Location Promotion Winterthur Region
Im Hauptbahnhof
Postfach
CH-8401 Winterthur
Phone +41 52 267 67 97
Fax +41 52 267 67 98
office@who-needs-spam.standort-winterthur.ch
Education
Winterthur as a center of education
Winterthur has long enjoyed an excellent reputation as a center of education. The Technikum, a technical college that today is part of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), is a good example of Winterthur’s educational institutions with a long history. It was founded in Winterthur in 1870 as the first of its kind in Switzerland, attracting students from far beyond the Winterthur city limits. In 1962, for example, over 1,200 students were attending courses in the various technical and engineering subjects on offer. The Technikum also incorporated a commercial school as well as schools for land surveyors and railway officials. The great Albert Einstein himself taught Mathematics and Descriptive Geometry there for several months in the year 1901.
Today the ZHAW, the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (öffnet neues Fenster), one of the largest universities of applied sciences in Switzerland, is the dominant educational institution in Winterthur. Roughly 7,000 out of the city’s 9,500 students are currently taking courses at one of the five departments situated in Winterthur, the university’s main location, and the number of graduates is continuing to rise year by year. Students – and all others who are pursuing a form of training or education in Winterthur – are having a clear impact on the city’s life and culture and are increasingly giving it the flavor of a student city.
Winterthur’s reputation as an educational hub is underscored by its many private schools – with a variety of educational approaches – and international schools. Children at the International School Winterthur (ISW) (öffnet neues Fenster) and the Swiss International School (öffnet neues Fenster) are taught in English. The city also boasts three ‘Gymnasien’ (high-schools entitling graduates to university studies) that are among the best-known in the Canton of Zurich: Kantonsschule Büelrain, Kantonsschule Im Lee and Kantonsschule Rychenberg. Numerous adult education institutions and a large number of libraries round off the city’s educational range.
Further specialist institutions located in Winterthur include the Swiss School of Technical Training Winterthur (öffnet neues Fenster), Swissmem Kaderschule und Berufsbildung (management and vocational training) (öffnet neues Fenster), Ausbildungszentrum Winterthur (Educational Centre Winterthur – technical training) (öffnet neues Fenster) and Zentrum für Ausbildung im Gesundheitswesen (healthcare education) (öffnet neues Fenster).
Municipalities in the surroundings of Winterthur also feature some interesting educational institutions such as the Baumeisterzentrum Effretikon (for construction-related trades) (öffnet neues Fenster) and Strickhof Lindau (for agriculture and nutrition related professions) (öffnet neues Fenster). In the coming years, an internationally oriented education and research center for agricultural and veterinary sciences will be set up in Lindau, to be jointly run by ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich.
Finally, mention must also be made of three universities of world renown – the three largest in German-speaking Switzerland – that are all located within easy commuting distance from Winterthur: the University of St. Gallen (öffnet neues Fenster), ETH Zurich (öffnet neues Fenster)and the University of Zurich (öffnet neues Fenster).
Location Promotion Winterthur Region supports and promotes exchange between the city’s various educational institutions and local businesses.
