BERN (dpa-AFX) - Studying at the elite Swiss universities ETH Zurich and
EPFL Lausanne looks likely to become significantly more expensive for
people from abroad in future.

The lower chamber of Switzerland's parliament, the National Council,
voted in favour of increasing tuition fees on Wednesday.

The proposal would mean that those who move to Switzerland to study
would in future pay at least three times as much as those already
living in Switzerland.

At the moment Swiss citizens and foreigners pay the same amount, at
ETH and EPFL less than ?1,500 ($1,625) per year. The upper chamber of
parliament still has to agree on the fee increase.

Members of parliament argued that Swiss students at renowned foreign
universities also pay more, up to 40 times as much as domestic
students. Another argument is that the educational institutions are
financed with taxpayers' money, which is only raised from people who
live in Switzerland.


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