Education in Switzerland - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

system in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system mainly to the cantons. The Swiss constitution sets the foundations, namely that primary school is obligatory for every child and is free in public schools and that the confederation can run or support universities.

The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons but Obwalden

Obwalden

Obwalden is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population is 33,997 of which 4,043 are foreigners. Its capital is Sarnen. The canton contains the geographical centre of Switzerland.-History:...

, where it is five years and three months. After primary schools, the pupils split up according their abilities and intentions of career paths. Roughly 20% of all students attend secondary schools leading, normally after 12 school years in total to the federal recognized matura

Matura

Matura or a similar term is the common name for the high-school leaving exam or "maturity exam" in various countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia,...

which grants access to all universities. The other students split in two or more school-types (depends on the canton) differing in the balance of theoretical and practical education. It is obligatory for all children to visit school for at least 9 years.

The first university in Switzerland was founded in 1460 in Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

, with a faculty of medicine. This place has a long tradition of chemical and medical research in Switzerland. In total, there are 12 Universities in Switzerland; ten of them are managed by the cantons, while two federal institutes of technology, ETHZ in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

and EPFL in Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

, are under the responsibility of the federal state. In addition, there are seven regional associations of Higher Education Institutions for Applied Sciences (Fachhochschulen) which require vocational education and a special "Berufsmatura" to study. Switzerland has the second highest rate of foreign students in tertiary education

Tertiary education

Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...

, after Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Many Nobel prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

s were awarded to Swiss scientists. More recently Vladimir Prelog

Vladimir Prelog

Vladimir Prelog FRS was a Croatian chemist and Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. Prelog lived and worked in Prague, Zagreb and Zürich during his lifetime.-Biography:...

, Heinrich Rohrer

Heinrich Rohrer

Heinrich Rohrer is a Swiss physicist who shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope .-Biography:...

, Richard Ernst

Richard R. Ernst

Richard Robert Ernst is a Swiss physical chemist and Nobel Laureate.Born in Winterthur, Switzerland, Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991 for his contributions towards the development of Fourier Transform nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy while at Varian Associates, Palo...

, Edmond Fischer

Edmond H. Fischer

Edmond H. Fischer is a Swiss American biochemist. He and his collaborator Edwin G. Krebs were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1992 for describing how reversible phosphorylation works as a switch to activate proteins and regulate various cellular processes.-Early life:Fischer...

, Rolf Zinkernagel and Kurt Wüthrich

Kurt Wüthrich

Kurt Wüthrich is a Swiss chemist and Nobel Chemistry laureate.-Biography:Born in Aarberg, Switzerland, Wüthrich was educated in chemistry, physics, and mathematics at the University of Berne before pursuing his Ph.D. under the direction of Silvio Fallab at the University of Basel, awarded in 1964...

received nobel prizes in the sciences. In total, 113 Nobel Prize winners stand in relation to Switzerland and the Nobel Peace Price was awarded 9 times to organizations residing in Switzerland. Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

hosts the world's largest particle physics

Particle physics

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...

laboratory, the CERN

CERN

The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...

. Other important research centers are the Empa

Empa

The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology or Empa is an interdisciplinary Swiss research and service institution for applied materials sciences and technology...

and Paul Scherrer Institute

Paul Scherrer Institute

The Paul Scherrer Institute is a multi-disciplinary research institute which belongs to the Swiss ETH-Komplex covering also the ETH Zurich and EPFL...

which belong to the ETH domain.

Primary

The obligatory school system usually includes primary education (Primarschule in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, école primaire in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

and scuola primaria / elementare in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

) and secondary education I (Sekundarstufe I in German, secondaire I in French and scuola secondaria / media in Italian). Before that, children usually go to kindergarten

Kindergarten

A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

, but it is not required. The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons but Obwalden

Obwalden

, where it is five years and three months. The cantons Thurgau

Thurgau

Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...

and Nidwalden

Nidwalden

Nidwalden is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population is 40,287 of which 4,046 are foreigners. The capital is Stans.-History:...

allow five year olds to start primary school in exceptional cases. Primary school continues until grade four, five or six, depending on the school. Any boy or girl can take part in school if they choose to, but pupils are separated depending on whether they speak French, German or Italian.

Secondary

At the end of primary school (or at the beginning of secondary school), pupils are separated according to their capacities and career-intentions in several (often three) sections. Students who aspire to an academic career enter high schools (named "Gymnasium" or "Kantonsschule") to be prepared for further studies and the matura

Matura

(normally obtained after 12 or 13 years of school at the age of 18/19) Students intending to pursue a trade or vocation complete only three additional years before entering Vocational Educations which are regulated by federal law and are based on a cooperation of private business offering educational job-positions and public schools offering obligatory school-lessons complimentary to the on the job-education. This so called "dual system" splitting academic and vocational training has its continuation in the higher education system. While the academic training leads to the matura and free admission to Universities, successfully completed vocational education give access to third level of practical education, the Fachhochschulen. In the science literacy

Scientific literacy

Scientific literacy encompasses written, numerical, and digital literacy as they pertain to understanding science, its methodology, observations, and theories.-Definition:...

assessment of PISA

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

, 15-year-old students in Switzerland had the 16th highest average score of 57 countries.

In the lower second level there are several different teaching and school models that may exist. Some cantons define a specific model, while others allow the individual municipalities to determine which model to follow.

Separated model

Pupils are allocated to institutionally separate school types, according to their performance levels. The structure is based on the principle of equal capacities among pupils. Generally, each school type has its own adapted curricula, teaching material, teachers and, in some cases, its own range of subjects. In general, there are 2 to 3 school types (4 in a minority of cantons), the names of which vary. In the structure with 2 school types, a distinction is made between the performance-based group at basic level (with the least demanding requirements), and the performance-based group at advanced level. In the structure with 3 school types, there is a performance-based group at basic level, a performance-based group at intermediate level and a performance-based group at advanced level. The requirements of the performance-based group at advanced level are the most demanding and this school type generally prepares pupils for transfer to the matura schools.

Cooperative model

The cooperative model is based on core classes with different performance requirements. Each pupil is assigned to a core class according to his or her performance level. The pupils attend lessons in certain subjects in differentiated requirement-based groups (whereby the core classes are mixed).

Integrated model

The integrated model does not use different school types or core classes. Pupils with different performance levels attend the same class and mixing is maintained. In certain subjects, teaching occurs on differentiated requirement-based levels.

Tertiary

Tertiary education depends on the education chosen in secondary education. For students with a matura, university is the most common one. Apprentices who did a vocational high school will often add a Fachhochschule or a Höhere Fachschule to their curriculum. Switzerland has the second highest rate of foreign students in tertiary education, after Australia.

There are 14 public and generic universities in Switzerland, 10 of which are maintained at cantonal level and usually offer a range of non-technical subjects. Of the remaining 4 institutions, 2 are run by the Swiss Confederation and are known as "Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology".

Switzerland is well-known for its private education system. A number of world-class universities such as the International Institute for Management Development

International Institute for Management Development

IMD - International Institute for Management Development is a non profit business school located in Lausanne, Switzerland.- History & Mission :...

belong to that category. See also the list of universities in Switzerland.

Educational rankings

In 1995 Switzerland took part in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study

Trends in international mathematics and science study

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study is an international assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of fourth- and eighth-grade students around the world...

(TIMSS) assessment. TIMSS is an international assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of fourth- and eighth-grade students around the world. It was developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement is an association of national research institutions and government research agencies related to education. The IEA is an independent organization. It was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Amsterdam...

(IEA) to allow participating nations to compare students' educational achievement across borders. In 1995, Switzerland was one of forty-one nations that participated in the study. They did not participate in later studies. Among 8th graders, Switzerland ranked 15th overall, 8th in math and 25th in science.

A National Center for Education Statistics

National Center for Education Statistics

The National Center for Education Statistics is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States...

(NCES) study that used the TIMSS assessment among 12th graders found similar results. The Swiss students were in their upper secondary education and were attending either a gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

, general education, teacher training or advanced vocation training. In math, the Swiss scored a 540 (the average score was 500), and were 3rd out of 21. Their science score was 523, which was 8th out of 21. In physics, they scored 488 (the average was 501) and were tied for 9th place out of 16. The advanced mathematics score was 533 which was 3rd out of 16.

The World Economic Forum

World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....

's Global Competitiveness Report

Global Competitiveness Report

The Global Competitiveness Report is a yearly report published by the World Economic Forum. The first report was released in 1979. The 2011–2012 report covers 142 major and emerging economies....

for 2010-11 ranked Switzerland as first overall. Under the fifth pillar of the report, Higher education and training, the Swiss had a score of 5.79, which is the fourth highest among all the countries surveyed.

Cantonal school systems

While compulsory schooling in Switzerland is 9 years long, many of the specifics of the system vary by canton. In most cases, the primary level lasts 6 years, and the lower secondary level 3 years. In only a few cantons, the primary level lasts 4 or 5 years and entrance to the lower secondary level thus occurs either in school year 5 (duration: 5 years) or school year 6 (duration: 4 years). In more than half of the cantons, it is compulsory to attend pre-school. In almost all cantons, the municipalities are obliged to provide pre-school classes.

This table shows the school system for 2009/2010 and how the lower secondary schools are organized:

Canton Cantons of Switzerland The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...	Years of Kindergarten	Years of Kindergarten provided	Years of Kindergarten legally required	Length of Primary School	Length of mandatory Secondary School	Separate Secondary Schools?	Cooperative Secondary Schools?	Integrated Secondary Schools?
Zurich Canton of Zürich The Canton of Zurich has a population of . The canton is located in the northeast of Switzerland and the city of Zurich is its capital. The official language is German, but people speak the local Swiss German dialect called Züritüütsch...	2	2	2	6	3	Yes	No	No
Bern	1	1	0	6	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lucerne Canton of Lucerne Lucerne is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population of the canton is . , the population included 57,268 foreigners, or about 15.8% of the total population. The cantonal capital is Lucerne.-History:...	1	1	1	6	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Uri Canton of Uri Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard Pass. German is the primary language spoken in Uri...	1	1	0	6	3	No	No	Yes
Schwyz Canton of Schwyz Schwyz is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne in the east and Lake Zurich in the north, centered around and named after the town of Schwyz....	1	1	1	6	3	No	No	Yes
Obwalden	1	1	1	6	3	No	No	Yes
Nidwalden	2	2	1	6	3	No	No	Yes
Glarus Canton of Glarus The Canton of Glarus is a canton in east central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus.The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German.The majority of the population identifies as Christian, about evenly split between the Protestant and Catholic confessions.-History:According to legend, the...	2	2	1	6	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zug Canton of Zug The Canton of Zug is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. It is located in central Switzerland and its capital is Zug. With 239 km² the canton is one of the smallest of the cantons in terms of area. It is not subdivided into districts.- History :The earlier history of the canton is...	2	1	1	6	3	No	No	Yes
Fribourg Canton of Fribourg The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:...	2	1 or 2	0 or 2	6	3	Yes	No	Yes
Solothurn Canton of Solothurn Solothurn is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the northwest of Switzerland. The capital is Solothurn.-History:The territory of the canton comprises land acquired by the capital...	2	2	0	6	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Basel-Stadt	2	2	2	4	5	Yes	No	No
Basel-Landschaft	2	2	1	5	4	Yes	No	No
Schaffhausen Canton of Schaffhausen The Canton of is a canton of Switzerland. The principal city and capital of the canton is Schaffhausen.- History:Schaffhausen was a city-state in the Middle Ages, documented to have struck its own coins starting in 1045. It was then known as Villa Scafhusun. Around 1049 Count Eberhard von...	2	2	1	6	3	No	No	Yes
Appenzell Ausserrhoden	2	2	1	6	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Appenzell Innerrhoden	2	2	1	6	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
St. Gallen Canton of St. Gallen The Canton of St. Gallen is a canton of Switzerland. St. Gallen is located in the north east of Switzerland. It covers an area of 2,026 km², and has a population of . , the population included 97,461 foreigners, or about 20.9% of the total population. The capital is St. Gallen. Spelling...	2	2	2	6	3	No	No	Yes
Graubünden	1	1	0	6	3	Yes	No	No
Aargau	1	1	0	5	4	Yes	No	No
Thurgau	2	2	2	6	3	Yes	No	No
Ticino	3	3	0	5	4	Yes	No	No
Vaud	2	2	0	4	5	Yes	No	No
Valais	1	0	0	6	3	Yes	No	No
Neuchâtel Canton of Neuchâtel Neuchâtel is a canton of French speaking western Switzerland. In 2007, its population was 169,782 of which 39,654 were foreigners. The capital is Neuchâtel.-History:...	2	2	0	5	4	Yes	No	No
Geneva Canton of Geneva The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France. As is the case in several other Swiss cantons The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland,...	2	2	0	6	3	Yes	No	No
Jura Canton of Jura The Republic and Canton of the Jura , also known as the Canton of Jura or Canton Jura, is one of the cantons of Switzerland. It is the newest of the 26 Swiss cantons, located in the northwestern part of Switzerland. The capital is Delémont...	2	2	0	6	3	Yes	No	No

Education demographics

During the 2008/09 school year there were 1,502,257 students in the entire Swiss educational system. In kindergarten or pre-school, there were 152,919 students (48.6% female). These students were taught by 13,592 teachers (96.0% female) in 4,949 schools, of which 301 were private schools. There were 777,394 students (48.6% female) in the obligatory schools, which include primary and lower secondary schools. These students were taught by 74,501 teachers (66.3% female) in 6,083 schools, of which 614 were private. The upper secondary school system had 337,145 students (46.9% female). They were taught by 13,900 teachers (42.3% female) in 730 schools, of which 240 were private. The tertiary education system had 234,799 students (49.7% female). They were taught by 37,546 teachers (32.8% female) in 367 schools.

External links

educa.ch The Swiss Education Server
sieps.ch Information Services on Swiss Private Schools and Universities
about.ch Information about Education in Switzerland
swissuniversity.ch The portal of universities in Switzerland
The Ranking Forum of Swiss Universities
Swiss Universities Handbook
swissinfo.ch - Education in Switzerland
myScience.ch - The Swiss Portal for Research and Innovation
http://www.youngbuzz.com/studyabroad/switzerland

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