Tag Archives: Education

To coincide with International Women’s Day on 8 March, The Economist publishes an annual study on the best places to be a working woman across the OECD. This year, Switzerland is ranked 26th out of 29 nations, the same position as last year. Only Japan, Turkey and South Korea rank lower. Photo by Alex P on Pexels.comThe main reason behind Switzerland’s poor rank is likely well known to most families where both mum and dad work: the high cost childcare. Switzerland has the highest...

Switzerland’s federal government is spending more than it collects. To improve its finances it is looking for additional revenue and costs that it can cut. This week, the government decided to charge foreign students at its two federal universities, EPFL in Lausanne and ETHZ in Zurich, three times what they currently pay, reported SRF. Ethz © Drserg | Dreamstime.comSwitzerland is one of the most affordable places to study for both locals and foreigners. Fees to study at EPFL and ETHZ are...

In Switzerland, mothers are far more likely to have paid work than they were 30 years ago. In 2021, 82% had paid employment compared to 60% in 1991. Over this period, Switzerland has moved from one of the lowest European rates of working mums to one of the highest. Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.comHowever, a sizeable employment gap remains between women with children (82%) and women without them (93%). In addition, few fathers have given up working to make way for mothers to work...

An American professor’s perspective as reported on Irwin Collier’s Economics in the Rear-View Mirror: On an October morning, some years since, a recent Vermont graduate and I entered together the Aula of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University at Berlin. Lectures were still two weeks away; but Germany is a country of leisurely beginnings and this was the morning of matriculation. The great hall was thronged with an interesting company. At a long table sat the Rector Magnificus, Harnack, the...

Source: CNBC.

On 10 November 2022, Switzerland and the UK, two nations outside the EU, signed an agreement deepening the relationship between the two nations’ research and innovation communities. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comThe agreement was signed by UK Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, George Freeman MP, alongside Federal Councillor Parmelin, Head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, at a ceremony in London. According to the UK...

In many places one language is all that is required at work. In Switzerland, 37.7% of workers surveyed reported regularly using two or more languages at work, according to data published by the Federal Statistical Office on 6 September 2022. Photo by fauxels on Pexels.comWhile 62.3% used only one language at work, 22.2% regularly used two and 15.5% used three or more. These figures are somewhat boosted by a linguistic quirk of Switzerland. In the majority German-speaking region, the...

A few years ago, during a bitcoin price rally, a colleague relayed a story about her husband attending a university lecture. He noticed several students glued to their smartphones. Peering over a few shoulders he saw they were more focused on crypto profits than the lecture. Roll on five years and bitcoin has now become the central subject of lectures in several Swiss universities. A study by blockchain start-up incubation company CV VC and PwC has identified 20...

Both the UK and Switzerland have lost access to the Europe-wide scientific research programme known as Horizon Europe. The UK dropped out when it left the EU and Switzerland when its bilateral talks with the EU broke down last year. © Denis Linine | Dreamstime.comThe programme supports big projects that would not be possible at a national level. More is more when it comes to making progress in many areas of scientific progress. In a bid to mend the cracks in European scientific...

Data published on 10 February 2022, show that one year after completion of tertiary education 93% of Switzerland’s graduates were employed in a job that matched their level of education or professional qualifications. © Wanida Prapan | Dreamstime.comThe survey, aimed at assessing the level of mismatch between education and employment, found that success at finding a job matching qualifications varied depending on the type of qualification, timing and regional differences in number of...