The education system in Switzerland: choosing your level and field

Understanding how education is structured in Switzerland before you pick a school stops you applying to the wrong level or the wrong type of programme.

What you need to know

• Two parallel tracks: research universities — including the federal institutes ETH Zurich and EPFL — and universities of applied sciences with a practical focus.
• Hospitality management schools form their own track, alternating study with paid internships.
• With four national languages, the language of instruction follows the region; many master's programmes are taught in English.

Language of instruction and the tests that go with it

• German-, French- or Italian-taught programmes require the corresponding CEFR-referenced certificate.
• English-taught programmes require IELTS or TOEFL depending on the institution.

The order to work through

1. Settle the level and field first — they determine everything else in the application.
2. Check the language requirement of the exact programme, not the institution's general statement.
3. Compare deadlines school by school; they differ between intakes.
4. Prepare the financial and immigration paperwork alongside the academic file, not after it.

Check against official sources

Fees and residence conditions in Switzerland change year to year and school to school. This article describes the mechanism; check current figures against the official sources below, or ask VNIS to verify them for your chosen programme.

• swissuniversities
• State Secretariat for Migration (SEM)

Next steps

• Study in Switzerland — overview
• The same topic across every destination
• School directory