Quality of Education Officer

Project background

The Strategy & Analytics Group in the Unit for Teaching and Learning provides the evidence behind decisions about teaching at ETH Zurich. The team runs ETH-wide projects such as documenting teaching engagements (QdL), estimating the carrying capacity of the education system so that quality stays stable as it grows (Capacity Calculation), and anticipating the trends that will shape higher education (Trend Radar). This work turns internal data into insights that the departments and the Rectorate can act on.

We are looking for a Quality of Education Officer to lead the development of ETH Zurich's institution-wide framework for the quality of education. In this project position, you carry the framework the whole way: from first concept through to its anchoring in the university's practice.

Fixed-term position for a maximum of two years. Start date: by arrangement, as soon as possible.

Quality assurance for teaching and learning at ETH Zurich currently sits with the 16 departments and with several central units, each with its own standards, instruments and rhythms. Much of this work is strong. What is missing is a shared understanding of what quality means, and alignment between the processes and measures used to assess it.

The Quality of Education Framework project brings these strands together into a single framework with a common core and adaptable elements, so that departments can compare and build on each other's practice, so that the framework fits ETH's support processes and management instruments, both those in place today and those in development, and so that ETH can meet its accreditation obligations with a coherent picture of quality in teaching and learning.

The framework will be grounded in the established higher-education quality literature and aligned with ETH's accreditation obligations. A pilot on a selected set of quality-assurance processes will prepare the first implementation in 2027.

Job description

You are responsible for the conceptualisation, implementation and institutional anchoring of the Quality of Education Framework. You steer the project and answer for its results:

• Conceptualise and design the framework: the shared definition of quality, the quality dimensions, indicators and associated QA processes, with a common core applicable across all 16 academic departments and the central bodies, plus adaptable elements for departmental specifics
• Map the quality-assurance standards and quality-management processes in use today across the central bodies and the departments, and harmonise them into the new framework
• Ensure the framework is interoperable with ETH's existing support processes and management instruments
• Enhance the framework's adoption and its adaptable elements with departmental QA/QM representatives, and with external partners and accreditation bodies on scope and deliverables
• Prepare reports, analyses and expertise on the framework and its rollout for UTL management, the Rectorate and the academic departments
• Represent the framework in committees dealing with strategic quality-of-education issues, and support the Head of Strategy & Analytics on partly strategic QA/QM matters
• Run the pilot that prepares the first implementation in 2027, then coordinate the institution-wide rollout, change management and embedding of the framework across departments and central units.

Profile

• A Master's degree from ETH Zurich or a university, or an FH Master's degree with equivalent additional knowledge, in education sciences, higher-education studies, public administration or policy, social sciences or a related field
• In-depth specialist knowledge of quality assurance and quality management in higher education, built on substantial practical experience – ideally including the design and practical implementation of a framework or policy
• Familiarity with accreditation requirements (HFKG/AAQ or comparable)
• A proven ability to build bridges across a large, decentralised organisation, and to lead negotiations where interests genuinely differ
• Experience leading projects and change processes, and working with external consultants and procurement
• Confident with survey design and common data-analysis tools
• Detailed knowledge of ETH Zurich's processes and organisational structure, or of a comparable higher-education institution, or the ability to acquire it quickly
• A very good command of both German and English; much of the work runs across German-speaking departments and central units
• A conceptual, evidence-based thinker who communicates sensitive content clearly to a varied audience.

We offer

• The chance to shape the framework that will structure how ETH looks at the quality of its own teaching and learning for years to come
• Substantial room for manoeuvre in designing and steering the framework, within agreed objectives
• Reach across the whole university: direct work with all 16 departments, the central bodies and external partners, and visibility at institutional decision-making level
• A team whose ETH-wide projects and collaborations already generate the foundations on which the framework will build.