Switzerland’s scholarship system splits cleanly into two tiers, and understanding that split before you apply saves you from chasing the wrong document for the wrong program. At the top sits ESKAS, the federal government scholarship, which is genuinely relaxed about how you prove English — no single mandated test, prior English-medium education generally accepted. Below that sit the individual institutions — ETH Zurich, EPFL, the cantonal universities — each running its own merit-based awards with its own rules, some of which are even more flexible than the federal program itself.

First, a Correction Worth Making

Search around and you’ll find claims that ESKAS funds “500 master’s and doctoral degree scholarships” broadly across any field. That’s not quite accurate. Read the Federal Commission’s own eligibility criteria and it becomes clear ESKAS is really built for Research Fellowships (early-career researchers already pursuing or holding a PhD), PhD candidates who already have a Master’s degree, and a smaller Art scholarship category for musicians and artists. It’s not a general-purpose bachelor’s or master’s scholarship — if you’re starting your first degree from scratch, ESKAS isn’t your route; ETH’s and EPFL’s own institutional fellowships below are.

The Federal Scholarship

Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships (ESKAS)
CHF 2,450 monthly stipend, tuition exemption, health insurance, a housing allowance of CHF 300, a one-year half-fare transport card, and a return-flight allowance for non-EU/EFTA recipients.
🔗 sbfi.admin.ch/en/swiss-government-excellence-scholarships
The genuinely useful detail here: ESKAS itself imposes no single mandatory IELTS or TOEFL score. Prior English-medium transcripts or an internal certificate from your home university are commonly accepted — though the specific host university, doctoral school, or supervisor you’re applying under may still set their own requirement, so confirm that separately before assuming ESKAS’s flexibility is the final word. You’ll also need to secure a Swiss academic supervisor before applying — applications without one aren’t considered at all.

What the Two Federal Institutes Add

ETH Zurich Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme (ESOP)
CHF 13,500 per semester (from HS27) plus a full tuition fee waiver, covering the entire standard duration of a Master’s degree.
🔗 ethz.ch/students/en/studies/financial/scholarships/excellencescholarship.html
Around 60 of these are awarded for the 2027/28 intake, decided by each Master’s program’s own Admissions Committee — meaning your English proficiency was already assessed as part of that same admission process, with no separate scholarship-specific test layered on top.

ETH Zurich General Scholarship (Bachelor & Master)
Needs-based financial aid for cost-of-living support, calculated individually through ETH’s scholarship calculator.
🔗 ethz.ch/students/en/studies/financial/scholarships.html
Note the timing: Bachelor’s students can only apply after passing their first-year exams, and Master’s students without an ETH Bachelor’s need at least 40 ECTS completed first — this isn’t funding you can access before you’ve already started studying.

EPFL Master Excellence Fellowship
CHF 10,000 per semester, up to CHF 40,000 total for a two-year Master’s, plus a reserved room in student housing.
🔗 epfl.ch/education/master/master-excellence-fellowships
Genuinely distinctive detail worth highlighting: EPFL’s own FAQ states plainly that “TOEFL or GRE scores are welcome but not compulsory and have no influence on evaluation” for this specific fellowship — selection runs purely on academic transcripts, making it one of the cleanest non-test-based awards in this entire series.

EPFL Bachelor Excellence Fellowship
CHF 10,000 per semester across three years of Bachelor’s study, open to applicants of any nationality with an eligible prior qualification.
🔗 epfl.ch/education/bachelor/bachelor-excellence-fellowships
Selection here, like the Master’s equivalent, runs on academic record rather than a language test — check EPFL’s current Bachelor’s admission language policy separately, since that’s assessed at a different stage from the fellowship itself.

The Cantonal University Layer

University of Geneva — ESKAS Host Institution
Access to ESKAS-funded doctoral and postdoctoral research specifically hosted at UNIGE, alongside the university’s own exchange and mobility funding.
🔗 unige.ch/exchange/en/incoming/why-geneva/excellence-fellowships
UNIGE’s own guidance recommends starting the ESKAS application process roughly a year in advance — a genuinely useful planning detail that’s easy to underestimate given how document-heavy the supervisor-matching process can be.

University of Lausanne (UNIL) — ESKAS Host Institution
Research placements funded through ESKAS across UNIL’s science, medicine, and social science departments.
🔗 unil.ch
UNIL is one of the more commonly cited ESKAS destinations in successful applicant accounts, particularly in biomedical and life sciences research.

University of Zurich Scholarships
Merit and need-based funding for admitted international students across UZH’s faculties.
🔗 uzh.ch
Confirm your specific faculty’s own scholarship terms and English-proficiency policy directly, since — as with most Swiss cantonal universities — funding and language requirements are set at that level rather than centrally.

University of St. Gallen (HSG) Scholarships
Merit-based tuition support for admitted students in HSG’s business, economics, and international affairs programs.
🔗 unisg.ch
A strong option specifically if your field is business or management — check HSG’s own admissions pages for whether prior English-medium education can substitute for a fresh test on your specific program.

The EU-Wide Route

Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees (EMJMD)
€1,400/month stipend, tuition, and travel allowance for joint master’s degrees delivered across 2+ European countries, some including Swiss partner universities.
🔗 eacea.ec.europa.eu/scholarships/erasmus-mundus-catalogue_en
Several consortia exempt English-medium degree holders from a formal test entirely — check the specific program’s page in the catalogue, since Switzerland’s non-EU status means not every EMJMD includes a Swiss partner.

Making Sense of the English Question Across All of These

The pattern that holds across nearly everything above: your English proficiency is assessed once, at the admission or supervisor-matching stage, using whatever the specific university or ESKAS host accepts — a transcript, an internal certificate, or occasionally a genuinely optional test like EPFL’s TOEFL/GRE mention. Nowhere in this list does the scholarship itself impose a second, separate English test on top of what admission already required.

Timing Worth Knowing

ESKAS applications open 20 August 2026, with country-specific deadlines generally falling between November and December 2026 — check the official SBFI country list each year, since dates shift by nationality. ETH’s ESOP window runs 1–30 November 2026 for Master’s starts in autumn 2027. EPFL’s Excellence Fellowships run two rounds: December 15 and March 31.

Whichever route applies to you, budget for what none of these scholarships fully absorb: Switzerland’s residence permit financial-proof requirement (a notably high bar given the country’s cost of living), mandatory health insurance, and Switzerland’s own famously expensive housing market. A service like Wise is worth using to move remaining funds without a heavy bank markup.

Two Questions Worth Settling

Does Switzerland’s residence permit process check my English separately?
No. Your university admission or ESKAS award has already settled that question. The residence permit focuses on your acceptance documentation, financial proof, and health insurance.

If ESKAS doesn’t require a fixed test, why do people still recommend getting IELTS anyway?
Because the flexibility sits at the federal level, not the university level — your specific Swiss supervisor, doctoral school, or program can still set their own requirement on top of ESKAS’s baseline, and ETH Zurich and EPFL specifically tend to recommend C1-level English regardless, even where it’s not strictly mandatory.

Before You Apply

  • Confirm whether you’re eligible for ESKAS’s Research Fellowship/PhD/Art categories specifically, rather than assuming it functions as a general bachelor’s or master’s scholarship
  • Secure a Swiss academic supervisor well before applying to ESKAS — applications without one are rejected outright
  • For ETH and EPFL, note that most Excellence Fellowships require you to already be admitted or partway through a Bachelor’s, not something you can apply for cold
  • Check whether your specific target program or supervisor sets a language requirement even where the broader scholarship doesn’t
  • Budget for Switzerland’s residence permit funds requirement and its genuinely high cost of living separately from any scholarship
  • Re-verify current deadlines and country-specific ESKAS terms directly on SBFI’s site, since these are updated annually
Scholarships Without IELTS