SSwitzerland

ETH Zürich and EPFL want to introduce a Numerus Clausus for foreign students

  • March 1, 2023



(Post was hidden on r/askswitzerland, is it more appropriate here maybe ?)

[https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/sci-tech/swiss-universities-mull-foreign-student-restrictions/48317184](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/sci-tech/swiss-universities-mull-foreign-student-restrictions/48317184)

>As well as the possible introduction of a *numerus clausus* \- a limit on the number of admissions by foreign students – they could also require foreign students to achieve a certain average grade to enroll at ETH Zurich or EPFL. An increase in tuition fees for foreigners is also possible, NZZ said.
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>The number of students in Switzerland has been increasing steadily for years. In 2022, ETH Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne had a total of 37,000 students – half from abroad. The proportion of foreigners among doctoral students is particularly high (80%). For the first time, foreigners were also in the majority among master’s students last year, *NZZ* said.
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>At the same time, the federal universities are under pressure to cut costs. Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter recently announced budget cuts of 2% in various sectors, such as agriculture, culture and education. This particularly affects the federal institutes, *NZZ* said.
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>“If we want to maintain the quality of teaching with increasing student numbers and a smaller budget, we have to take action,” said Casutt.

Is this really true ? Is this a good or bad decision ?

6 comments

  1. i mean a higher tuition would probably make the most sense, given they could provide more jobs to qualified personell that way, and expand the roster of classes taught.

    seems odd to me gating this behind an artifically created test, when the problem is obviously the funds

  2. The high-tech sectors of the Swiss economy flourish because Swiss universities recruit and train the highest quality of PhD applicants from across Europe. I’m sure there are adjustments that can be made to certain programmes or whatever, but major cuts or restrictions on foreigners to save a couple of percent are going to cost much more in the long run if Roche, Novartis, Google and the thousands of mid size and start-up pharma, tech, engineering companies choose to expand their operations in other countries instead. I work with pharma companies, and availability of PhD graduates is a major determinant when choosing which cities to operate in.

    ETH and EPFL are the major drivers behind the Swiss high-skill high-value economy and I really wouldn’t want to mess with that. Penny wise and pound poor.

  3. The minimum grade requirement is already the case at EPFL and has been for a while now. It is used to be 60% of the maximum grade but is 80% since around 2014 or 2015. There are a number of other requirements, such as the subjects to be taken. Once those requirements are fulfilled, EU/EFTA/UK students are automatically accepted in bachelor directly and other students can be accepted depending on the spaces available in the *Cours de mathématiques spéciales*.

    See [here for all info](https://www.epfl.ch/education/admission/admission-2/bachelor-admission-criteria-and-application/).

  6. I do think ETH, which is trying to grow the American way, should scale back on admissions. I already see that the university and the city cannot sustain the life of students. We should not support a world where you are accepted to a school but have absolutely no where to live or have to live in a hotel or hostel for months at a time. Accepting less could help put in place an expectation or standard which prospective students must achieve, rather than just randomly letting students in to try to fulfill this “growth” idea. It’s very poisonous and capitalist

    When I was a masters student from 2018-2020 I saw a huge difference in the level of understanding, performance and intelligence between the Swiss students and the international students because it was already x amount competitive to get into the program, I don’t see how mandates should change that. However I do not think that it should be more expensive for internationals to go to these schools because Switzerland is already one of the most expensive countries in the world. Where would that money go? The schools and the governement don’t need it. It’ll just line the pockets of the examination or doctoral office, both of which are entities that are unnecessary for existence

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