Universities

Teaching and research are the two UNI areas with the highest costs. The amount and distribution of these costs varies greatly depending on the department. Not every higher education institution offers all departments and for this reason, the costs are shown per student/per department. UNI costs totalled CHF 9 billion.

Costs per student

The costs incurred for teaching staff in basic education (BE) per student (cost indicator 1) vary greatly between departments. Whereas the BE for a law student amounted to more than CHF 9000, the costs for a dentistry student were just above CHF 50,000. If research costs (cost indicator 2) are also added to the costs of actual teaching, the difference between the two faculties becomes even greater. The differences are due on the one hand to differing costs for the research infrastructure and on the other to different student-teacher ratios.

See also: Staff of universities - student-to-staff ratio

Costs per student and student-to-staff ratio

This indicator shows the influence of the student-teacher ratio on the average costs per student in 2021. To calculate the cost indicator (cost indicator 1) the costs of basic education (BE) per student are applied. The student-teacher ratio (student-teacher ratio 2) is based on students in BE in relation to academic staff in BE (professors, other lecturers and research assistants in full-time equivalents). Differences in the student-teacher ratio of the individual departments are the result of varying teaching methods (lectures, practical courses or laboratory courses) and of the number of students.

Costs per student and student-to-staff ratio (annual comparison)

In the graph, the change in costs (in CHF) per student (in basic education) is shown against the student-teacher ratio (academic staff for basic education in FTE) between 2012 and 2021 using an arrow. The start of the arrow shows the figure for the department in 2012 and the end of the arrow the figure in 2021. By combining this with the student-teacher ratios at the UNI, it can be shown that the decrease in costs per student is largely accompanied by an increase in the number of students per teacher in FTE.

Further information

Graphs

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