Admission and Registration
Requirements
To study veterinary medicine you need a federal or federally recognized upper secondary school-leaving certificate (Matura). A vocational school-leaving certificate with "passarelle" also entitles you to study.
Registration
Applicants must register electronically with CRUS (the Rectors' Conference of the Swiss Universities) athttp://www.crus.ch by February 15 each year. Late registrations won't be accepted.
Restriction on the Number of Places (Numerus Clausus): Aptitude Test
Eighty new students are admitted to study every year. If the number of registrations exceeds the number of places available, an aptitude test will be held. All applicants, including those in related programs, have to take the aptitude test. Places are allotted on the basis of the results of the aptitude test. You'll find information on this test athttp://www.unifr.ch/ztd/ems/welcome.htm.
Switching from Human Medicine or Dentistry
If you're studying human medicine or dentistry and want to switch to veterinary medicine, you must begin in the first year of study. You also have to register with CRUS by 15 February of the year you want to switch. The results of your aptitude test for admission to study human medicine or dentistry count as long as you didn't take the test more than a year previously. If you did the test more than a year ago, you'll have to take it again. If you fail to register by 15 February you won't be able to switch the same year!
Validity of the Aptitude Test
Students can take a year off between their aptitude test and beginning their studies; in this case the results of the test will also count for the following year. This is all managed by CRUS; the faculty is not involved. Please note: If more points are required the following year than the previous year, you'll lose your place to study.
Foreign Students
There are agreements with various European higher education institutions under the Socrates/Erasmus exchange program. Students from their fifth semester of study on may study for one or two semesters at the University of Zurich's Vetsuisse Faculty.
Outside Socrates/Erasmus, foreign students will only be eligible for a place if they or their parents have been resident in Switzerland for five years, and only if they meet the matriculation requirements, their university entrance qualification has been federally recognized, and they pass the aptitude test.