The institutions

There are twelve recognised hautes écoles universitaires in Switzerland : ten cantonal universities and two federal institutes of technology (EPF).

Five of these universities (Basle, Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen, Zurich) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) are situated in German-speaking Switzerland.

The University of Friboug is situated in the bilingual canton of Fribourg (French and German).

The universities of Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) are situated in French-speaking Switzerland.

The Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano (USI) is situated in the canton Ticino.

There are also other university-level institutions such as the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) in Lausanne, the Institut universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB, in French) in Sion and the Fondation Formation universitaire à distance in Brig (Unidistance, in French or German).

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) are the four federal research establishments that form part of the EPF domain.