Switzerland Universities Scholarships 2027 for Bachelor, Master, PHD Admissions in All Subject Options
A place at a Swiss university in 2027 starts with the choices you make now. ETH Zurich and EPFL are approaching their next Master’s application rounds, while Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship applications are already underway for eligible countries. For students aiming at engineering, finance, artificial intelligence, international affairs, biology or the arts, this is the moment to turn an ambition into an application.
Your starting point might be a school-leaving certificate, a Bachelor’s degree or a research project you want to take further. Your destination could be the same country, but the route will differ: undergraduate admission, a funded Master’s, a paid doctorate or a temporary research stay.
The challenge is connecting those choices. Which Swiss university teaches your subject? Does its funding fit your nationality and qualifications? Would the award leave a financial gap you can manage? A university offer becomes useful when the academic fit, funding and timing work together.
Use this guide to build three realistic programme choices for 2027, prepare the evidence each one needs and submit admission and scholarship applications in the correct sequence. By the end, your shortlist should tell you where you can apply, how you would finance the place and which deadline comes first.
Six steps from your Swiss shortlist to submission
01Choose Swiss Universities that Teach what you want to Study
Your strongest shortlist starts with a suitable degree, rather than a scholarship headline. A school-leaver needs a Bachelor’s route that recognises their school qualification; a Master’s applicant needs relevant previous university study; a doctoral applicant needs a research question and a suitable supervision arrangement.
This distinction gives the following 15 institutions a purpose in your search. Use their subject areas to identify promising destinations, then narrow your choice to an actual programme. The examples are a starting map, not a list of subjects automatically covered by scholarships.
| University and degree routes | Subjects to explore |
|---|---|
| ETH Zurich Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Engineering, computing, architecture, mathematics, natural and environmental sciences. |
| EPFL Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Engineering, computer science, data science, architecture, life sciences engineering and physics. |
| University of Zurich Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Sciences, economics, business, law, humanities, social sciences and theology. |
| University of Geneva Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Biology, chemistry, astrophysics, business analytics, law, political science and international relations. |
| University of Basel Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Biology, computational sciences, computer science, economics, law and humanities. |
| University of Bern Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Climate and space sciences, biomedical sciences, AI in medicine, business, law and humanities. |
| University of Lausanne Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Biology, geosciences, psychology, business, economics, social sciences and humanities. |
| University of St. Gallen Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Management, finance, economics, international affairs, law and computer science. |
| Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Informatics, AI, data science, architecture, communication, economics, tourism and biomedicine. |
| University of Fribourg Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Sciences, humanities, law, economics, management, education and theology. |
| University of Neuchâtel Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Sciences, data science, law, economics, finance, humanities and cognitive sciences. |
| University of Lucerne Bachelor’s · Master’s · Doctorate |
Law, economics, health sciences, psychology, humanities, theology and climate policy. |
| ZHAW Bachelor’s · Master’s Cooperative doctoral routes |
Engineering, business, applied linguistics, architecture, health, life sciences and social work. |
| FHNW Bachelor’s · Master’s Cooperative doctoral routes |
Computing, engineering, life sciences, business, architecture, education, design and music. |
| Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) Bachelor’s · Master’s Cooperative doctoral routes |
Engineering, business, agriculture, forestry, food science, health, architecture and arts. |
ZHAW, FHNW and BFH require particular care when planning a doctorate: doctoral awarding authority comes through a cooperating university. Likewise, a medicine programme appearing in a university catalogue does not establish eligibility for every international applicant; medical admission can depend on nationality, residence and restricted places.
For your initial shortlist, I recommend choosing three programmes whose academic requirements you can demonstrate through your existing studies. That gives you a manageable set of applications—and brings you to the next decision: which of those programmes has funding that matches your circumstances?
Back to the six application steps ↑
02Match your Swiss degree to Scholarship that can support it
A realistic funding plan identifies both what an award pays and what you must still finance. Keep that calculation beside each shortlisted programme so that a promising admission offer can become an affordable place.
For a first Master’s, start with ETH ESOP and EPFL excellence funding
ETH Zurich · Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme
CHF 13,500 per semester from Autumn 2027
Plus a tuition fee waiver for the regular Master’s duration. ESOP targets outstanding applicants, typically around the top 10% of their Bachelor’s cohort.
Prepare a self-developed Master’s thesis pre-proposal. Applicants already enrolled in an ETH Master’s or holding a Master’s degree are excluded.
EPFL · Master Excellence Fellowship
CHF 10,000 per semester, up to four semesters
External recipients receive a student-room reservation; tuition and rent remain payable. Duration depends on the programme.
Candidates already holding a Master’s, or already enrolled in an EPFL Master’s, are ineligible. Fellowship applicants must use the first application round.
The difference between these packages should shape your budget: ETH explicitly combines its allowance with a tuition waiver, while EPFL expects you to manage expenses from the fellowship and any permitted additional resources. I would prioritise preparing these early applications if your academic record and first-Master’s plans fit their rules.
For doctoral research, distinguish a government grant from a paid position
Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships · Research and doctoral routes
CHF 2,450 monthly for eligible 2027/28 routes
Research applicants need a supporting Swiss academic supervisor; doctoral admission is separate. Tuition or semester fees are not automatically covered, and award types and deadlines depend on country.
A funded doctoral vacancy offers a different route. At ETH, most doctorates are linked to employment and supervisors recruit candidates themselves. Apply to a suitable project or research group with a case for your scientific fit; an admission calendar alone will not secure a funded position.
For researchers already undertaking a doctorate abroad, Fribourg offers separate visiting research grants for stays of up to five months. Its visiting postdoctoral grants support stays of up to three months. These university grants are distinct from the Swiss Government scheme, which will no longer award postdoctoral scholarships from 2027/28.
For the remaining universities, identify the exact award before relying on it
Geneva’s Faculty of Science offers an Excellence Master Fellowship worth CHF 10,000–15,000 annually, but its reviewed page still displays the closed 2026 round. Lausanne’s Master’s Grants are another preparation lead, although the current 2027 call was not independently verified for this guide. Neither should be treated here as a confirmed open 2027 award.
St. Gallen’s Bachelor’s excellence awards are invitation-based following outstanding Assessment Year performance; its Master’s Best Talents programme is restricted to EU/EFTA nationals or Swiss C-permit holders. USI offers programme- and foundation-specific scholarships, including awards with residence or previous-schooling conditions.
Zurich’s general aid is not a universal incoming scholarship: prospective international Master’s applicants need a Swiss Bachelor’s to qualify for that support. Basel offers supplementary assistance for enrolled students, while Neuchâtel provides financial-support and external-funding routes. Bern and Lucerne do not offer general university scholarships for incoming international students; ZHAW, FHNW and BFH require school- or award-specific funding arrangements.
These distinctions become particularly important at USI, which has announced CHF 5,000 per semester for new Bachelor’s and Master’s enrolments from 2027/28, and FHNW Life Sciences, whose “all other students” category pays CHF 5,000 per semester.
Do the affordability calculation before paying application fees
Tuition and compulsory fees + living costs + travel and arrival expenses − confirmed funding = the amount you must finance.
Use your programme’s fee category and a budget for its location. For each award, record whether the amount is monthly, per semester or annual, and how many payments it provides. Keep pending awards separate from money you already have available.
A programme earns a place on your final shortlist when you can explain both your academic fit and how its remaining costs would be met. That leaves a much sharper preparation task: assembling the evidence that supports those applications.
Back to the six application steps ↑
03Prepare the qualifications, language proof and research evidence your route needs
Your preparation folder should prove why you qualify for each chosen programme. Begin with a passport, transcripts, completed qualification certificates or permitted provisional evidence, and any required certified translations. Then add the evidence specific to your degree route:
- Bachelor’s: school-leaving qualification and subject results, country-specific recognition evidence, language proof and any required entrance examination, portfolio or practical experience.
- Master’s: relevant Bachelor’s transcript, course descriptions where required, academic CV, programme-specific motivation and the references or test results requested by the institution.
- Doctorate or research stay: academic CV, previous research or thesis summary, relevant qualifications, references and a project proposal or response to an advertised research position.
Your motivation should connect this evidence to your next step: what you have studied, which question or skill you now want to develop, and why the chosen Swiss programme can help. Give referees the programme description and a short account of the work they supervised so their letters can support the same case.
There is no single Swiss university IELTS rule. ETH Bachelor’s applicants must meet German requirements; Fribourg teaches in French and German alongside selected English Master’s programmes. English-taught study elsewhere has programme-specific conditions. A scholarship page that does not request IELTS does not establish a language-test exemption for admission.
There is also no single maximum admission age established across these 15 institutions. The Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships have a precise rule for 2027/28: applicants for the listed research, PhD and arts routes must be born after 31 December 1991. ETH and EPFL’s reviewed excellence-award pages state no numerical age ceiling, but their previous-Master’s restrictions still apply.
Career stage can matter even without an age ceiling. Fribourg’s visiting doctoral grant requires at least two semesters of doctoral study at a foreign university, while its visiting postdoctoral route requires a doctorate completed within the previous three years. Use these rules to select your route before investing time in a proposal.
Your preparation task for this week
- Choose three named programmes and write one sentence explaining your academic fit for each.
- Request missing transcripts, translations and references that need someone else’s time.
- Draft a separate motivation outline for each choice, then develop the proposal required by your research or scholarship route.
Back to the six application steps ↑
04Submit your Swiss admission and scholarship applications in the right sequence
Follow the admission and funding sequence required by your chosen route. Switzerland has no single application covering all 15 institutions. Keep a separate record for each university, including its programme, portal, funding request, fee, referee status and submission confirmation.
- Turn your shortlist into named applications. Use the official university admission links below to select the exact degree and intake. Record prerequisite subjects and language evidence before starting a form; these determine which documents your application must contain.
- For ETH ESOP, combine admission and funding in eApply. Follow the ETH ESOP instructions, request ESOP within the Master’s application and include your thesis pre-proposal and required references.
- For EPFL, request fellowship consideration within the Master’s form. Follow the EPFL excellence fellowship procedure, select the scholarship consideration box, and pay and validate the application within the eligible round. Referees upload their letters separately under the stated timetable.
- For government research funding, secure supervisor support before submission. Use the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship country and application guidance to identify your eligible route and deadline, then complete GO ESKAS. Submit doctoral admission separately where required; government applications are not sent by paper or email.
- For doctoral employment or a visiting grant, follow that opportunity’s application channel. ETH explains its doctoral recruitment route; Fribourg publishes its visiting research grant procedure. A visiting grant supports a temporary research stay, rather than admission to a complete new degree.
- Finish every required submission and retain the evidence. Pay any applicable application fee, submit the form, monitor referee uploads and save confirmation messages. My recommendation is to mark an application complete only when every required component has reached its destination—not when you have merely uploaded your own documents.
Open the official admission desk for your shortlist
These links lead to admission guidance or programme catalogues, rather than promising a scholarship with every application.
ETH Zurich Master’s · EPFL Master’s · Zurich · Geneva · Basel
Bern Master’s · Lausanne · St. Gallen · USI · Fribourg
Neuchâtel · Lucerne · ZHAW · FHNW programmes · BFH programmes
Submission moves your task from preparation to decisions. Admission and funding results may arrive separately; assess both before committing to enrolment, housing and the next immigration steps.
Back to the six application steps ↑
05Resolve the questions that can change your Swiss application plan
The submission sequence answers where your application goes. These remaining distinctions help you avoid choosing a funding route that cannot support your intended studies.
Can I use the Swiss Government scholarship for an ordinary Bachelor’s or taught Master’s?
No: the research scheme is not general funding for those degrees. A separate arts route supports a first Master’s at eligible arts institutions for selected nationalities; other taught-Master’s applicants should pursue university or external awards suited to their degree.
Do ETH and EPFL need identical scholarship documents?
No: ETH ESOP requires a self-developed Master’s thesis pre-proposal in addition to the admission file. EPFL’s external fellowship application uses the Master’s admission documents and a scholarship consideration box, so prepare a separate checklist for each institution.
Can I defer EPFL admission and keep its excellence fellowship?
No: EPFL states that deferring or postponing admission means losing the fellowship. You may apply again in the following cycle, so choose an intake you are ready to attend.
Can I submit government scholarship applications for several Swiss hosts?
No: simultaneous Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship applications for multiple host universities or scholarship types are an exclusion criterion. You can research several hosts while preparing, but must choose one supported project for that scholarship submission.
Back to the six application steps ↑
06Give each 2027 application its own deadline
Your working calendar needs separate admission, scholarship and referee deadlines. Dates below marked as standing calendars are recurring institutional rules, rather than a claim that every programme has announced a separate 2027 call.
| Institution | 2027 entry: application windows and exceptions |
|---|---|
| ETH Zurich | International-degree Master’s applicants and ESOP candidates apply from 1–30 November 2026 for Autumn 2027, closing at 11:59 a.m. CET. The foreign-school-qualification Bachelor’s application window is 1 December 2026–31 March 2027; an entrance examination, if required, can change the feasible start date. |
| EPFL | The first Master’s round runs from mid-November to 15 December 2026; the paid, validated application must meet that deadline for 2027 fellowship consideration. External referees have one further week, with the exact date stated in the confirmation email. The later admission round closes 31 March 2027. Bachelor’s applications follow the standing mid-November–30 April window. |
| Zurich | The standing Autumn window is 1 January–28 February for visa-required applicants, or to 30 April otherwise. For Spring 2027, the ordinary deadline is 30 November 2026, but the visa-required deadline was 31 July 2026. Specialised Master’s can require earlier departmental submissions. |
| Geneva | The standing Autumn application period opens 15 January, closing 28 February for relevant visa-required applicants or 30 April otherwise. These 2027 dates are explicitly published for the International Relations Bachelor’s; other programmes may differ. The Science Excellence Fellowship’s next deadline is not verified. |
| Basel | Eligible Spring 2027 programmes accept applications from 15 October–30 November 2026. Most Autumn 2027 Bachelor’s/Master’s applications run 1 February–30 April 2027; medicine and sport have earlier deadlines. |
| Bern | Standing regular deadlines for most non-medical programmes are 15 December for permitted Spring entry and 30 April for Autumn. Autumn applications are processed from 1 January; programme exceptions apply. |
| Lausanne | Use the programme admission calendar for degree entry. This guide does not assign an unverified 2027 deadline to the separate Master’s Grants competition. |
| St. Gallen | The standing Autumn Bachelor’s window is 1 October–30 April. Master’s deadlines are generally 31 March or 30 April, by programme; selected law Master’s accept Spring applications until 30 November. |
| USI | Selected Spring 2027 programmes opened applications on 14 September 2026. Confirmed Autumn 2027 examples—Communication Bachelor’s and Oncology Master’s—close 30 April 2027 for non-EU/EFTA applicants and 30 June 2027 for Swiss/EU/EFTA applicants not requiring visas. These are not universal USI deadlines. |
| Fribourg | The standing Spring deadline is 30 November, or 30 September for visa-required applicants; the latter has passed for Spring 2027. Autumn applications run 1 February–30 April, shortened to 28 February for visa-required candidates. The next visiting research-grant deadline is 28 February 2027 for stays beginning September 2027 at the earliest. |
| Neuchâtel | Most Master’s follow standing deadlines of 30 November for Spring and 30 April for Autumn, with programme exceptions. Overseas applicants are advised to submit at least a month earlier. |
| Lucerne | Standing Bachelor’s/Master’s deadlines are 30 November for Spring and 30 April for Autumn; Autumn registration opens 15 February. |
| ZHAW | School of Management and Law Master’s starting Autumn 2027 generally close 30 May 2027; International Business closes 15 May 2027. Other schools use their own dates. |
| FHNW | Deadlines are programme-specific. Information and Cybersecurity MSE starts 22 February 2027, but its published application deadline was 30 September 2026, already passed; the start date does not indicate an open application. |
| BFH | Deadlines are programme-specific. HKB’s Master Music Performance Classical starts 20 September 2027, with applications due 15 March 2027. |
The Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships 2027/28 opened on 20 August 2026 for studies and research beginning 1 September 2027; the last date to apply depends on the applicant’s country and award route. Build your personal calendar around the earliest compulsory deadline for each chosen application, then work backwards to give your documents, referees and research proposal enough preparation time.
