How to Check That a Swiss Private School Is Accredited

Almost every private school website in Switzerland shows a row of logos and the word "accredited" somewhere near the top. Few say by whom, for what, and until when. That matters, because a Swiss private school can hold several very different things: a permit from the canton, the right to award a diploma, an inspection by an international body, a quality certificate, a membership. Only some of them tell you anything about the teaching.

There is no national register of accredited private schools in Switzerland, and no single Swiss accreditation for them. Each credential has its own issuer, and each issuer keeps its own list. This guide explains what each one means and where to check it, which usually takes a few minutes.

The short version

• Ask which body granted the credential, and for which campus, level or programme.

• Look the school up in that body's own register, not on the school's website.

• Check the dates. Some credentials expire, and "candidate" or "member" is not the same as accredited.

• Treat a cantonal permit as the legal minimum, not as a sign of quality.

• If the school prepares pupils for an exam, ask who sets and marks it.

1. The canton: a permit to operate is not a recognition

Every private school that teaches children of compulsory school age needs the canton's authorisation. The canton checks who runs the school and what it teaches, and it supervises the school afterwards. The permit is a legal requirement, not a distinction: every school that operates legally holds one.

Two cantons say so in their law. Geneva's regulation on private education states that the authorisation to run a private school "does not constitute a recognition by the department of the value of the teaching" and may in no case be used for advertising (REPriv, art. 13). Vaud's law on private schooling says the permits must in no case be mentioned in advertising (LEPr, art. 8).

So when a school calls itself "state-recognised" or "approved by the canton" without saying more, it usually means it holds the permit every school must hold. It was the most common mix-up we found when we checked the credentials in our directory. Some cantons do grant more than a permit: Ticino recognises certain private schools as equivalent to state schools (scuole parificate), and a recognised Matura (below) is an official recognition of that programme. When a school claims a recognition, ask for the cantonal decision that grants it.

Where to check: the canton's education department keeps the list of authorised private schools. In Zurich, the Volksschulamt publishes a public register of authorised private schools for kindergarten, primary and secondary level. Elsewhere, ask the department in charge: the DIP in Geneva, the DGEO in Vaud, the DECS in Ticino.

2. The Swiss Matura: recognised, or preparation for the federal exam

The gymnasial Matura opens the door to Swiss universities. A private school can offer it in two very different ways.

• A recognised Matura. The school's own Matura certificate is recognised by the Confederation and the cantons through the Swiss Matura Commission. The school sets and marks its exams under official supervision, as a public gymnasium does. These schools appear on the federal list of schools with recognised Matura certificates, published by SERI.

• Preparation for the Swiss Matura examination. The school teaches the programme, and pupils sit the federal Matura exam, set and marked by examiners from outside the school. A pass gives the same access to Swiss universities.

Both routes are legitimate, but they are not the same experience for a pupil. If a school says it "offers the Matura", ask which one. A certificate the school issues itself, without that recognition, is not the Swiss Matura. More in What is the Swiss Matura? and on the Swiss Matura programme page.

3. International diplomas: is the school authorised to award them?

The IB

Only an IB World School may teach and award IB programmes, and the authorisation is given programme by programme: a school can be authorised for the Diploma Programme and not for the Middle Years Programme. A "candidate school" is working towards authorisation and cannot award the diploma yet. Check the IB's Find an IB World School search, filtered on Switzerland. It lists each programme the school is authorised for. See also the IB Diploma programme page.

British qualifications

IGCSEs and A Levels are set by exam boards: Cambridge International, Pearson Edexcel, OxfordAQA and others. "Cambridge" on a website should mean the school is a registered Cambridge school, which you can check with Cambridge's find a Cambridge school search. Some schools enter their pupils through another exam centre. That works, but the school is then not a Cambridge school itself.

British Schools Overseas (BSO) is something else: an inspection against the standards of the UK Department for Education. The accredited schools are listed on GOV.UK.

The American diploma

An American high-school diploma is awarded by the school itself. What gives it weight is the school's accreditation by a US accrediting agency, most often NEASC, Middle States (MSA-CESS) or Cognia for schools abroad. Each publishes a directory of the schools it accredits. Advanced Placement courses are authorised course by course, and the College Board's AP Course Ledger lists them.

The French baccalauréat

The French Ministry of Education can homologate a school abroad, level by level: a school may be homologated for the last two years of lycée and not for primary. Pupils of a homologated school take the bac as school candidates, with continuous assessment. Elsewhere they sit it as individual candidates. Check the AEFE list of schools, and search by city as well as by country: some Swiss schools are filed under their city.

4. Whole-school accreditation: CIS, NEASC and others

Many international schools seek accreditation from a body that reviews the whole school against published standards, sends a team of visiting educators, and comes back on a regular cycle. In Switzerland you will mostly meet the Council of International Schools (CIS), NEASC, Middle States and Cognia. It is voluntary, and it is the closest thing to an overall quality review a private school can have.

Two things to check:

• A member is not accredited. CIS, for example, has member schools that are not accredited, and its directory shows each school's status.

• The campus and the date. Accreditation is granted to a named school or campus and reviewed periodically. Ask when the last visit took place and when the next is due.

5. Quality certificates have an expiry date

Some schools hold a quality-management certificate: ISO 9001, eduQua (the Swiss label for continuing-education providers) or Swiss School Impulse, among others. These certify how a school is run, not what pupils learn, and they are valid for a fixed period, renewed by audit. A logo can stay on a website after the certificate has lapsed.

Look the school up in the database of the body that issued the certificate, and read the expiry date. If you cannot find it, ask the school for the certificate number and the name of the certifier.

6. A membership is not an accreditation

Associations are useful to schools and to families: the Federation of Swiss Private Schools, regional associations such as AGEP in Geneva and AVDEP in Vaud, SGIS for Swiss international schools, networks such as Round Square or COBIS. A member usually signs a charter and pays a fee, and some associations ask for more. Read each association's own admission rules. On its own, a membership is not an inspection of the school.

7. After secondary school: protected names and who awards the degree

For hospitality, business and design schools, the rules are national. In Switzerland, the names "university", "university of applied sciences" and "university of teacher education", in any language, are reserved for institutions with institutional accreditation under the Higher Education Act (HEdA, art. 62). The Swiss Accreditation Council publishes its decisions.

Many private institutions are not accredited in Switzerland but award degrees through a foreign university, or hold a foreign accreditation. That can be perfectly sound, but the degree is then the partner's, and its value depends on that partner. Ask who awards the degree, and check that body's register. For business schools, AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA and ACBSP are accreditations; AACSB also has members that are not accredited.

Red flags

• "Accredited", with no body named.

• "State-recognised" or "approved by the canton", with no decision to show.

• "Candidate", "pursuing authorisation", "in the process of accreditation".

• A credential that belongs to a sister school, the group or a partner campus, not to this school.

• "Prepares for" an exam, presented as "awards" a diploma.

• The logo of an exam board or an association, presented as an accreditation.

• A certificate you cannot find in the issuer's register, or whose date has passed.

Questions to ask the school

1. Which body granted this accreditation, and since when?

2. Does it cover this campus, and the level or programme my child would join?

3. When is the next review?

4. Will you share a summary of the last evaluation?

5. Is your Matura recognised, or do pupils sit the federal exam?

6. For a foreign diploma: are you authorised to award it, or do pupils sit as external candidates?

How we show accreditations on Swiss Private Schools

On each school page, the "Credentials & Recognition" section lists only credentials we could confirm, either in the issuing body's register or, where no register is public, in the school's own current words. Cantonal permits are not shown as recognitions, and memberships are listed apart from accreditations. In October 2026 we checked every credential in the directory against the issuers' own registers. If you notice one that has changed, tell us.

Browse all private schools in Switzerland