponding procedures. At the level of university management, equal opportunities and diversity are central elements in the strategic development of university policy. At the procedural level, the recommendations are primarily aimed at job descriptions, appointment committees, evaluation criteria and trial sessions.

"These agreements are an important step for the implementation of open access in Switzerland. They guarantee researchers and students optimum access to publications,” Yves Flückiger, President of swissuniversities and head of the negotiation team.

Negotiations with the publishers Elsevier and Springer Nature led to the “Read & Publish” agreements being concluded in the first quarter of 2020. This is a significant milestone in the implementation of the national open access strategy.

Under the agreements with Elsevier, all affiliated institutions of swissuniversities and members of the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries have access to the Freedom Collection and ScienceDirect, and thus to 16 million publications from over 2,500 journals. In addition, researchers can now publish open access articles in most of Elsevier’s gold and hybrid journals.

The contract with Springer Nature allows authors to publish their work fully as open access in the more than 2,000 hybrid journals. In addition, this agreement provides full reading rights and permanent access to Springer Nature’s journal portfolio for all researchers and students.

The agreement with Wiley & Sons, signed in May 2021, allows authors to publish their scientific articles fully Open Access in Wiley's nearly 1,400 hybrid journals. In addition, this agreement provides all researchers and students at the participating institutions with full reading rights and permanent access to Wiley's journal portfolio.

The contracts signed so far are a major achievement in terms of the national open access strategy’s goal of publishing all academic articles as OA by 2024.

Within the International Relations department, the organisation and coordination of international education fairs was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The APAIE, NAFSA, and EAIE education fairs were cancelled one by one, and some were replaced by virtual conferences. The challenge was nevertheless to give Swiss higher education institutions visibility at international level. As part of the EAIE Community Exchange, a virtual fair was held, with study in switzerland+ among the participants. The experience gained will make it possible to continue along this virtual path in 2021.

"The Chamber of Universities of Teacher Education Strategy 2021–2024 tackles important social and educational issues."

In June 2020, the Chamber of Universities of Teacher Education adopted its 2021–2024 strategy. It defines eight strategic goals on the topics of “Professions in Education”, “Subject Didactics”, “Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunities”, “Sustainability and Education”, “Digital Change and Education”, “Research and Development”, “Promotion of Young Talent” and “Collaboration, Partnerships and Mobility” and thereby tackles important social and educational policy challenges.

Various products emerged during the 2017–2020 strategy period, which concluded at the end of 2020. The report “Career paths at universities of teacher education”, for example, shows which functions are performed at UTEs and outlines possible career paths. International orientation as a characteristic of modern higher education institutes is taken up in the “Recommendations for the promotion of national and international mobility”. The “Education and migration recommendations” address equal opportunities and inclusion.