Swiss Agency for Accreditation and Quality Assurance

Established in 2001, the Swiss Agency for Accreditation and Quality Assurance - AAQ (French: Agence suisse d'accréditation et d'assurance qualité; Italian: Agenzia svizzera di accreditamento e di garanzia della qualità; German: Schweizerische Agentur für Akkreditierung und Qualitätssicherung) is an autonomous organization responsible for accreditation and quality assurance in Switzerland. The AAQ is subordinated to the Swiss Accreditation Council. AAQ's geo coverage and activities mainly focus on Switzerland and limitedly to Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. AAQ's activities include:
- Institutional accreditation in Switzerland
- Programmatic accreditation in Switzerland
- Evaluations review study programs and institutions against a set of standards. They are carried out on a voluntary basis and do not lead to a formal decision on accreditation by a federal authority.
- Quality audits and certification on the internal quality assurance systems in higher education institutions in Austria
- System accreditation of internal quality assurance systems in higher education institutions in Germany
- External assessments in the field of graduate and postgraduate medical education, as well as in the field of the psychology professions.
- Authority to deliver the EUR-ACE label to accredited engineering higher education programs.