Fernfachhochschule Schweiz

From Researching Virtual Initiatives in Education

The Fernfachhochschule Schweiz (FFHS) is located in Switzerland.

Since autumn 1998 the FFHS offers technical college courses for people in employment in the areas of economy, informatics and engineering according to the method of blended-learning. About 80 per cent of the education occurs in the accompanied correspondence courses; about 20 per cent of the time the students spent in one of the regional centres in Zurich, Bern, Basel or Brig. This study form – a combination of different forms of electronic learning with traditional education- and continuing-education methods and direct practise relation – closes a gap in the Swiss training system: The FFHS trains higher certified occupational people without taking them away from the job market.

Since 2004 the Fernfachhochschule Schweiz is a part of the Scuola Universitaria profession ale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI) approved by the Bundesrat. So it is integrated into the whole strategy of the SUPSI. The offer of the SUPSI is aimed traditionally on the Italian language area of Switzerland. Now with her partial school the SUPSI has got a foot in the door of German-speaking Switzerland. Besides it profits from the correspondence course competence of the FFHS.

Approximately 600 students are enrolled at the FFHS. The number of students is rising. In May 2008 201 people had registered newly for bachelor- or master-degrees.

On average two Saturdays a months students (depending on there home-region) meet in regional centres Zürich, Bern, Basel or Brig for attendance-courses. For this two-week-model it comes to a dilatation of the academic year: A "Semester" (term) starts around one month before a Semester in a typical full-time-Fachhochschule and takes 18 weeks instead of 15. Students of the FFHS start their studies with 29 years of age in average, 40 per cent of them are married, and only 27 per cent are female. Most are living close to Zürich.

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