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Switzerland · Universities of applied sciences

Zurich University of Applied Sciences

Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften · University of applied sciences (ZHAW) · canton of Zurich · Winterthur

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Students, 2025/26

16,799

Educated abroad

6.4%

981 of 15,224 diploma, bachelor's and master's students

Largest field

Business, Management and Services

38.3% of students

Institutional accreditation

to 17 Dec 2027

decided 18 Dec 2020, as listed on 3 September 2026

Before 2023/24 BFS counted ZHAW, ZHdK and HWZ together as the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZFH), so their own series starts in 2023/24.

“Educated abroad” (Bildungsausländer) means the student gained their university entrance qualification outside Switzerland. It is not nationality: a foreign national who went to school in Switzerland counts as educated in Switzerland. For universities of applied sciences the Office publishes it for diploma, bachelor's and master's students only, so continuing-education students are left out of that share. Students are everyone matriculated at a Swiss higher education institution in the autumn (winter) semester, as the Federal Statistical Office defines them.

Students, 2023/24–2025/26

2023/24: 16,3282025/26: 16,799
2025/2616,799
2024/2516,375
2023/2416,328

Fields of study, 2025/26

The Federal Statistical Office's own English field names.

  • Business, Management and Services6,432 · 38.3%
  • Engineering and IT2,564 · 15.3%
  • Health2,385 · 14.2%
  • Chemistry and Life Sciences1,683 · 10.0%
  • Applied Psychology1,359 · 8.1%
  • Social Work1,044 · 6.2%
  • Applied Linguistics928 · 5.5%
  • Architecture, Construction and Planning404 · 2.4%

Level of study, 2025/26

  • Bachelor's12,239 · 72.9%
  • Master's2,985 · 17.8%
  • Continuing education1,575 · 9.4%

Accreditation and fees

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. The Council's list

Each institution sets its own tuition — for ETH Zurich and EPFL the ETH Board does, by ordinance — and many charge students from abroad more. Fees are not published as open data, and swissuniversities' fee tables may not be reused, so no fees are shown here: check each institution's website.

Other universities of applied sciences: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Bern University of Applied Sciences, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons, Zurich University of the Arts, Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich, SBS Swiss Business School, Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen, César Ritz Colleges Switzerland

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.

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