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After revisiting the tuition fee increase covered in our last issue, former Swiss tax official Serge Gaillard has proposed a new budget that may enrage many on the sidelines.
In the last polykum about pessimism, I wrote about the tripling of the tuition fees for foreign students at ETH which will start in autumn semester 2025. This is the thing which is only going to happen at ETH.
But let’s be realistic. Only one increase in tuition fees would be boring, right?
No need to worry. Like in an American movie, the tension (and the tuition fees) will rise further. Now that the first increase has been approved by the Swiss political system, it seems nothing can stop the next one. As our (ETH) president critically summarised: “We are treading a very tricky path […] Today a tripling, tomorrow a quadrupling and the day after a tenfold increase.”
Swiss politics never seems to get boring regarding this topic. But why is all that? Is there going to be another increase targeting all universities in Switzerland?
The confederation wants to save money. As they do every four years, this year they redistributed their budget and decided to give more money to certain areas like the military. So they asked a former tax official, Serge Gaillard, to analyze the budget to find areas to save money. In the “Rapport Gaillard” (a report named after him), he proposes to cut the budget for agricultural, environmental and educational issues.
To compensate for this loss, the proposal suggests an increase of the tuition fees for all students at all universities in Switzerland. To be precise, to double the tuition fees for all Swiss students and to quadruple the tuition fees for foreign students.
I don’t need to mention what an enormously stupid idea this is… We will stand up against this unacceptable political move! But we as students only have a voice if we all stand together. This is why we from VSETH are working very closely with the Swiss student union (VSS) and will extend the contact to other student associations in Zürich.
We will start a big media campaign by the beginning of next semester with a demonstration, an open letter and raise as much awareness in the media as possible. Get ready to support us!
Against this new Swiss-wide increase in tuition fees, we have now released a new petition. Please sign it here and give us the power to represent students` opinions Swiss-wide.
You can find all the information about the Rapport Gaillard, our actions and our position on this website.
Let us stand up together and loud against this politically motivated increase in tuition fees! This is the only way to make our voices heard in Swiss politics and thus remind them of the importance of education!
