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Switzerland

Summary



Switzerland's educational system is experiencing a period of rapid change at the beginning of the new millennium. Both internal and external factors have influenced educational reform. Globalization and a unified European Community, even though Switzerland is not a formal member, have put significant pressures on the educational system. In order to meet the growing demand for qualified workers and to work towards international recognition of Swiss diplomas, the nonuniversity higher education sector has been modified and reclassified as technical colleges. These include most teacher colleges. The dual system of higher education is comparable to similar institutions in Germany, Austria, and Holland, which include university level institutions and technical colleges. In Switzerland the different schools comprising the technical college level are still very fragmented. Transferability between the two sectors of higher education still remains problematic, with few clear paths between the FH/HES and the universities and Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology.



The number of students attending the gymnasium has increased significantly in the last 20 years. In the last decade women have made significant progress in completing the gymnasium and continuing to university studies. The ratio of maturity graduates is considerably higher in the areas of the Suisse romande (French and Italian Switzerland), where children are tracked later than in German-speaking Switzerland. In contrast, children of foreign workers and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to complete higher secondary educations or to go on to higher education. There is also significant disparity between the educational systems of the mountain regions and those of urbanized Switzerland. Future educational reform needs to be directed toward questions of equity in the educational system.

Education in Switzerland continues to be very decentralized and fragmented, although important strides have been taken toward reducing the disparities between the cantonal educational systems. Coordination measures, such as the introduction of standards for middle schools or maturity certificates, and the development of less elitist forms of higher education, take years to institute. As a whole, Switzerland has a very good educational system; however, free transfer from canton to canton is impeded by the 26 different cantonal educational systems and the lack of common educational standards.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnold, Matthew. Popular Education of France (with notices of that of Holland and Switzerland). London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861.

Bierhoff, Helvia and S. J. Prais, From School to Productive Work. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Educational Research and Development in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Paris: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1995.

Garke, Esther. Swiss Higher Education. Federal Office for Education and Science. May 2000. Available from http://www.shk.ch.

Hanhart, Siegried and Sandra Bossio. "Costs and Benefits of Dual Apprenticeship: Lessons from the Swiss System." International Labour Review 137. (1998): 483-500.

Heidenheimer, Arnold J. Disparate Ladders: Why School and University Policies Differ in Germany, Japan and Switzerland. New Bruinswick, NJ: Transaction Press, 1997.

Helga, Gunther. Consensus Democracy? Swiss Education Policy between Federalism and Subsidiarity. New York: Peter Lang, 1999.

Sauthier, Rodger. Secondary Education in Switzerland. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Press, 1995.

Steiner, Jürg, Hochschulen im Wettbewerb: USA—Schweiz. Zurich: Vontobel-Stiftung, 2000 (to be published in English in 2002).

Swiss Conference of Cantonal Education Ministers, Bern. "Swiss Education." March 21, 1997. Available from http://edkwww.unibe.ch.

Swiss Embassy, Washington, DC. "Culture and Education." Available from http://www.swissemb.org. January 3, 2001.


—Carol L. Schmid

Additional topics

Education - Free Encyclopedia Search EngineGlobal Education ReferenceSwitzerland - History Background, Constitutional Legal Foundations, Educational System—overview, Preprimary Primary Education, Secondary Education