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The Governance of Higher Education in a Federal System: The Case of Switzerland

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Abstract

In the last decade or so, Swiss higher education has experienced important transformations. These have affected not only the components of the system, by the creation of a higher vocational education sector, but also – and more importantly – the governance structures of the system as a whole. In October1999, the changes culminated in the revision of the only federal Act co-ordinating higher education policy. Based on an analysis of the new legal framework, the present paper explore show changes in the governance of the system modify the type of relationships between federal authorities and cantonal governments. It does so by looking into three particular domains: the bodies and agencies involved in the policy-making, the patterns of funding and the issue of quality assurance. It concludes that the governance structures that emerge from the new legal framework mirror the difficult balance to be found between the two political levels.

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Perellon, JF. The Governance of Higher Education in a Federal System: The Case of Switzerland. Tertiary Education and Management 7, 211–224 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011389330217

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