University Entrance Examination

a. Central Entrance Examination
Students that do not hold fully recognized certificates qualifying for university entrance must pass a university entrance examination. This applies mainly to students with foreign educational qualifications (see section 5).

The central entrance examination for students with foreign educational qualifications is conducted twice a year (June and August/September) in Fribourg by VKHS (Preparatory Courses for University Studies in Switzerland). VKHS also offers a University Preparatory Course (UPC) for the central entrance examination. To be admitted to a UPC, students must have (among other things): knowledge of either German or French corresponding at least to the level of B1/B2 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, and provisional admission to a Swiss university. The UPC lasts from September to June of the following year and costs CHF 5,200.

VKHS (Vorbereitungskurse auf das Hochschulstudium)
Rue de Rome 1
CH-1700 Fribourg
Tel. +41 (0)26 347 16 16
Fax +41 (0)26 347 16 17
E-mail: info(at)vkhs.ch
Web site: http://www.vkhs.ch/

b. University of St. Gallen
As the only Swiss university to do so, the University of St. Gallen requires foreign national students to take its own entrance examination. The reason is that the university restricts the total percentage of foreign national students to 25%. Foreign nationals who hold a recognized Swiss maturity certificate are exempt from this examination requirement.

c. Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Eidgenösissische Technische Hochschule Zürich ETHZ) and Lausanne (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL) offer the opportunity to take entrance examinations to applicants, both foreign nationals and Swiss, who do not hold a fully recognized upper secondary school-leaving certificate qualifying for university entrance.

ETH Zurich
Admissions Office
Rämistrasse 101
HG F 21.4-5
CH-8092 Zurich
Tel. +41 (0)44 632 56 53

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL)
AA-EBM CMS, Station 4
Tel. +41 (0)21 693 22 95

http://www.universitieshandbook.com/