Fostering Quality in Continuing Education

This paper presents the quality development initiative set out by Swissuni, the umbrella organisation of the continuing education centres of Swiss universities. It describes how continuing education networks can influence national policies with regard to quality, despite the fact that they may only formulate suggestions for government agencies and for their own members. Swissuni’s strategy rests on two foundations: the anchoring of university continuing education within the Qualifications Framework of the Swiss Higher Education Area (NQF-EHEA) and the building of common quality guidelines for university continuing education programmes. This paper discusses the particularities of the Qualifications Framework and the basic principles of the quality model. At Swissuni’s instigation ‘continuing education at the university level’ has been integrated into the National Qualifications Framework as a fourth level alongside Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral programmes. In so doing it was possible to concretise university continuing education in its content, anchor it in the university system and communicate it clearly at the international level. University continuing education is oriented towards university graduates (and generally, those with Master’s degrees and professional experience) and is conceptually positioned at the interface between theory and practice, and between research and problem-solving. This positioning has engendered specific target competences, which in part differ greatly from the Dublin Descriptors of the other three levels. The relevant quality development criteria are based on the National Qualifications Framework and were formulated in cooperation with the Center of Accreditation and Quality Assurance of the Swiss Universities (OAQ). Here principles of flexibility, impact orientation, multidimensionality, client feedback, stakeholder involvement and constant quality improvement are accorded more weight than in the guidelines for Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes. Swissuni is convinced that the quality of continuing education is only revealed in its effects in the workplace and on the career and personal development of the participant, with the caveat that this quality may only be steered through goal-setting, resources and processes. This requires rapid feedback mechanisms, periodic context and impact analyses, and the inclusion of the relevant stakeholders in planning, implementation and evaluation.