Elite Swiss universities bemoan funding cut threat

Parliament will decide later this year how much funding the ETH Domain will receive. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Switzerland’s top educational institutes have complained that a planned budget cut will damage their research and teaching capabilities.

The ETH Domain, comprising six state-funded universities and research institutes, has been told to expect CHF70 million ($75 million) less next year.

“The planned 2% cut in federal funding would mean that professorships could no longer be filled in some areas,” the ETH Board stated on Friday.

“This would result in a worse student-teacher ratio, an impending drop in the rankings and a decline in research, with the accompanying reduction in Swiss innovation capacity, as professors cope with heavier teaching loads.”

The statement also claims that the elite educational and research facilities generate CHF5 for every franc invested in their operations.

Parliament will decide later this year on whether to accept the government’s recommendation to cut ETH Domain’s budget.

The ETH Domain is made up of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) and Lausanne (EPFL) plus the Paul Scherrer Institute, Swiss Federal Forest Research Institute and snow and Landscape, Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute and the Federal Research Institute for Water Supply, Wastewater Treatment and Water Protection.

Both ETH Zurich and EPFL regularly feature as among the top universities to study in Europe and attract students, researchers and teaching staff from around the world.

But Switzerland is currently facing a huge budget deficit hole, leading to demands for federal spending cuts across the board, including education.