Lausanne, a City of  Study

University, Institute of Technology, specialised colleges, advanced vocational schools, international private schools: Lausanne is a city that exudes youth and is also centred on high-level research.

Lausanne-Dorigny, the biggest campus in Switzerland is accessed by an underground railway and a motorway.  It is the very symbol of the educational and teaching vocation of Lausanne as a centre of study in French-speaking Switzerland.  It is a school town whose children are the students from here and there... a young town in any case, as the many schools are accompanied by a whole social, cultural, sporting and leisure environment created by and intended for the young.

Universal Colleges 
The University of Lausanne has developed on the fame of the Lausanne Academy that was the cradle of knowledge in this region since the 16th century (the first French-language Faculty of Protestant Theology), and it today offers seven faculties: Theology and Religious Studies, Law and Criminal Justice, Letters, Social and Political Science, School of Business and Economics (HEC), Geoscience and Environment, and Biology and Medicine. Various other institutions are associated with it such as the Institute of Advanced Studies in Public Administration (IDHEAP), the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the European "Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe" Research Centre, the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, the Swiss Institute of Applied Cancer Research (ISREC) and the Ludwig Institute of Cancer Research.

Apart from the UNIL (University of Lausanne), frequented by many foreign students, the Lausanne Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) trains specialists in architecture, civil engineering, environment, rural engineering, electricity, data processing, mathematics, chemistry, life sciences, physics, materials technology, mechanical engineering, micro-technology, electronics and communications systems. This cutting edge higher education establishment was involved in designing the Alinghi which went on to win the America’s Cup, will henceforth have the Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier on its teaching staff and is working on building the solar aircraft of Bertrand Piccard, the man who set a record with his round-the-world balloon flight. These two institutions conduct research of world importance in these various areas and, together with the Vaud University Teaching Hospital (CHUV), in the area of medical engineering.
A variety of universities train young people from all over the world, including the ECAL (Lausanne Cantonal School of Art), the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, the Lausanne Business School, the La Source School of Health Studies … to name but a few.

Hoteliers for the world 
Very few European cities the size of Lausanne (population of Greater Lausanne being 250'000) offer such a choice of teaching institutes, especially if one takes account of a dozen Institutes of management, engineering, hotel management, and those specialising in economics and administration, in the graphic arts, in communications as well as music and the dance.

The Lausanne Hotel Management School (EHL) – the first in the world as it was created in 1893 and today has thousands of former pupils working all over the world – alone symbolises the calling of Lausanne as a high-level vocational training centre. The New Swiss Specialised College (HES) whose diplomas earn credits under the American system, is a regular "trade university" that strives, at its campus in Le Chalet-à-Gobet, to train future managers for the hotel trade and the leisure sector in general. This institution of the Swiss Hotel Association has, of recent years, been growing very fast, apace of the hospitable town of service and study that serves it as backdrop and testing ground. 
 
The capital of private schools 
Lausanne has, over the past century, also forged itself a strong reputation as a propitious location for private schools. Over one hundred are listed in all areas of education from primary school to university level, with many occupational specialisations, languages schools and the like in between.  Many are international in character, some take boarders and, in the same way as the State schools whose quality is beyond question, all these schools bring to Lausanne students from all over the world who, as they pass through, contribute their spirit, their smiles and their enthusiasm. And the welcome Lausanne offers them has something to do with that.

The beauty and wealth of the site is also conducive to the organisation of many Summer courses on the campuses, such as language courses,  further vocational training, etc.  This is true of Lausanne University, whose holiday courses have been highly valued since 1895 when the Alma Mata launched its first French course, of the Hotel School,  the Alliance Française of Lausanne, the International Teen Camp and other specialised institutes.

Centuries of experience yet young of mind 
The education given in Lausanne at all levels and in all forms means that the town is frequented by thousands of youngsters who have today become its ambassadors around the world.

The all year round presence of thousands of youngsters in Lausanne – whether they live in the Old Town, the outlying suburbs or further afield in French-speaking Switzerland or whether they are simply staying there for their studies, because they live even further away – creates a lively atmosphere that reverberates in all facets of Lausanne life. The institutions and the social, cultural, sporting or simply recreational activities benefit from this new blood and especially from this decidedly forward-looking and optimistic frame of mind!  This bodes well for a town that has stood at the crossroads for centuries and whose experience in education and training is equalled only by the quality of its participants and its public.

Some internationally renowned Lausanne schools:

•  University of Lausanne (UNIL)
• UNIL Business School (HEC)
• Lausanne Federal Technical Institute (EPFL)
• Institute of Advanced Public Administration Studies (IDHEAP)
• International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
• Lausanne Hotel Management School (EHL)
• Management Institute and Engineering School (HEIG) of the Canton of Vaud
• Athenaeum School of Architecture - EAAL
• Lausanne Cantonal School of Art and Design (ECAL)
• Arts and Communication Institute of French-speaking Switzerland (ERACOM)
• Institute of Social and Educational Studies (EESP)
• Lausanne International School
• Lausanne School of Jazz and Contemporary Music (EJMA)
• Lausanne Music Conservatory
• Rudra Béjart Workshop School, Lausanne
• Drama School of French-speaking Switzerland (HETSR)

Private schools providing an education in French, German,
English, Spanish or Italian: 

• Vaud Private Schools Association  (www.avdep.ch)
• Benedict Business & Language Schools
• Brillantmont International School
• Collège Champittet
• Collège Pierre Viret
• Ecole Assimil & Institut Losanna SA
• Ecole Athena
• Ecole Chantemerle
• Ecole Didac
• Ecole Inlingua
• EIT - Ecole Internationale de Tourisme
• Ecole Lemania
• Ecole Minerva
• Ecole Nouvelle de la Suisse Romande
• Ecole Roche & Ecole Panorama
• Ecole Vinet
• Ecole Wessex Academy
• Eurocentres Lausanne
• Institut Beau Soleil
• Institut Domi
• Institut Le Bosquet
• Institut Richelieu
• International School of Lausanne
• Institut Mont-Olivet