Finances and costs of higher education institutions

To compare the use of resources and services at higher education institutions, introductory information about the students, staff and funding is presented. The funding statistics are based on the higher education institutions’ cost accounts. These provide information about the costs arising in the different departments and on how this expenditure is covered by various funding sources. A breakdown of costs and revenue is shown on the basis of this data. In combination with other statistics, more indicators can be obtained on the costs and student-teacher ratio per type of higher education institution.

Development of higher education institution students, staff and costs

Further annual surveys provide details of student numbers, diplomas and staff at higher education institutions. In just over ten years, student numbers at the UNI, UAS and UTE have risen constantly to more than 270 000. The number of diplomas awarded has risen accordingly. Staffing and funding resources have also risen constantly since 2012. The graph shows the growth rate compared with the base year 2012 (=100). The number of diplomas has grown disproportionately to over 60 000 in this period. The growth in costs has been only slightly higher than the growth in student numbers and the number of teaching staff. In 2021 staffing resources amounted to 66 000 full-time equivalents. Higher education costs totalled CHF 13 billion.

See also: Higher education staff

Type of activities by type of institutions

The universities (UNI) provide five types of services: Teaching for basic education (BE), teaching for advanced studies (AS), research and development (R&D), continuing education (CE) and services (S). R&D was the largest budgetary item. BE followed in second place, accounting for around a quarter of the costs of the UNI. At the UAS and UTE, BE was the main service, accounting for roughly two-thirds of the total costs. Applied R&D is the second largest cost item of the UAS. Equal amounts are spent on applied R&D and CE at the UTE. The percentage spent on (applied) R&D has risen at all types of higher education institutions.

Key figures

Data 2021	UNI	UAS	UTE	Total CH
Total costs (in CHF million)
	9 026	3 041	730	12 797
Share in the total costs
Teaching for basic studies	23%	64%	65%	35%
Reserach and development	59%	27%	15%	49%
Staff (UTE: without infrastructural costs)	66%	72%	87%	68%
Funding by source of funding
Confederation	47%	29%	2%	40%
Cantons	35%	50%	83%	41%
Private	18%	21%	15%	19%
Students
	168 190	84 920	23 497	276 607
Staff FTE
	47 482	15 676	3 804	66 962

Quellen: BFS - Finanzreporting (SBFI), Finanzen der Hochschulen (SHIS-FIN)

All tables on the subject of university finances and costs