Council of States bends over backwards on research funding and tuition fees
Published: Thursday, Sep 12th 2024, 04:50
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How much money the federal government should spend on education, research and innovation between 2025 and 2028 will be discussed by the Council of States on Thursday (today). It also has to decide whether foreign students should pay higher tuition fees at the Federal Institutes of Technology.
The reason for this is the Federal Council's dispatch on the promotion of education, research and innovation in the aforementioned years. It is also known as the ERI Dispatch. It was submitted to the National Council at the end of May. The Federal Council's cost-cutting efforts in these areas went too far.
It increased the CHF 29.2 billion that the Federal Council intends to spend by CHF 152.2 million. The ETH Domain, for example, is to receive CHF 100 million more, while the basic contributions for cantonal universities are to increase by CHF 32.4 million.
The Council of States' Committee for Science, Education and Culture (WBK-S) and its Finance Committee (FK-S) are now requesting that the Federal Council follow the Federal Council on most of the proposals. The amounts requested by the federal government should be confirmed.
1.6 or 1.7 percent more?
In March, the Federal Council announced that it wanted to save CHF 0.5 billion with the ERI Dispatch in view of the federal government's tight financial situation. It had previously decided to increase the amount by 2% rather than 2.5%, as had been demanded due to inflation.
In March, the national government then reduced the cost growth to 1.6%. Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin emphasized that the Confederation still wanted to spend CHF 1.3 billion more than in the current 2021-2024 contribution period. The total amount approved by the National Council corresponds to an increase of 1.7%, it was stated at the end of the National Council debate at the end of May.
Fees: double, triple, quintuple?
At the request of its Committee for Science, Education and Culture (WBK-N), the National Council decided in May that foreign students at ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne will in future have to pay at least three times as much in tuition fees as Swiss students.
At renowned foreign universities, Swiss students paid up to forty times the amount that Swiss or foreign students paid in Switzerland. The Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne and Zurich were among the best in the world.
The WBK-S is now only proposing to the Council of States to increase tuition fees for foreigners by "at least twice as much". However, there is also a minority proposal to increase tuition fees for foreigners - depending on the subject area - by a factor of three to five.
The ERI Dispatch consists of 16 federal resolutions and legislative amendment projects. The debate in the National Council lasted several hours at the end of May.
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