Switzerland

Switzerland has more than 75,000 international students in its universities.

The latest readily available university-level figure I found was 76,257 foreign students in 2022/23; Switzerland's definition of “foreign” students can differ from international-mobility definitions used elsewhere.

Top Universities: Switzerland is home to globally recognised institutions including ETH Zurich, EPFL, University of Zurich, University of Geneva and University of Lausanne.

Global Rankings: ETH Zurich was ranked 7th globally in the QS World University Rankings 2026, while EPFL was also among the global top 30.

Research Strength: Switzerland is particularly well known for engineering, technology, natural sciences, medicine and research.

Popular Fields: Engineering, computer science, business, finance, life sciences, natural sciences and hospitality are popular fields.

Levels of Study: Switzerland offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programmes, as well as universities of applied sciences.

Grading Scale: Swiss universities commonly use a 1–6 scale, with 6 being the highest grade and 4 generally representing a pass.

International Student Population: Foreign students represented approximately 29% of students across Swiss higher education institutions in 2024, according to figures cited from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office / swissuniversities / QS World University Rankings.