Switzerland

Switzerland

Environment, people and language Situated right in the heart of Western Europe, Switzerland (size: ~ 41,000 km²) is landlocked and shares borders with Germany, France, Italy, Austria and the Principality of Liechtenstein. About 60% of the country is covered by the Alps mountain range. Most of the approximately 8.5 million (June 2019) inhabitants live in the plains (so-called “Mittelland”), where the major cities of Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Lausanne and Bern (capital) are also found. Switzerland has four official languages: German (66 %) spoken in a variety of “Swiss-German” dialects, French (23 %), Italian (8%) and Rhaeto-Romanic (0.6 %), spoken in the South-Eastern canton of Graubünden. The largest constituencies among the ~2 Mio. foreign residents come from Italy, Germany and Portugal (270-310’000), followed by France, Kosovo and Spain (80-125’000) and Turkey, Serbia and Macedonia (~65’000 each). The far largest foreigner community in Basel comes from Germany.

State and currency The Swiss Confederation (official English country name – or Confoederatio Helvetica (CH) as the official latin name) was founded in 1848, though the first nucleus – a confederation of three cantons (provinces) – dates back to 1291. Today it consists of 26 cantons, which operate with a large degree of autonomy, each with their own health, education and tax systems, legal authorities, parliaments and governments, among other things. Swiss national day is celebrated on August 1st though Basel starts with major festivities along the Rhine on July 31st already.

The currency in Switzerland is the Swiss Franc (CHF). One Swiss Franc is 100 cents (Rappen in German or Centimes in French). It is advisable to change money upon arrival in Switzerland, since exchange rates may be more favourable than abroad. Credit cards (VISA, Mastercard, etc.) and debit cards (Maestro, PostFinance) are widely accepted throughout the country. Apple-pay and similar (esp the Swiss app TWINT) are becoming more popular as well.

Education The vast majority of Swiss children go to tax-financed free public schools. After compulsory education, adolescents transfer to upper secondary level, which can be subdivided into general education programmes, and Vocational Education and Training (VET) programmes. Adolescents can learn a profession through VET, which is mostly completed at training companies (apprenticeship) and combined with teaching at a VET school.

The University system in Switzerland is decentralised and is the responsibility of the cantons. Undergraduate “Bologna” Bachelor and Master Degrees and the graduate PhD education are also publicly funded. However, the post-graduate advanced education programmes must be fully paid by student fees.

There are nine cantonal universities, of which Basel is the oldest. Founded in 1460, the University of Basel is among the 20 oldest universities in the world. Two federal Universities have also been established, one in Zurich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, ETHZ) and one in Lausanne (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL).

More information about Switzerland can be found on the Internet at www.ch.ch.