Education Document Translation for Switzerland

What the canton changes and what the university decides

There is no single central gateway for the assessment of education documents in Switzerland. On the general equivalence of higher education degrees swissuniversities is the body that gives information; the decision to admit you to a programme, however, is taken by the university itself, and it can vary from one institution to another. On top of that sits the cantonal layer: the language a document is to be translated into, and the form in which approval is to be obtained, depend on the official language and the practice of the canton where the application is made. Sending a French translation to a German-speaking canton holds the file up even where the translation is technically sound.

This structure is the basic point that sets Switzerland apart from its neighbours. A rule that is the same across the whole country in Germany or Austria may differ at cantonal level in Switzerland. The first step is therefore to establish which canton the institution you are applying to sits in and which language that canton uses. In multilingual cantons it is the institution’s own preference that settles the matter.

The information each document carries

A diploma shows the degree, but Swiss institutions take a particular interest in the length of the programme and its credit load, and that information sits in the academic transcript. In postgraduate applications course descriptions are asked for, especially in engineering and health, to show the scope of the programme. A student certificate proves that enrolment is continuing. Because a language proficiency certificate may be wanted in a different language depending on the canton, you need to ask which language applies before making the application.

Who decides	Scope
University admissions unit	Admission to the programme and its prerequisites
swissuniversities	General equivalence of a higher education degree
Cantonal migration office	The form of the documents at the residence and registration step

The commonest reason for a file coming back

The difficulty met with most often in Swiss applications comes out of the choice of language: the document is translated into the wrong official language and the institution asks for it to be translated again. Second comes sending the translation without notarisation; the widespread practice in Switzerland is for the translator’s signature to be notarised, and where that step is skipped the file counts as incomplete. Third, having a name spelled differently across the documents of one and the same person causes trouble: where the way Turkish letters are converted varies from document to document, the institution cannot match the identity.

At what point translation and certification come

First the language of the target canton is settled, then the originals of the documents and their certification annotations are completed, and the translation is made and certified last. Where that order breaks down, paying twice is nothing unusual. Attaching the translation to the source document lets the institution see which text belongs to which document. You can look at the level of approval each document needs on our document page, and at the practice in other countries in our country guide.

Using the same file in more than one canton

Most candidates applying to Switzerland do not stop at a single institution; applying to several universities in different cantons at once is common. In that case preparing the file in one language may not be enough. Applying to two programmes in Zurich and Lausanne with the same documents means, in practice, two separate languages. The most economical answer is to plan the translation work as multilingual from the outset: the source documents are put in order once, the terminology is settled once, and the target languages are then worked through on the same structure. Translations dealt with one at a time afterwards cost more and carry differing choices of term.

Another practical matter is programmes taught in English. Switzerland has a great many programmes teaching in English, particularly at postgraduate level, and English documents can be accepted on those programmes. At the registration and residence steps, though, the official language of the canton comes back into play; so even where the academic application runs in English, a translation into the local language may be asked for at the administrative stage. Anticipating this from the start turns a second round of translation into something planned.

• List the cantons you will apply to and their official languages first.
• Ask separately what language the academic and the administrative stages expect.
• Settle the terminology once and hold to it in every language.
• Find out in advance at which stage notarisation is required.

A distinction peculiar to Switzerland helps when planning costs: which documents are common to every application and which are asked for by a particular institution. The diploma and the academic transcript are the common core and are translated in any event. Course descriptions belong to particular situations such as professional recognition and exemption requests. Preparing the common core in all the target languages and adding institution-specific documents only where they are needed is the most balanced approach.

When a file does come back, the reason has to be read at cantonal level. The same document may be accepted in one canton and refused in another; that has to do with local practice, not with the quality of the translation. Sharing the reason given by the institution with whoever prepared the translation makes the correction targeted and lowers the chance of a second refusal. Asking for the reason in writing is always your right.

When preparing documents for a three-language system, choosing the target correctly at the outset is the largest saving there is. To see the cost, take a look at our pricing page; you can upload your documents and request a quote.

What is set out here rests on common practice; national legislation and institutional practice can be updated. Confirming the current requirement before you apply saves time.