Switzerland and ERASMUS are connected by a rather turbulent history that began in 1992/93. At that time, our country was for the first time taking part in ERASMUS, the education programme for the tertiary level, which was brought into being by the European Community in 1987. Almost simultaneously however, the Swiss electorate said ‘No’ to joining the European Economic Area EEA. As a result, the Agreement on Education was not renewed again and, from 1996/97 onwards, Switzerland was able to take part in ERASMUS only indirectly. Students from other European countries who wanted to study in Switzerland no longer received any EU funding. But still Switzerland stuck to the reciprocal exchange and developed a parallel financing system for individual ERASMUS actions.
From 2011 onwards, a new Agreement on Education made it possible for Switzerland to participate directly again. Besides ERASMUS, the “Lifelong Learning” generation of programmes at that time already encompassed the Leonardo da Vinci programme for vocational education and training, Comenius for schools, Grundtvig for adult education and Youth in Action for extra-curricular youth work.
In early 2014, the current generation of programmes, Erasmus+, was introduced, which in turn combines all spheres: education, youth and sport. It runs until 2020. Following the adoption of the mass immigration initiative by Swiss voters in February 2014 however, the EU suspended the participation of Switzerland in the new Erasmus+ generation of programmes. Since then, Switzerland has been taking part in the programme once again, indirectly, within the framework of an Interim Solution for Erasmus+ financed with Swiss funds. This is to be prolonged until the end of the Erasmus+ generation of programmes in 2020. A renewed participation is possible at the earliest in the new generation of programmes from 2021 onwards.