Switzerland's universities — 28.8% of their students were educated abroad.

All 45 institutions

Students are everyone matriculated at a Swiss higher education institution in the autumn (winter) semester, as the Federal Statistical Office defines them. The Federal Statistical Office counts three types of institution separately. Teacher-education schools that belong to a university of applied sciences — such as the FHNW's School of Education — are counted here with that university, as the Office's combined table counts them; the independent universities of teacher education are listed on their own.

For the universities of teacher education the Office publishes only nationality per institution, not where students were educated, so their figure is the share of foreign nationals — not comparable with the educated-abroad share shown for the other two types.

Accreditation

Institutional accreditation under the Higher Education Act is decided by the Swiss Accreditation Council; an institution needs it to call itself a university, university of applied sciences or university of teacher education. The dates are the decision and the end of the term as the Council's list showed them on 3 September 2026. A term that has ended since may have been renewed — check the Council's list. Every institution in the tables above has an institutional accreditation decision on the list. The Council's list →

Accredited, with no figures from the Statistical Office (7)

These private institutions hold an institutional accreditation but are not in the Federal Statistical Office's student tables, so we have no figures for them.

• Franklin Switzerlanddecided 17 Dec 2021 · term to 16 Dec 2028
• Glion Institute of Higher Education (GIHE)decided 20 Jun 2025 · term to 19 Jun 2032
• Hochschulinstitut Schaffhausen (HSSH)decided 24 Jun 2022 · term to 23 Jun 2029
• International Institute for Management Development (IMD)decided 16 Dec 2022 · term to 15 Dec 2029
• Les Roches Global Hospitality Education (Les Roches)decided 20 Sept 2024 · term to 19 Sept 2031
• Swiss TCM Academydecided 25 Mar 2022 · term to 24 Mar 2029
• Swiss UMEFdecided 16 Dec 2022 · term to 15 Dec 2029

The list still shows Haute Ecole pédagogique Fribourg (HEP | PH FR) (term to 15 Dec 2029); it is now part of University of Fribourg.

Liechtenstein's institutions, including the University of Liechtenstein, are not in the Swiss statistics. For the University of Liechtenstein, see studying in Liechtenstein.

Source: Federal Statistical Office (FSO/BFS), Students and Degrees in Higher Education (SHIS-studex) — tables “Studierende an den universitären Hochschulen nach Jahr, Fachbereich, Studienstufe, Bildungsherkunft und Hochschule” (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/asset/de/px-x-1502040100_108); “Studierende an den Fachhochschulen und pädagogischen Hochschulen nach Jahr, Fachbereich, Studienstufe, Geschlecht und Hochschule” (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/asset/de/px-x-1502040400_136); “Studierende an den Fachhochschulen und pädagogischen Hochschulen nach Jahr, Fachbereich, Bildungsherkunft und Hochschule, nur Studierende auf Stufen Diplom, Bachelor und Master (ohne Weiterbildung)” (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/asset/de/px-x-1502040400_138); “Studierende an den Fachhochschulen (ohne PH) nach Jahr, Fachbereich, Studienstufe, Geschlecht und Hochschule” (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/asset/de/px-x-1502040200_170); “Studierende an den pädagogischen Hochschulen (ohne FH) nach Jahr, Fachrichtung, Geschlecht und Hochschule” (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/asset/de/px-x-1502040300_191); “Studierende an den pädagogischen Hochschulen (ohne FH) nach Jahr, Fachrichtung, Staatsangehörigkeit (Kategorie) und Hochschule” (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/asset/de/px-x-1502040300_192). Terms of use: opendata.swiss “Open use. Must provide the source” (https://opendata.swiss/en/terms-of-use). Sums and shares, English names, the English names of university and teacher-education fields, cantons, cities and websites are CollegeMatcher's additions, not the FSO's. Accreditation dates: Swiss Accreditation Council, list of accreditation decisions (https://akkreditierungsrat.ch/en/decisions/), as last updated on 3 September 2026.