Dedicated to cross-cultural education with a global perspective, the European College for Liberal Studies (ECLS) is an independent private education institution with campuses across Europe and Asia. ECLS offers flexible business and management studies at the Undergraduate/Bachelor, Graduate/Master and Postgraduate/Doctor level leading to private degrees.

Our career-oriented study programs are based on and are fully compatible with the established European and American educational systems. The European guidelines for higher education are outlined in the Bologna agreements. Compatibility is evaluated through an institutional accreditation process via the Association for Transnational Higher Education Accreditation (ATHEA) (in process). Refer to the accreditation overview for more information.

The Undergraduate, Graduate or Postgraduate certificates and degrees, including the degrees of Associate, Bachelor, Master and Doctor, awarded by the school upon successful completion of a study program are professional and international private certificates and degrees awarded by the school's headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, based on the recommendation of the faculty of the local campuses where credits were earned. Our local campuses therefore operate under a validation model whereby the local campuses, ie. the local operating companies, do not award their own certificates and degrees, and only provide local educational services under supervision from the headquarters. The certificates and degrees awarded by the school’s headquarters are not regulated under the Swiss Higher Education Act of September 2011.

With our local campuses having obtained various certification labels, our study programs do not strictly follow local educational models, and the local campuses of the school and our study programs are therefore not registered with or recognized by the relevant local Ministry of Education or accredited by the relevant local accreditation authorities. Our study programs are considered as non-regulated education under a constitutional freedom to organize education, and the private certificates and degrees awarded by the school may therefore not provide access to government employment, regulated professions, or further studies at other or public institutions.

The private degrees awarded by the school upon completion of a study program may not be considered to hold the same value, but also not necessarily a lower value, as a degree awarded by a locally registered and/or accredited higher education institution that does follow the local educational model and quality standards. The value of an education is largely defined by its match with the expectations of the student pursuing the education and the practical use of the education in today’s open economy.

Admission requirements for study programs are set by each institution independently. Although many of our students have continued their education at other institutions around the world, it should be noted that public institutions may not consider students with qualifications from private institutions such as ours, and that institutions with academically oriented study programs may not consider students who graduated from professionally oriented study programs, such as ours. It is therefore important to select an institution and study program for further education based on its compatibility with your current or former institution and study program. Our first recommendation is to consider study programs organized by our growing list of Academic Partners. Our second recommendation is to consider the (accredited) member institutions of the accreditation organizations whose standards we follow to maximize compatibility. An overview of the various members of the accreditation organizations is available on the websites of ATHEA.

Furthermore, the “European Area of Recognition Manual”, that provides information about “practical guidelines for fair recognition of qualifications”, as developed by experts from various ENIC’s and NARIC’s under the European Area of Recognition project, recognizes that institutions that are not specifically following a national higher education system may still be offering legitimate study programs and qualifications. The evaluation flowchart in the manual prescribes that the responsible admissions officer should conduct research into the legitimacy of the institution and the qualification through, among others, information obtained from the applicant and from third-party quality assurance organizations. Upon confirming the legitimacy, recognition of the qualification should be considered for admission.