swissuniversities is responsible for developing and publishing the Concordance List, as foreseen in Article 9 of the Ordinance of the Higher Education Council on the Coordination of Teaching at Swiss Higher Education Institutions. This Concordance List regulates the transition to a master’s programme by bachelor’s graduates from a different type of higher education institution (after earning a maximum of 60 ECTS credits for additional studies). It promotes permeability between the different types of higher education institutions, and it provides clarity and certainty for students when planning the course of their studies between different types.
In June 2019, the Board tasked the Teaching Delegation with developing a new list based on the previous list dating from 2010. To this end, the Delegation conducted an initial survey on the needs of higher education institutions and how they use the 2010 list. In August 2021, it approved eleven basic principles for the use of the Concordance List. The Delegation then conducted an extensive two-stage consultation in the Chambers to adapt the actual transition list. This consultation lasted one year and established the principle of a whitelist: For each transition, the individual higher education institutions can choose whether they want to be shown on the list of institutions that accept bachelor’s graduates from another type of higher education institution onto their master’s programmes. This preserves the autonomy of the individual institutions. The list was finalised by the Teaching Delegation and approved by the Board in autumn 2022. The Concordance List is published on the swissuniversities website and updated annually.

In summer 2022, the Swiss Armed Forces and swissuniversities concluded an agreement on how to handle students in the civil support service. The Swiss Armed Forces can mobilise its members for civil support service in order to support the authorities or increase military readiness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the civil support service took on a new meaning, and the number of people who had to be called up was much higher than usual. These deployments in the service of civil society are increasing in general (World Economic Forum WEF, deployments in mountain areas, etc.). Because civil support service is mandatory, people can be called up at short notice and deferment is not possible, it can have adverse consequences for students and their studies. The Swiss Armed Forces and swissuniversities have concluded this agreement with the aim of offering the necessary flexibility on the part of both the Armed Forces and the universities to make it easier for the students to attend in-person lectures and exams while being deployed in civil support service. Following the agreement signed in 2014 for an easier transition to the next academic year for persons with a military rank , this agreement on civil support service is a further positive outcome of the cooperation between the Swiss Armed Forces and swissuniversities at the intersection of academic studies and military training.

Innovation in teaching has been the main focus of the Teaching Delegation since swissuniversities’ beginnings. During the pandemic years, higher education institutions gained a wealth of experience in new, digital forms of teaching. This has accelerated certain developments. The meeting of the Teaching Network on 28 October 2022 at the Olten campus of FHNW gathered around 100 participants from the Swiss higher education landscape to look back on these recent developments and share their best practices. The day began with a presentation by Jonna Korhonen, Head of Higher Education Policy at Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. Finland is known in Europe for its huge innovation potential. Korhonen’s talk provided an opportunity to reflect on the measures developed in Switzerland in an international context. This was followed by a panel discussion, hosted by Günther Dissertori, Rector of ETH Zurich, on the developments, strategies and challenges of the Swiss higher education landscape. The afternoon was dedicated to discussions in workshops and the presentation of new teaching formats that have been introduced in Switzerland in recent years. The discussion-packed day highlighted the progress that has already been made in teaching, as well as the great potential for innovation that higher education institutions can exploit further.

Reducing the number of students drop-outs is one of the objectives of swissuniversities’ 2021–2024 strategic plan and is also a priority of the Swiss Higher Education Policy Coordination 2025–2028. In its position paper submitted to the Swiss Conference of Universities SHK in 2017, swissuniversities defines ‘drop-out’ as permanently leaving the entire higher education system (including universities, universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education) without obtaining a qualification. The position paper also considers the abandoning of studies at a later stage to be problematic. However, the definition of ‘dropping out’ does not cover a situation whereby a student changes course, institution or type of institution but still graduates. Swiss higher education institutions do not consider reorientation as problematic. Nevertheless, it is important that students have sufficient support and measures available throughout their educational journey, so that they can make a well-informed decision about their studies. To this end, swissuniversities has updated its collection of best practices in 2022, which includes examples of support services for secondary school pupils and college students to help them make the transition to higher education. The Delegation organised a meeting of the Teaching Network on 6 May 2022 at the Zurich University of Teacher Education, which also provided an opportunity to look at study drop-outs in an international context and on the basis of different case studies from the institutions.

Throughout the year, swissuniversities pushed for a quick resolution to the issue of Switzerland’s association to the EU’s research and education programmes.

• Consultation on the Horizon Fund Law: swissuniversities’ statement (07/12/22)

• European programmes – Time is pressing for the universities (15/05/22)

• Universities pay a high price for Switzerland’s sidelining in the European Union’s research and education projects (21/01/22)

Swiss higher education institutions have been hit heavily by the breakdown of negotiations on a framework agreement between Switzerland and the European Union and Switzerland’s subsequent reclassification as a non-associated third country in European research and education programmes. To secure the leading international position of Swiss higher education institutions, swissuniversities is appealing to education and research policy makers with the following measures, among others:

• Rapidly developing the offerings that are acceptable to the EU for full association.

• Securing the tools and budgets that will be needed to reduce the damage of non-association for higher education institutions over the long term.

• Consistently aligning current measures with the needs of higher education institutions and research.

With regard to the Erasmus+ education programmes, Switzerland is not just excluded from the exchange programmes but also from participating in the development of a pan-European digital education platform. For higher education institutions, this means that partnerships have to be negotiated bilaterally, which is more complex and increases the administrative hurdles. In turn, this makes Switzerland less attractive to both partners and students. This erosion of relations with our partners in the EU is likely to have a negative impact on the attractiveness of Swiss higher education institutions in the long term.

As a dimension of open science, open research data (ORD) facilitates access to and reuse of research data, thereby promoting better and more effective research for the benefit of society as a whole. Following the publication of the Swiss National Action Plan for Open Research Data in January 2022, the first calls for proposals in the Open Science I, Phase B – ORD programme were successfully launched.
In this context, a collaboration project with the ETH Domain was specifically established: the Swiss Open Research Data Grants (CHORD) programme. It’s purpose is to increase synergies among the different types of higher education institutions and in the use of public funds and making these accessible to all disciplines. In the calls for proposals, researchers from all disciplines and all types of higher education institutions are therefore invited to submit project proposals. This  joint programme ‘CHORD’ implements a selected action line (A1.2 Providing ORD grants) of the ORD Action Plan and consists of three funding tracks that are sequenced to support project ideas from an exploration state to establishing and integrating ORD practices (Tracks A, B and C). At the end of 2022, 27 project proposals were approved by the Open Science Delegation based on the assessment of an open peer review process. The next call for proposals by swissuniversities will be published in spring/summer 2023.
Furthermore, the implementation of action lines dedicated to  promoting data stewardship and developing ORD specialists at all higher education institutions and research institutions have also started in 2022. Data stewardship involves managing and monitoring an organisation’s data assets with the aim of providing access to research data. Data stewards therefore act as a link between researchers and support units (e.g. IT, libraries, infrastructure providers). They perform an active advisory role for researchers and are the first point of contact for all questions relating to open research data. Institutions eligible for funding were invited to describe how they intend to establish data stewardship within their institution in an action plan. 25 project proposals, containing such action plans, from a total of 31 higher education institutions were submitted and approved.

Considering new criteria how to assess scientific careers is becoming increasingly important for higher education institutions. This was also underlined by the Swiss Higher Education Policy Coordination 2025–2028. Therefore, swissuniversities signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, coordinated by the European Commission, Science Europe and the European University Association (EUA), in September 2022. swissuniversities supports the objectives of further developing the assessment criteria for research, maximising the quality and impact of research and recognising the diversity of research activities, practices and outcomes.
The objectives of the Agreement are in line with the efforts made by swissuniversities to promote young researchers and diverse careers, both of which are central to the success of Swiss higher education institutions and their impact on society. Furthermore, the reform of research assessment makes a significant contribution towards the development and consolidation of open science in Switzerland.
swissuniversities is currently promoting different approaches to further develop research assessment in the context of the action plans for open access and open research data. These efforts to develop assessment criteria are tackled by the higher education institutions in the context of their respective strategies and disciplinary diversity. swissuniversities supports the reform of research assessment by continuing to share results among institutions at national level and in the international consortium of the agreement ‘Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment’.

In 2022, the discussion how to promote  young researchers were focused on creating optimum working, training and research conditions. The importance of junior scientists for research, business and innovation in Switzerland cannot be overstated. swissuniversities offered higher education institutions various platforms on which to discuss the challenges and potential solutions within the context of their own approaches. These include providing ‘protected time’ for research, offering support with career planning, improving the structure of the post-doctoral phase, creating permanent employment below the level of professorships, and establishing tenure-track assistant professorships.
In response to two petitions to the Federal Assembly, the National Council passed a postulate in June 2022, which calls for a report on the current issues of precarious work, equality and young academics. In this context, swissuniversities also makes efforts to document the situation of young researchers: In 2022, it conducted a survey on behalf of the Swiss Conference of Higher Education Institutions to gain an overview of the types of mid-level jobs that exist. In particular, this  report illustrated the different jobs below professorships, the large proportion of temporary employment contracts, and the considerable differences in how measures such as minimum employment terms and ‘protected time’ are applied in practice.
swissuniversities also continued to coordinate projects that are funded with federal contributions. The P-1 programme in the area of doctoral education, as well as the P-11 programme to strengthen the dual competence profile of science-practice, made a particular contribution to establishing and consolidating structures that fulfil specific requirements for young talent at universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education. The first monitoring of the National Strategy for Subject-Specific Education was also carried out in 2022. The study shows the framework in which the strategy and action plan were developed. Among other things, it also addresses the general challenges associated with master’s and doctoral programmes.

A special feature of the tertiary level in Switzerland is that it comprises universities and other higher education institutions on the one hand and professional education institutions (PEI) on the other. Higher education institutions (tertiary A) differ from PEI (tertiary B) in terms of their research orientation and the fact that they require a baccalaureate for admission (Federal Vocational Baccalaureate, general baccalaureate, specialised baccalaureate). A defining principle of the Swiss tertiary level is its permeability, which is also evident between tertiary A and tertiary B. The higher education institutions support this ease of movement between the two educational systems and have developed rules for the admission of PEI graduates onto their bachelor programmes or other higher education courses. In the year under review, swissuniversities dealt with political initiatives and demands from PEI for convergence with the higher education system and, in particular, for the introduction of bachelor and master degrees for professional education and training. In its response to the SERI report ‘Positioning of PEI, swissuniversities’ stance is clear: The current system is proven to work well and should not be changed. Instead, the focus should be on developing solutions that address the concerns of professional education and training that do not involve convergence with the higher education system. From swissuniversities’ point of view, bachelor’s and master’s qualifications are intrinsic components of the higher education system and inseparably linked to research-based teaching.

Education fairs play an important role in international networking of higher education institutions. Thanks to funding from SERI, swissuniversities was able to ensure and coordinate the presence of Swiss higher education institutions at the international conferences APAIE, NAFSA (Denver) and EAIE (Barcelona) in 2022. swissuniversities thereby fulfilled its representation mandate and boosted the international visibility of Switzerland’s higher education institutions. The APAIE was held virtually again in 2022 and swissuniversities was present with a virtual stand, ‘study in switzerland+’.
After exhibitions had been held online for the past two years due to the pandemic, two fairs took place on-site again – in Denver and in Barcelona. The large presence of higher education institutions at these two fairs, particularly in Barcelona, shows the strong interest to interact with international partners in person. According to the feedback survey, the level of satisfaction among the participants was very high.
The Swiss stand ‘study in switzerland+’, based on the design of the website www.studyinswitzerland.plus, was present at both the Association of International Educators, NAFSA (display area 24 m2) and EAIE (display area 60 m2) fairs. Fifteen delegates from seven Swiss higher education institutions were present at NAFSA 2022, along with two employees of swissuniversities. For the EAIE, swissuniversities coordinated the participation of a delegation of 84 people: 77 delegates from 28 Swiss higher education institutions, four representatives of ESN and three swissuniversities employees.