News Blog of Dennis Komm

The Swiss “Passerelle” and “Maturitätsprüfung”

Switzerland's education system is rather complex with individual states (the “Kantone”) having a lot of autonomy. But also individual schools and even teachers have quite some independence; say, with respect to how to reify the federal (high level) framework curricula (the “Rahmenlehrpläne”) for the upper grades. In my opinion this autonomy is both what makes being a teacher something so fulfilling in Switzerland, and it in turn provides solid education to the students as teachers are well trained and highly motivated.

(The following description is slightly simplified.)

Roughly 20 % of Swiss students obtain the General Higher Education Entrance Qualification (the “Schweizer Matura,” roughly what is called “Abitur” in Germany, or “baccalauréat” in France) from a Swiss high school (a “Gymnasium,” sometimes also called “Mittelschule” or “Kantonsschule”). As a consequence, a rather small fraction takes the direct path to a University. Another group, around 16 %, gets the “Berufsmaturität” that grants access to the Universities of Applied Sciences (the “Fachhochschulen”); this usually happens in combination with doing a more applied vocational training (the German “Ausbildungsberufe”). Another way to join a “Fachhochschule” is by obtaining the “Fachmaturität,” which can be obtained by joining a “Fachmittelschule” instead of a “Gymnasium”; this is done by a rather small fraction.

However, one of the peculiarities of the Swiss education system is its permeability, that is, access to the universities can also be obtained using alternative routes.

• The aforementioned “Berufsmaturität” and “Fachmaturität” can be complemented by the so-called “Passerelle” exam, which, when passed, allows the student to enter any of the universities.
• What's more, the “Schweizerische Maturitätsprüfung” (SMP), an external exam, is basically open to every adult Swiss citizen, in particular those that did not get their “Matura” from one of the high schools. The preparation may happen completely autodidactically or by enroling to a private school that offers corresponding programs.

In my opinion, both of these exams play an important role in creating more equal opportunities. The “Schweizerische Maturitätskommission” organizes both the “Passerelle” and SMP two times each year in the three linguistic parts of Switzerland — and I am very proud and excited to be this spring session's president for the German part.

And I would like to wish everyone involved good luck! Hope to see some of you at ETH in a couple of years.

Further Reading

• Education in Switzerland on Wikipedia
• Enrolment statistics on the website of the SBFI
• “Passerelle” on the website of the SBFI
• “Schweizerische Maturitätsprüfung” on the website of the SBFI