Not everyone manages to get into a Swiss university
The number of higher education graduates traditionally shows the state's ability to "produce" specialists with solid knowledge and skills. In OECD member countries, applicants have a good incentive to graduate: besides the opportunity to spend several years as a student and enjoy all the pleasures of such a life, a diploma significantly increases their chances of finding an interesting and well-paid job. At the same time, the number of higher education diplomas awarded annually depends on both the accessibility of education and the level of requirements that the labor market places on applicants' qualifications.
The website of the Federal Statistical Office (OFS) provides a comparative graph of the number of university graduates (the study only considered first diplomas) in different countries in 2013. Interestingly, the highest number of graduates was in Japan (with significantly more men than women), followed by the United States, Austria, and Finland (the indicators in these countries differed slightly), and in fifth place was Switzerland.
As for the OECD, among holders of higher education diplomas, there are significantly more women than men. Additionally, in terms of the number of graduates starting their search for a place in the sun, Switzerland is roughly in the middle of the list of OECD countries, and men and women here have "shared" diplomas almost equally.
A feature of the Swiss education system is that to obtain a university education, schoolchildren must take exams at the age of 11-12, based on which they either continue academic education (until age 19) or study to obtain a secondary vocational education certificate. According to the OFS, based on the results they achieved at school, only 20% of 19-year-olds had the opportunity to apply to a university in 2014.
The difference from other countries is that many states do not have such strict requirements for applicants. For example, in the UK, it is allowed to apply to a university without having a school certificate at all, as some universities are willing to accept life and professional experience as an alternative to formal education (which, as can be seen from the above, does not make the UK a champion in the number of graduates), writes The Guardian.
In Switzerland, the number of capable students who get a chance to enter a university varies from canton to canton. Children living in Ticino, Geneva, and Basel-City are the luckiest – here in 2014, about 30% of recent schoolchildren could turn their eyes towards universities. In the German-speaking part of the country, there were far fewer such students, and in St. Gallen and Thurgau, they were only about 15%.
As early as 1985, Geneva could boast the largest number of schoolchildren who received a Matura certificate. According to statistical data, 20% is a good result, since in 1985 the national average was 12%, and the lagging cantons have made the most progress since then. The difference between cantons is partly explained by the fact that in Romandy, academic education is held in high esteem, while in German-speaking cantons, vocational education is more common. In addition, the demographic situation is more or less dynamic in less populated cantons (e.g., in Central Switzerland), which explains the relatively large "deviations" in the number of certificates awarded in different years.
As for the canton of Vaud, 11-12-year-old students take numerous tests during the school year and must obtain a "total" of 20 points in four subjects: French, mathematics, German, and natural sciences, as well as 13.5 points in geography, history, and English. If someone fails to reach the required level at age 12, this does not erase their university future, as they can prove their right to higher education by studying hard, getting higher grades, and, in some cases, spending another year within school walls.
Those Vaud schoolchildren who have shown good results and can continue academic education choose a specialization for their further program – economics and law, Italian, Latin, or mathematics and physics, according to the website of the canton of Vaud. As for graduates, this canton showed a good result in 2014 – 23.5% of schoolchildren passed all the necessary exams, gaining the opportunity to apply to universities.
If we move to Geneva, we see a somewhat different system. 11-12-year-olds need to score 14 points in mathematics and French to continue along the path that ends with university admission. If a student fails the tasks, they have a chance to improve their situation the following year, but they will have to achieve almost perfect results.
In Zurich, schoolchildren have it even harder, and this may explain why only 18.7% of 19-year-olds were able to defend their right to higher education in 2014.
Differences between cantons often lead to students moving from one school to another during critical periods of study in search of a better opportunity to pass tests and join the ranks of "pre-university" peers.
Often, Swiss schoolchildren find their way to their chosen university more confidently if their parents themselves graduated from universities. 62% of students who showed decent results at age 12 live in families where a parent has a higher education. At the same time, girls study better than boys, and their share in the "academic stream" is 56%. Interestingly, students born in Switzerland make up 80% of the "school population," but among those continuing academic education, such students account for 84%.
To the credit of those who could not enter a Swiss university, it should be added that they receive higher education in other countries. At the same time, the number of Swiss people who find jobs matching their education is much higher than in the United Kingdom, and the unemployment rate is significantly lower than in many OECD countries.