Geneva English School, an international primary school operating for more than 50 years, is opening a secondary sector amid high demand for secondary school places in Switzerland.

The risk of losing out on collaborative research funding dominated concerns over the impact of Brexit as stakeholders committed to work more closely to lobby governments on both sides of the channel at the EAIE conference in Liverpool.

Pro Linguis, one of Switzerland’s oldest and largest education agencies which went into liquidation last month, is being acquired by StudyLingua AG, another Swiss language travel agency based in St Gallen.

After The PIE revealed last month that an uncapping of the Swiss franc from the euro is becoming financially troubling for education agencies in Switzerland, there is concern that the currency fluctuation could affect the inbound market in the near future but agents and providers both say its too early to tell.

Swiss education agencies are seriously concerned about the implications for the profitability of their business, since the value of the Swiss franc has soared, following the removal of the currency cap pegging the Swiss franc to the euro last month.

The European Students’ Union (ESU), which represents 47 national unions of students from 39 European countries, has demanded that education and research are protected from Switzerland's impending immigration restrictions. A narrow margin of victory meant voters approved a cap in EU migration this month.

Calls are mounting for higher fees for foreign university students in Switzerland, to cope with an influx of enrolments. Some, not all, universities charge differentiated fees. However, the right-wing People’s Party has tabled a motion in parliament calling for the country’s top two federal institutes of technology to double what foreign students pay.

English language study has lost ground to the French language learning market, according to the Swiss agency association, SALTA. English study, however, still dominates demand but clients' needs are evolving as instruction in schools improves levels of proficiency. Meanwhile, online bookings are also up.