In the Swiss mountains

ZHAW is a public university of applied sciences, including eight schools, with locations in Zurich and Winterthur.

I had only been to Switzerland once before, during the EAIE conference in Basel, so I was very interested to get some insights into the Swiss internationalisation of higher education. As it turned out there are a lot of similarities with other European countries. However, partly due to the unique circumstances of Switzerland, I also 'discovered' some unexpected things.

Work experience

To enter ZHAW bachelor programmes students are required to have up to two years of relevant work experience. In Switzerland, bachelor programmes in (research) universities require a diploma of secondary education. However, many bachelor programmes in universities of applied sciences require, because of the practical aim of the programmes, that students already have obtained work experience in the field of their studies.

Consequently, students tend to be a bit older when they enter. Some may already have a family and may continue to combine their job with the study programme. These characteristics complicate taking part in a study abroad programme.

Joint programmes

In order to obtain a critical mass the Swiss Government requires Swiss higher education institutions to offer new master programmes as joint programmes. The discussions with the Swiss partner universities are not easy due to different backgrounds and aims.

Since Switzerland has four official languages (and perhaps even cultures) this, in itself, is intercultural cooperation. The positive side of this is that discussions contribute a lot to quality assurance and to the quality assurance of internationalisation.

Marketing and recruitment

From the perspective of the universities of applied sciences, Swiss higher education is not promoted at the national level. This is why internationalisation officers have been advocating the National Agency to set up a promotional website, like those of Germany, the Netherlands and other countries, to inform foreign students about the Swiss higher education system and give them practical advice. The national government has not allocated the marketing of Swiss higher education to a specific organisation, according to the National Agency.

This may be why twelve Swiss public universities and federal institutes of technology, which are represented by the Rector's Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS) have taken up the joint effort to promote themselves in particular, and Swiss higher education in general through www.swissuniversity.ch.

The website aims at presenting and promoting the study and research opportunities offered by these institutions, and at positioning Switzerland as an excellent study and research destination.

Student exchanges

The National Agency in Switzerland, in effect since January of this year, is financed by the EC and the Cantons jointly. Originally, prompted by the four language/culture areas in the country, in Switzerland student exchange meant intra-Canton student exchange, rather than outside Switzerland. This is not as rare as it may seem to some: Spain has a similar situation.

As a result of the economic crisis in Euro countries and the comparative strength of the Swiss Frank, the number of incoming students has decreased and is expected to decline further as long as the Swiss Frank does not devalue. Though this is seen as a problem it is overshadowed by the fact that EC research funds are made out in euros, which means Swiss budgets are much lower budgets than anticipated.

This could be solved by setting up bank accounts in euros but this is currently not allowed for higher education institutions in Switzerland.

Network

Together with the Hochschule München and Fachhochschule Campus Wien, ZHAW is one of the initiators of one of the first international networks especially aimed at universities of applied sciences. It is similar to the CARPE network which has recently been officially presented in Utrecht.

This workshop in Zurich was the network's first joint activity. The second activity is an analysis of external factors related to internationalisation and the further development of the network based on Erasmus Bilateral agreements and staff mobility simplification. The third activity will be setting up a joint summer school.

Knowing these particularities of Swiss higher education hopefully helps to facilitate cooperation with Swiss counterparts. Because one thing is clear: the Swiss want to increase the internationalisation of their higher education as much as other European countries do. This is underlined by the foundation of their own National Agency.