Students angered by fee hike proposal

Zurich University has announced record student numbers for 2004 Keystone

Switzerland’s business community has called for a significant increase in tuition fees to pay for extra teaching positions at the country's universities.

Proposing a fourfold increase, it said the current level of fees covered only around three per cent of higher education costs.

On Tuesday, the Swiss Business Federation and the business think tank, Avenir Suisse, said it was crucial for the country to improve the quality of its higher education in view of tough competition from abroad.

“Even though we are very successful in research, we have to raise the standards in other areas, and for this we need to raise the number of professors,” Hans-Ulrich Doerig, vice chairman of Credit Suisse and a backer of the initiative, told swissinfo.

“This would improve the level of teaching in all of Switzerland’s higher education institutions.”

Doerig said this could be achieved by increasing tuition fees from a yearly average of SFr1,300 to SFr5,000. The move would generate enough cash to create 800 new teaching posts, improving the teacher-student ratio in universities from 1:40 to 1:31.

Students “penalised”

But the Swiss students’ union reacted with anger to the proposals, saying they were unfair on poorer students.

“The proposals would penalise students from poorer families, who would no longer be able to study for a degree,” Caroline Gisiger, co-president of the students’ union, told swissinfo.

“We think that higher education is a public good and the cost shouldn’t fall on students but on the state.”

Most university funding already comes from the state, with 40 per cent from cantonal authorities and 33 per cent from the government in Bern.

The remainder is made up from other donations, with the private sector contributing around six per cent of costs.

Student loans

The Swiss business community also proposed offering students a package of loans to ensure equal opportunities. But the union said this would only lead to students building up debts.

The proposals come as Swiss universities are starting to implement sweeping structural reforms, known as the Bologna Declaration, aimed at harmonising the length of degrees in European universities to make it easier for students to study and work abroad.

Gisiger believes the reforms, due to come into force in 2005, will make it harder for students to fit in part-time work as degrees will become shorter.

“Many students are already going to be struggling to cope with Bologna,” she explained. “And the new proposals don’t include boosting the number of student grants for those who need them most.”

Some 130,000 students are enrolled at the country’s universities, institutes of technology and colleges of higher education.

swissinfo, Vanessa Mock

students

Swiss universities cost SFr4.26 billion ($3.12 billion) to run in 2001.
The government was the biggest contributor to the universities, providing 44% of their income.