Hi,

I am trying to understand all the different avenues of education in Switzerland. It would be really helpful if someone could explain to me what the Swiss Maturité, (Swiss Matura?) is. Is it just the qualification that everyone gets after leaving a Swiss school? Do pupils have to have it to go to a Swiss University?

I have had a look at the very helpful swiss education section but cannot find anything specific to this and google is just spitting out badly translated French websites to me.

Would really appreciate any information!

Thanks

Victoria

It is what students need to have to enter a Swiss university directly, generally obtained after year 12 of schooling.
Most Swiss finish schooling after year 9 (around age 16) and enter apprenticeships for the next 3-4 years, only about 20% continue on the academic path in Gymnase/Gymnasium to year 12 and the Maturité. It is very rigorous, as students study many subjects, (in my day it was 11), not just 3 or 4 as in A-levels. They cannot get rid of German in favour of Maths for instance. Students can put a focus on certain subject areas, but still have to carry all the main ones. There are oral and written exams at the end, as well as a project.
There are other ways to university, including a professional maturité, passing entrance exams, etc, but the maturité is the direct route.
Students must achieve minimum marks to gain entry into Gymnase and/or pass entrance exams, depending on the Canton. They enter Gymnase in grade 7, 8 or 9 again depending on the canton. Some cantons even have several possibilities of entering Gymnase at different stages.

Your location says UK- so I suppose you'd like to compare to the A'Level system (unless you are Scottish).

The main difference is that in the UK students choose 4 subjects only for year 12, and the choice is almost endless, and then drop one and concentrate on 3 subjects for A'Levels (exceptional students are allowed to keep up with 4, but this is rare). In the UK, students can drop all the classical subjects if they wish- and can even stop doing English, maths, a language, history, geography, etc, if they so wish. A student can for isntance study, say, art, music, design and IT- or, as another example at the 'other end' of the scale, maths, further maths, physics and chemistry.

This system is unique in Europe, and has real advantages and disadvantages. In Europe, and in Switzerland, students who choose to stay at school for the Bac/Maturité have to continue all subjects- but can specialise in some more than others. But they all have to continue to study 2 foreign languages + of course the national language of where they live, maths, sciences, history, geography, etc, and pass in all subjects to be admitted to Uni. It is therefore very difficult for a student who is not proficient in the national language of where they live to study at that level- as they have to study difficult texts in all subjects, write formal essays, be able to debate, etc.

In Switzerland students don't apply to Uni in the same way as in the UK via UCAS. If you pass the Bac/Matu, even with relatively low scores (4 out of 6 being the minimum in ALL SUBJECTS, around a C grade, you can go, and then they will 'weed' out during the first year. BTW if you fail one subject, you have to re-take the whole year and the whole exam, unlike the UK where you can just re-take the subject you failed. A friend's daugher failed by 1/4 of a point in maths, re did the year with extra tuition in maths, but when she did the exam the next year, she passed in maths but failed in German- and gave up.

Hope this helps. If it does not, perhaps you could ask specific questions so they can be adressed.

Thanks for the reply- both are really useful, and thanks for putting it into the context by comparing to the A-Level.

I am familiar with the IB, the way you are talking about it, is the Maturité very similar? Is it graded in the same way (1-7)?

Also, how fascinating that people get 'weeded out' in first year of university.

Do international universities recognise the Maturité?

V

From Victoria's Profile: So I suspect that she is interested in learning about the Swiss system, rather than moving to Switzerland with school age children.

Wikipedia gives a reasonable overview: Education in Switzerland

The Maturité is far harder than the IB as it corresponds to A levels in 11 subjects versus 6 for the IB.
To access Swiss universities the student must acquire 32 points for the IB (minimum passing grade is 24).
A Maturité gives automatic access to Swiss universities and is recognized as a very valuable diploma internationally.

Maturité grading: 1 - 6
IB grading: 1 - 7

The student has to be able to handle 2 national languages (can be French and Italian, German is not an obligation, though often imposed by specific schools)
+ English

Though the some of these can be replaced by various combinations depending on the type of Maturité a student selects.

Don't agree with Odile in the case of Humanities.
They require a language evaluation before starting the 1st year.

Could you enlarge on your disagreement here, I totally respect your point of view, but I am not sure what you are saying. Thanks.

For those who are not au fait with the English system- all students who want to access Uni in the UK have to apply formally in advance and then get 'offers', some contional (eg they will take you if you get such and such grades for specific subjects) some unconditonal (eg a student is considered so brilliant that they want him/her whatever happens)- some get no offers ... They all have to have a minimum of C grade (about 4 here) in English and Maths- but can re-take those at the same time as studying for A'Levels to catch up if necessary.

So does the Maturité grant everyone access to a university regardless of their score? Would students with very high scores be at the same university, studying the same score as someone with a low score?

@V
Yes, the Maturité (gymnase and/or fédérale) gives access to Swiss universities.
But obtaining that Maturité is another story..... it's considered valuable, strict and difficult.

@Odile
Even students who have been accepted at uni with a Maturité or an IB with 32 points, will still take an evaluation test if they wish to study a specific language for instance (example German).
The 1rst year doesn't weed students out.

Thanks, was not aware of that requirement. Some courses do weed out students after first year, like medicine.

Will have to check admin for Humanities langs here in Neuch currently. Perhaps one of those many things with big K/Cantonal differences.

VNewton, Switzerland is very much a Federation of separate 'States' K/Cantons, with large variations in a myriad of things, a bit like the USA, but different and on a much smaller scale, of course.

Don't think that the evaluation actually stops the student depending on the result. Perhaps extra courses are required ? (not sure).
One of the students studying German told me (just a few days ago) that they have evaluations throughout their Bachelor studies. I suppose the goal is C2 ?

Anyway.. regardless of evaluations etc. the studies are absolutely wonderful and so are the professors and students.
At the end of each semester I feel utterly exhausted, but also a touch sad that class is over.

One of our friend's son is studying Medicine at Fribourg Uni- he said that 50% were weeded out at the end of first year- despite the fact Switzerland has a huge shortage of doctors.

I guess this is extreme case. Medecine is also one of the most difficult and also the most wanted…so they need to weed out more than others - and I really they do for our own health

From what I heard, I would say the overall rate is around 20-30%

I was at a meeting at son's school on Wednesday explaining all the different options and possibilities from the different streams as there have been a lot of changes recently and we were told then that a lot if students were weeded out after the first year. They didn't say that it only related to certain subjects so I assumed it was for everything.

They did also say that there were additional evaluations for gaining entry depending on the subjects and the previous results of the students so not all students have to do the evaluations to gain entrance to university.

For medicine, veterinary medicine and a few others you have to take an entrance exam, regardless of your matura grades. Test are once a year (in July) and depending on how many applicants they have the first 20 or 30 % get in.

Yes they did say that and the only universities that offer veterinary medicine are all in the German speaking part if Switzerland.

Bern and Zürich, yes.

Just to give you some impressions.

Nearly 20% of Swiss youths reach a gymnasial Maturity.

Current figures by USZ: Of all students starting a study in their subject they fail to gain a bachelor in

- Economics: 60%
- Psychology: 40%
- Jurisprudence: 40%
- Journalism: 30%

cases and will quit studying.

14% of the Swiss inhabitants will finalize a Master study sucessfully.

At ETHZ, between 40-50% of all computer science students will fail the first test after one year.

No it isn't. The tariff to get into a Swiss university with an IB Diploma is high because the majority of Swiss universities (pretty much like most countries around the world) believe that their own examination system is the greatest in history. Whether it is or not is neither here nor there, it is what the universities demand that is "the law". Therefore the requirements for the Maturite are lower than those for other examination systems.

The truth of the matter is that the maturite is an examination system which has evolved as the minimum requirement to get into university in Switzerland. It is as simple as that.

The idea that the Maturite is equivalent to 11 A Levels is laughable. Are you seriously suggesting that students in Switzerland are so much better prepared, harder working and focused than their university going counterparts in the UK? By and large, most examination systems the world over are fairly equal and their isn't that much of a difference between them.