* Business Information Technology: Admission without entrance examination and without additional work experience granted to applicants with a technical vocational baccalaureate.

** Business Information Technology: One year of work experience in the commercial or IT sectors.

*** Please note that if you have to take the entrance examination because your school-leaving certificate does not meet all the requirements, the exam is held in the language of the chosen degree program (German or English).

Based on the document “Zulassung zum Bachelorstudium an Fachhochschulen – Best Practices” (in German) of 29 October 2015 issued by the Chamber of Universities of Applied Sciences of swissuniversities.ch.)

Applicants who have been irrevocably excluded from a (business) law program of a university will not be admitted to the Business Law or Applied Law programs offered at ZHAW.

Admission to the first semester of all our degree programs:
With an HF diploma, admission to our degree programs is possible in the first semester, provided that you can also provide evidence of a minimum of 12 months of commercial work experience (at a 100% workload) (For our program in Business Information Technology, this may also be in computer science.)

Rechtsfachmann/-frau HF (Paralegal)
With an HF diploma as a Rechtsfachmann/-frau HF and at least 12 months of (full-time i.e. 100%) commercial work experience, applicants may be admitted directly to the main study period of our degree program in Applied Law. They will be exempted from the first year ("Assessment"; 60 ECTS).

With the Rechtsfachmann/-frau HF diploma and a minimum of 12 months of commercial work experience (at a 100% workload), admission to our degree program in Business Law is also possible in the first semester, with a summary dispensation from all German-language legal modules of the first year ("Assessment") (30 ECTS).

Direct admission to the main study period of our degree program in Business Administration:
With the following HF diplomas and a minimum of 12 months of commercial work experience (at a 100% workload), direct admission to the main study period of our degree program in Business Administration is possible (third semester for full-time and fourth semester for part-time students). Students receive a summary dispensation from the first-year studies (60 ECTS).

• Betriebswirtschafter/in HF (business economist)
• Bankwirtschafter/in HF (banker)
• Diploma in Hotel and Restaurant Management
• Hôtelier/-ière-Restaurateur/-trice HF / Hotelier/e-Gastronom/in HF (hotel/restaurant professional)
• Marketingmanager/in HF (marketing manager)
• Prozesstechniker/in HF (former Techniker/in HF Unternehmensprozesse) (technician in business processes)
• Tourismusfachmann/-frau HF (tourism specialist)
• Versicherungswirtschafter/in HF (insurance specialist)

BSc in Business Administration with a specialization in Politics and Management: Note on direct admission to the main study period
The specialization (major) in Politics and Management has been redesigned. From the fall of 2024, it will start in the first semester. Up to and including the start of the spring semester of 2025, direct admissions to the main study period (Hauptstudium) will still be registered for the predecessor specialization in Economics and Politics.

Note on direct entry to the main course of study in Business Administration with a specialization in Insurance Management:
The specialization in Insurance Management has been redesigned and will begin for the first time in the fall semester 2025. Direct entries into the main course of study up to and including the start of studies in the spring semester of 2026 will be enrolled in the current Risk and Insurance specialization.

Note on direct entry to the main course in Business Administration with a specialization in Human Centered Organization:
The specialization in Human Centered Organization will start for the first time in fall 2025. Direct entries to the main study period will therefore be possible for the first time in the spring semester of 2027.

Direct admission to the main study period of our degree program in Business Information Technology
With a HF degree in Business Information Systems and a minimum of 12 months of commercial work experience or experience in the IT sector (full-time i.e. 100%), direct entry into the main study program is possible (3rd semester full-time or 4th semester part-time), provided that the level of education is equivalent to the level of education at the end of the assessment of the Business Information Technology study program. Students receive a summary dispensation from the first-year studies (60 ECTS). Each application is reviewed individually.
After admission, an online statistics course must also be completed before the start of the degree program. The online course corresponds in scope to the statistics module, i.e. 6 ECTS = 180 hours of effort. You will receive all information about this from the program director in due course.

With an examination for the federal diploma of higher education (Berufsprüfung BP) or an examination for the advanced federal diploma of higher education (Höhere Fachprüfung HFP), admission to our degree programs is possible in the first semester, provided that you pass the ZHAW entrance examination. In addition, you need to provide evidence of a minimum of 12 months of commercial work experience (at a 100% workload) (for our program in Business Information Technology, this may also be in computer science).

Applicants with a certificate from a specialized upper-secondary school (Fachmittelschulausweis) have to acquire a specialized vocational baccalaureate certificate (Fachmaturität) to be admitted to a Bachelor’s degree program.

The language qualifications required depend on the languages of instruction of the degree programs.

Applicants interested in enrolling in International Management are required to provide evidence of English language skills at Level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

To comply with this requirement, one of the following language certificates has to be submitted:

To be admitted to a degree program taught in German, students with a foreign university entrance qualification who are not native German speakers must provide proof of their German language skills at a C1 level (minimum) in accordance with the established scale of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

In particular, they must present one of the following language certificates:

Degree programs taught in German have an admission requirement for English at B2 level (minimum) in accordance with the established scale of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

Applicants who have a federal certificate of proficiency (eidg. Fähigkeitszeugnis) are required to get a vocational baccalaureate (Berufsmaturität) or federal vocational and professional education and training certificate/diploma (eidg. Fachausweis/Diplom), while those who have an upper secondary specialized school certificate (Fachmittelschulausweis) will have to complete the additional performance assessments required for a specialized vocational baccalaureate (Fachmaturität). Neither group of applicants is entitled to take the entrance examination.

To be admitted to the entrance examination, applicants must have a foreign university entrance qualification (Studienberechtigungsausweis) or a Swiss federal vocational and professional education and training certificate or diploma (eidg. Fachausweis/Diplom).

The foreign university entrance qualification must be the equivalent of an upper secondary level qualification (at least three years of school) and found not to be the equivalent of a Swiss university entrance qualification. The equivalence of diplomas as well as all other required documents will be checked after the application has been received.

In addition to passing our entrance examination, candidates also need to provide evidence of a minimum of 12 months (100 %) of professional experience in the commercial field. For the BSc program in Business Information Technology, this professional experience can be either in the commercial or in the IT sector.
 

• Holders of a federal vocational and professional education and training certificate or diploma (eidg. Fachausweis / Diplom):
   
• Applicants with a foreign university entrance certificate which is the equivalent of a certificate at Swiss secondary level II (at least three years of upper secondary school) while not being the equivalent of a Swiss university entrance qualification:
  
  The entrance exam takes place in July/early August and is conducted by the SML. The exact dates and examination details will be announced after the registration deadline has expired. The exam is held in the language (German/English) of the chosen degree program.

These are the exam subjects:

• Finance and Accounting
• Mathematics
• German
• English

The material to be tested corresponds to the level of a Commercial Professional Maturity Certificate ("kaufmännische Berufsmatura"), also known as commercial vocational baccalaureate or high school diploma. As we do not offer any examination preparation courses, candidates need to prepare for this exam on their own.

General Information on the Entrance Exams for Programs Starting in Fall 2024(PDF 112,2 KB)

Download previous "Profil M/BM2" exams

The examination fee is CHF 200. This fee is nonrefundable.

Applicants will be offered a place at our school only after they have passed the entrance examination.