Sharp rise in fees for foreigners at elite Swiss universities

BERN — Studying at the elite Swiss universities ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne looks likely to become significantly more expensive for people from abroad in future.

The lower chamber of Switzerland’s parliament, the National Council, voted in favour of increasing tuition fees on Wednesday.

The proposal would mean that those who move to Switzerland to study would in the future pay at least three times as much as those already living in Switzerland.

At the moment Swiss citizens and foreigners pay the same amount, at ETH and EPFL less than €1,500 ($1,625) per year. The upper chamber of parliament still has to agree on the fee increase.

Members of parliament argued that Swiss students at renowned foreign universities also pay more, up to 40 times as much as domestic students. Another argument is that educational institutions are financed with taxpayers’ money, which is only raised from people who live in Switzerland.