HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland

HES-SO, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, is a network of 28 schools of higher education across the seven cantons of western Switzerland. With close to 22,000 students it presents itself as Switzerland’s largest university network, and its degree programmes combine a strong research focus with practical orientation.

The seven partner cantons signed the intercantonal concordat in 1997 and the institution officially came into being in 1998 with engineering and architecture, business and services, and applied arts. Social work and health joined in 2004, music in 2005, and visual and performing arts in 2006, while the first eight Masters opened in 2007.

In 2023 HES-SO listed 43 Bachelor and 25 Master programmes, the Bachelor remaining its main qualification with nine graduates in ten. Continuing education leads to MAS, EMBA, DAS and CAS awards, and applied research is carried out in the institutes and laboratories of each school with industry and public bodies.

The network gained institutional accreditation from the Swiss Accreditation Council in 2019 and in 2022 became the first university of applied sciences to join a European university, as an associate of UNITA. Its rectorate sits in Delémont and HES-SO Master in Lausanne, while the Art and Design faculty includes HEAD – Genève, ECAL and EDHEA.