Accreditations

The nationally and internationally acknowledged quality of teaching, research and executive education is of crucial importance to the University of St.Gallen. This is why the HSG regularly subjects itself to measurements by independent experts against the yardstick of national and international quality standards and has its quality reviewed by independent institutions.

International quality standards: AACSB and EQUIS accreditations until 2023, AMBA accreditation until 2024 ("Triple Crown")

In December 2019, the Association of MBAs (AMBA), based in London, granted the HSG its first AMBA accreditation for the next five years. This programme accreditation covers the MBA programmes (full-time and part-time), EMBA, the International EMBA and the Executive MBA Programme in Business Engineering (EMBE). With this additional accreditation, the HSG now holds the so-called "Triple Crown".

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) renewed the accreditation of the University of St.Gallen (HSG) for another five years in autumn 2018. The University of St.Gallen was commended for the following aspects, among others:

• entrepreneurship and cooperation;
• good contacts with the real economy;
• a comprehensive approach to corporate social responsibility;
• particular commitment to teaching and student learning;
• a very large alumni network and its commitment;
• particular efforts to ensure students’ learning success, on the one hand, and to regularly revise and develop degree course programmes, on the other hand.

In spring 2018, the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) renewed the EQUIS accreditation until 2023. EQUIS stands for European Quality Improvement System. In an extensive self-assessment report, the University looks at ten standards specified by the EFMD: among other things, the HSG reports developments in its degree course programmes, research, the range of executive education courses and its internationalisation strategy. Besides the label, the University also received feedback on where it stands in comparison to other business schools and where it can make progress and improve.

National quality standards: institutional accreditation

In 2014, the University of St.Gallen satisfied the requirements of the third quality audit of public universities in Switzerland.

The Federal Act on Funding and Coordination of the Swiss Higher Education Sector (HEdA), which entered into force in 2015, provides inter alia that all Swiss institutions of tertiary education have to undergo an institutional accreditation. The Swiss Accreditation Council has determined that all institutions of higher education will have to be accredited by the end of 2022. This accreditation will be valid for seven years.

In the context of the institutional accreditation, the quality assurance system of the institutions of tertiary education is evaluated by extramural experts with the help of quality standards. These quality standards cover the areas of quality assurance strategy, governance, teaching, research and services, resources, as well as internal and external communication.

The accreditation of the HSG was conducted in 2021/22 (with the proceeding launched in 2020) by the Swiss Agency of Accreditation and Quality Assurance (AAQ).