Federalist cooperation enables further consolidation of general baccalaureate

The Confederation, the cantons and other stakeholders have clearly defined responsibilities that complement each other. National recognition of cantonal baccalaureate certificates is a good illustration of federalist cooperation. Certain minimum requirements for baccalaureate school education have been set in order to ensure that qualification holders can be admitted to study programmes at federal institutes of technology, cantonal universities and universities of teacher education. The Federal Council and the Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) adopted two parallel legal bases for this purpose: a Federal Council Ordinance and a matching EDK Regulation on the recognition of baccalaureate certificates. The Confederation and EDK also formalised their mutual cooperation in a corresponding administrative agreement. 

The current legislative framework dates back to 1995, with the corresponding Swiss-wide core syllabus being introduced in 1994. One of the education policy objectives set by the Confederation and the cantons is to ensure that holders of the general baccalaureate retain examination-free admission to university studies in the long-term. 

Against this backdrop, a large-scale project was launched with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders to update reference texts that had been in place for nearly thirty years. The Confederation and the cantons then jointly consulted with partners in 2022 and the project results were largely well received. This strong support led to Federal Council and EDK approval of the completely revised legal basis for the general baccalaureate in June 2023. The revised core syllabus, which falls under EDK’s area of authority, was presented to the cantons and other interested parties in autumn 2023 and then adopted in June 2024.

The resulting amendments reinforce the fundamental subject-specific competences in the language of instruction and in mathematics and elevate the classification of IT, economics and law from compulsory to fundamental subjects. In addition, the list of primary and secondary subjects will be expanded, allowing the cantons to offer additional subjects. Finally, a new mandatory minimum duration of four years has been set for all baccalaureate programmes leading to a nationally recognised baccalaureate certificate.