Switzerland’s two Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH) and EPFL saw a 2% increase in student enrollment in 2025, bringing the total to 40,627 students and doctoral candidates. The growth, even as still present, was slower than in previous years due to targeted capacity measures. This comes as both institutions continue to rank among the world’s leading universities, and contribute significantly to cutting-edge research.
EPFL has implemented a four-year restriction, beginning in the autumn semester of 2025, on admissions for bachelor’s degree programs for international students holding foreign higher education entrance qualifications. Simultaneously, tuition fees for foreign students residing outside of Switzerland have tripled at both ETH Zurich, and EPFL. The changes reflect ongoing efforts to manage growth and maintain quality at the institutions.
The two institutions maintained their high standing in international university rankings, placing 11th (ETH Zurich) and 35th (EPFL) in the 2025 Times Higher Education World University Ranking. Their research efforts are focused on areas like high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, energy, climate science, and medical research, driving innovation in these fields.
A key component of this research is access to advanced infrastructure. In 2025, the modernized Swiss Light Source was inaugurated at the Paul Scherrer Institute, offering new scientific possibilities. Following the late 2024 launch of the Alps supercomputer at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre in Lugano, several new platforms came online in 2025, supporting work in areas like weather and climate modeling, and machine learning. The development of “Apertus,” Switzerland’s first open-source, multilingual large language model, was enabled by the Alps supercomputer, positioning Switzerland as a leader in global high-performance computing. You can learn more about Apertus here.
The institutions are also fostering entrepreneurship among their members, resulting in the creation of 70 spin-off companies in 2025 – an increase of six from the previous year. This underscores a commitment to translating research into real-world applications and economic impact.
In 2025, the Swiss Confederation directly or indirectly covered 82% of the funding for the Institutes, with revenue from third-party funds and competitive grants increasing to nearly 34%. Reserves decreased by 25 million francs, settling at 916 million francs.
The Federal Council, which oversees the Institutes, assessed that three strategic objectives were partially met. Areas for improvement include streamlining synergies in procurement, reducing reserves, improving real estate management, and ongoing review of the organization and structure of the Institutes by the Conference of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology. The Institutes include ETH Zurich, EPFL, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), the Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).
