What is the median age for someone starting university and the median age when leaving university in switzlerland?

I noticed graduates seem to be older as compared to the uk but not sure if this is just my imagination.

My friend is going to Zurich uni at 35.

Yay!!

Thats all i have to say, really....

I have some fellow students who are in their 40ies and 50ies. The more ambitious kids are done by 24, but then we always do a master's degree here, not just a bachelor and school doesn't finish until you are 19 or even 20.

According to the federal office of statistics, the mean (not median, didn't find that) age of people in their first year at the U. is 22. The "normal" age (no late decision, no repeating of classes, no sabbatical, no prolonged military service) is 20.

The average time to completion is 5.8 years. (Please note that at the Universities almost nobody does "only" a Bachelor).

Students at the Universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschule) are considerably older when they start (26, they usually did not go directly to the U.) and study for a shorter time (4.1 years, "only bachelor" being quite common)

I did my Bac at 18, but was the youngest in my year - and started my Uni Degree at 29 in the UK. So one size does not fit all. it is true though that students at Uni in Switzerland can take a lot longer to prepare and present their end of Degree Mémoire (sort of Graduate thesis) and often do not leave Uni until age 26ish.

Do Unis in CH allow for mature student entry / su dossier for the Bachelor's degree ?

I know this is widely acceptable in other countries irrespective of age eg Australia and the UK.

I found only one, at USI Lugano

Some of them do: Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, Geneva, Lucerne and Lugano.



http://www.crus.ch/information-progr...ugnis.html?L=0

IMHO if someone is a bit older than the average student and has a lot of working experience it is way easier (meaning more adapted to the situation) to do a so called "non consecutive degree" (certificate of advanced studies, diploma of advanced studies, Master of advanced studies, EMBA) at a FH than going to the University.

So some places actually don't allow that? I find that shocking if true. What has age got to do with wanting to study?

My son starts University next year. He'll be a few weeks off being 20. Funny, when I think I graduated when I was just a few months older than 21. (And a week later married his mother... )

Anyway, he expects 4-5 years. But he tells me that 3 years (like in the UK) is becoming more common now.

In my interpretation jrspet asked about admission "sur dossier" which basically means that the person in question does not have the normally required qualifications (Matura, Baccalaureat etc.) but has extensive experience in the specific field he or she wants to study.

If you have the required qualifications/documents, you are free to study at whatever age you want.

Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense now. My friend did Matura to get in.

That has to do with the Bologna-reform. Until lately, the normal degree was Lizenziat, licence which took 5 years and was/is equivalent to a Master's degree.

Nowadays, you basically do the same degrees (bachelor, about 3 years and then the master, min. 2 years).

However, people here (including employers) are still used to the old system and almost everybody does a master directly after the bachelor.

Found a Uni for Seniors - the 25th year of existence this year.

http://www.seniorenuni.uzh.ch/index.html

as well as a Kinder Uni

http://www.kinderuniversitaet.uzh.ch/index_en.html

There are even more of these, links can be found here: http://www.seniorenuni.unibe.ch/cont...index_ger.html

IMHO a very good thing, as studying with the young ones does not always work out that well for education-thirsty seniors.

We had an almost 70 year old guy for a few semesters at my U. He was very well read and had done a lot of thinking for himself, on the other hand he needed more time to "get into" a new subject or theory and was constantly arguing with the professors ("whaddaya mean, Author X is outdated?"). He then quit.

I met him some time later and he told me that he switched to U, for seniors and that this was the right choice for him.

You can attend university without a Matura/Bac but you must have professional experience and be over 25.

Average age for the Matura/Maturité Fédérale is 19 due to 13th grade.

If you're younger than 18, you've got to get official permission to sit the Matura exams.

It's quite rare for anybody to be younger than 18 in a Swiss university.

my knowledge of the uk is something like:

start uni @ 19
do a 3 years degree and graduate @ 22
if you do a masters, graduate @ 23

i know in germany it is quite common to fail some years and so takes longer.

if i understand correctly then, in switzerland:

start uni @ 20
do a degree and graduate @ 24
if you do a masters, graduate @ 26

so a 'normal' person starts a year later, normally takes 4 years to do degree bit and 2 years for the masters bit.

does that sound right?