The qualifications actually sat here
Education is run by the 26 cantons, not the Confederation, so there is no national
curriculum, no national school calendar and no national exam date. Swiss qualifications
also carry no per-subject alphanumeric codes.
The academic route is the gymnasiale Maturität, maturité gymnasiale in French and maturità
liceale in Italian, awarded by cantonal schools under the MAR and MAV recognition regime,
and it gives unconditional entry to ETH Zurich and EPFL. The Schweizerische
Maturitätsprüfung is the non-school route, run by the State Secretariat for Education,
Research and Innovation, with two sessions a year in each language region.
Most Swiss technology careers take the vocational route instead: the Berufsmaturität,
taken with an apprenticeship, alongside the Fachmaturität. Since 81 per cent of Swiss ICT
professionals come from vocational education, an apprentice is as much our audience as a
Gymnasium student.
The compulsory computing fact
The EDK adopted a framework curriculum for Informatik on 27 October 2017, the partially
revised MAR and MAV came into force on 1 August 2018, and Informatik became compulsory
inside the mathematics, informatics and natural sciences area at the latest from school
year 2022/23, with the Ergänzungsfach Informatik for deeper study. Swiss parents therefore
need no persuading that computing is examinable.
The international segment
Around Zurich, Zug, Geneva, Lausanne, Basel and Lugano sits a large expatriate population
buying in English. The IB Diploma Programme is widely offered, at the International School
of Lausanne, the International School of Berne, Institut Montana Zugerberg, TASIS
Switzerland and Zurich International School. St. George's International School and
Institut International de Lancy are Cambridge centres, where computer science at IGCSE is
syllabus 0478.
ETH Zurich, where the barrier is German
Every Bachelor's programme is taught in German, and a German C1 certificate must be
submitted by the 31 March deadline; a missing or insufficient certificate means rejection
on formal grounds after that date. For a non-Swiss certificate there are three categories:
no entrance examination, the reduced examination in four subjects, or the comprehensive
examination in eight, and ETH decides which only after a complete eApply application. The
examination runs in the third and fourth weeks of the year in the ETH Zurich main
building, next on 18 to 28 January 2027, in German, at CHF 550.00 or CHF 800.00.
EPFL, where the barrier is French and a threshold
Bachelor teaching is in French, level B2 is required and C1 is highly recommended. Holders
of the Swiss maturité gymnasiale are accepted with no other condition. IB Diploma holders
are admitted directly from 38 points out of 42 excluding bonus points, with mathematics
and physics at higher level at 6 out of 7 or better; Swiss residents need 36 out of 42. EU,
EFTA and UK certificate holders need mathematics and physics at the highest available
level in a scientific stream, with grades in both at 80 per cent of maximum and a general
average of 80 per cent, reduced to 70 per cent for Swiss residents. First-year enrolment
is capped at 3,000 places from 2025. Applicants from outside the EU and EFTA, India
included, either meet that profile or sit the entrance examination, and passing the Cours
de mathématiques spéciales is equivalent.
After the Bachelor
The University of Zurich runs a Master of Science in Informatik specialising in Artificial
Intelligence, 120 ECTS as a 90 ECTS major plus a 30 ECTS minor, and Università della
Svizzera italiana in Lugano a two year Master in Artificial Intelligence, also 120 ECTS.
At ETH the gate is German; at EPFL it is French plus a percentage or an IB total. Neither
is opened by being good at code.
