The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) and swiss universities, the Swiss Conference of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions, want to facilitate access to higher education in Switzerland for refugees with academic potential and thereby ease the shortage of skilled labour.
Providing refugees with a path to official qualifications is a key objective of the Swiss integration agenda launched by the federal government and the cantons. As part of a joint pilot programme, swissuniversities and SEM want to improve opportunities for recognised refugees and temporarily admitted persons to undertake higher education in Switzerland.
Over the next four years, the programme will facilitate access to higher education institutions (HEIs) for refugees with academic potential, in line with the Higher Education Council action programme to ensure equal access to higher education for refugees. This aligns with a strategic goal of the Swiss integration agenda adopted by the Confederation and the cantons.
The programme is aimed at refugees in all language regions of Switzerland and all types of HEIs: universities, universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education.
At the end of February, five HEI projects were selected for the four-year programme:
- Success 4Refugees (University of Basel)
- UNIR – University for Integration and Success (University of Lausanne and EPFL)
- Expansion of the INTEGRAL bridging programme for qualified refugees (University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland)
- Requalification and professional integration for teachers with refugee backgrounds (Lucerne, Zug, St Gallen, Zurich and Northwestern Switzerland Universities of Teacher Education)
- CLuG+ – Campus Luzern für Geflüchtete PLUS (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, University of Lucerne and School of Education of Lucerne)
You can find more information here.
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