The far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) is seeking legislation through the federal parliament to limit the number of foreign students in Swiss universities.“The universities are bursting at the seams,” Oskar Freysinger, one of SVP’s most vocal national councillors, tells Swisster.
Although he says he wasn’t even aware of his party’s move, he points out that “foreign students are taking the place of Swiss students.”
“Either you increase the capacity of the universities, or you limit their access,” he says, adding that in his opinion Swiss universities are very attractive to foreigners.
The author of the SVP’s move is Luzi Stamm from the canton of Aargau, between Zurich and Basel and on the border with Germany. His party maintains that the lack of entrance requirements in Switzerland is driving the quality down.
According to Valérie Clerc, deputy secretary general of CUS, the Swiss university conference, the joint organization of the cantons and the Confederation for university politics, the problem of over-crowding is particularly acute in certain Swiss German universities because of the influx of German students.
Clerc explains that in Switzerland a bachelor holder is automatically admitted to a master’s programme without any conditional requirements, whereas in Germany admission partially depends on the grades obtained at bachelor level.
“In the coming years due to the shortening of high school by one year in certain German Länder, double the amount of students will apply for the same number of places at university,” she says.
Furthermore, the abolition of the obligation to serve in the army and the fact that the German government encourages students to spend some time abroad inflates the numbers of students entering into the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
But the problem may be short-lived, indicates Valérie Clerc, as the German authorities are addressing the issue and looking for solutions.
