More about the Summer University

The Summer University is organised by the Institute of Federalism and co-financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Background

In 1984 the Institute of Federalism (IFF) organised an international round table on “Federalism and Decentralisation” together with the International Association of Constitutional Law. The publication of the papers from this conference inspired a representative of the Swiss Office for Science and Education to mandate the Institute with the organisation of an international summer university on Federalism and Decentralisation. This is how an annual three week course was introduced in 1986 and since then has been organised on a yearly basis (except for 1994).

Aims

The goals of the program are for participants to interact with each other, share experiences, learn from each other, gain new perspectives and develop tools to deal with the challenges faced by their own countries' political systems.

Participants

The course is aimed at students (minimum in their fourth year of studies) in law, economics, political and social sciences, international relations, and journalism with 35 scholarships at disposal.

Faculty

The faculty members are renown scholars in law, political science, sociology and economy with expertise in rule of law, federalism, decentralisation, good governance and multiculturalism.

Results

The reputation of our Summer University is constantly increasing and gathers people, both students and teachers, from the five continents. Also, the level of the participants has continued to improve over the years.