SEMP Switzerland: The Complete University Guide to the Swiss-European Mobility Programme (2025-2026)

Switzerland has one of the most internationally connected higher education systems in Europe. ETH Zurich, EPFL, and the University of Zurich consistently appear in global top-50 rankings. Swiss universities attract students from across the continent and maintain research partnerships with institutions in every EU member state. Yet for most Erasmus+ coordinators at European institutions, Switzerland sits in an awkward administrative blind spot: it is not an Erasmus+ programme country, it does not appear in the standard grant tables issued by national agencies each autumn, and it is not covered by the inter-institutional agreement templates used for every other European destination.

The reason is political, not academic. Since 2014, Switzerland has operated its own bilateral replacement programme called SEMP, the Swiss-European Mobility Programme. Understanding how it works, what it pays, and what a bilateral agreement requires is the prerequisite for any international office that wants to send students to Swiss institutions or host Swiss students under a structured, funded arrangement. This guide covers every aspect of the programme for the 2025-2026 cycle and is designed as a working reference for university international offices, Erasmus+ coordinators, and programme officers.

The Erasmus Exception: Why Switzerland Is Different

Switzerland joined the Erasmus programme in 1992 and remained a full participating country for more than two decades. During that period, Swiss universities built deep bilateral ties across Europe, Swiss students accessed grant funding to study and train abroad alongside their EU peers, and European students came to Swiss campuses with the same financial support structure they would have used anywhere else in the programme.

That changed abruptly on February 9, 2014, when Swiss voters passed the "mass immigration initiative," a referendum requiring the federal government to introduce annual caps on immigration from the European Union. The EU suspended negotiations on Switzerland's continued association with Erasmus+ and the Horizon 2020 research programme almost immediately. Switzerland went from being an associated country to being, in EU programme terms, a third country overnight.

The Swiss federal government moved quickly to prevent a collapse in academic mobility. Within months, the Swiss Confederation had committed funding to cover what Erasmus+ had previously provided, and Movetia was established as the national coordination body. The Swiss-European Mobility Programme was formally launched to maintain bilateral agreements with European universities on terms closely mirroring those of Erasmus+. Between 2014 and 2020, SEMP supported more than 40,000 student mobilities (Movetia, 2020). In 2024 alone, Movetia approved 10,596 SEMP higher education mobilities (Movetia Statistics Portal, 2024).

Switzerland has sought re-association with Erasmus+ repeatedly since 2014. As of mid-2026, no full re-association has been achieved. For operational planning purposes, university international offices should treat SEMP as a stable, fully funded, long-term framework rather than a temporary workaround.

Who Runs SEMP: Understanding Movetia

Movetia is the Swiss national agency for exchange and mobility, established by the Swiss Confederation specifically to administer SEMP and related programmes. It plays the same structural role that national Erasmus+ agencies play elsewhere in Europe: it issues grants, maintains the bilateral agreement database, handles reporting requirements, and publishes guidance for institutions and students.

Movetia works directly with all recognised Swiss higher education institutions: the two federal institutes of technology (ETH Zurich and EPFL), twelve cantonal universities, and approximately 20 universities of applied sciences and arts (Fachhochschulen and Hautes Ecoles). All of these institutions can enter bilateral agreements with European partners under the SEMP framework.

For EU-based international offices, Movetia is the primary point of contact for programme questions, inter-institutional agreement templates, and grant queries. The Movetia website (movetia.ch) publishes the current programme guide, grant rates, reporting templates, and a searchable database of existing agreements. The statistics portal at stat.movetia.ch provides annualised mobility data broken down by institution, country, and mobility type, making it a useful benchmarking resource for understanding which Swiss institutions are most active in any given European country corridor.

SEMP Traineeship Grants: How the Numbers Work

For students doing an internship or work placement, SEMP provides a traineeship grant calculated at a base rate of CHF 440 per month. The grant is calculated precisely on a daily basis using the formula: grant equals duration in days multiplied by (CHF 440 divided by 30). A 90-day traineeship (three months) generates a base grant of CHF 1,320. A six-month placement (180 days) generates CHF 2,640.

An additional CHF 100 is available as a sustainable mobility bonus for students who travel to and from their destination by environmentally friendly means: specifically train, bus, or car sharing. This bonus is paid in addition to the base grant and requires documentation of the transport method used.

One important ceiling applies where a student receives remuneration from the host employer. The combined total of employer payment and SEMP grant may not exceed CHF 2,000 per month. Paid traineeship arrangements are entirely compatible with SEMP, but the host organisation's salary level affects the net grant amount the student receives. A student earning CHF 1,200 per month from their host employer would be eligible for a maximum of CHF 800 per month in SEMP grant.

Payment is structured as two instalments: 80% is disbursed at the start of the placement, and the remaining 20% is released after the student completes the required post-placement report and evaluation. This mirrors standard Erasmus+ traineeship payment practice.

Study Exchange Grants: The Country Table

For students doing a full semester or year abroad rather than a traineeship, SEMP provides a flat-rate semester grant. The amount depends on the country where the sending university is located, using a two-group classification that accounts for cost-of-living differences across Europe relative to Switzerland.

Students from Group B countries (most of mainland EU, including Germany, France, and Poland) receive a higher grant because the cost-of-living difference between their home country and Switzerland is typically more significant. Students from Group A countries (Nordic countries, UK, Ireland, Luxembourg) receive a somewhat lower grant, reflecting the smaller adjustment needed from their relatively higher domestic cost bases.

A student staying for a full academic year receives two semester grants: the first at the beginning of the autumn semester and the second at the beginning of the spring semester. As with traineeships, funding accumulates toward a maximum of 12 months per degree level, with study exchanges and traineeships counting toward the same cap. Students who complete both a semester exchange and a traineeship within the same degree cycle need to plan carefully to avoid reaching the cap before their second mobility.

Eligible Countries and What "Programme Country" Means Under SEMP

Because SEMP operates through bilateral agreements rather than a centralised EU programme structure, eligibility in practice is defined by the agreements that each Swiss institution has signed. As a general rule, students from any of the following countries are eligible to participate in SEMP as sending or receiving parties:

• All 27 EU member states
• EEA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway
• United Kingdom
• Candidate and partner countries with active SEMP agreements: Turkey, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina

The critical practical point is that the bilateral agreement itself determines eligibility for any specific mobility. A student at the University of Warsaw wanting to study at ETH Zurich needs an active SEMP agreement between those two institutions covering their faculty or programme. Without an active bilateral agreement, there is no SEMP grant and no formal framework for the mobility, regardless of whether both countries are technically eligible.

This is fundamentally different from Erasmus+, where the existence of an ECHE (Erasmus Charter for Higher Education) and an inter-institutional agreement is sufficient for any accredited institution in a programme country. Under SEMP, if your institution does not yet have a bilateral agreement with a specific Swiss university, that agreement needs to be negotiated and signed before any funded mobility can take place. The process is not onerous, but it requires lead time. Most institutions plan for a full academic year between initiating contact and sending the first students.

Setting Up a SEMP Partnership: The Practical Steps

For an EU university international office looking to establish a SEMP agreement with a Swiss institution, the process broadly follows these steps:

1. Identify the Swiss partner and faculty contact. SEMP agreements are typically faculty-specific rather than institution-wide. An engineering faculty partnership with ETH Zurich is separate from a business partnership with the University of St. Gallen. Movetia's institution database lists Swiss universities and their SEMP coordinators.
2. Agree on terms bilaterally. Both institutions negotiate the number of student places per year, the applicable study levels (bachelor, master, doctoral), and any language or academic requirements. SEMP does not impose standard quotas; this is institution-to-institution.
3. Complete the standard Movetia agreement template. Movetia provides a standard inter-institutional agreement document. Both institutions sign it. The Swiss institution registers it in the Movetia system, which activates grant access for students on both sides.
4. Designate a home institution coordinator. As with Erasmus+, a named coordinator at the EU institution is responsible for approving nominations, processing Learning Agreements, and handling grant administration on the European side.
5. First cohort. Once the agreement is active, students can nominate, be accepted, and travel. Grant administration for students coming to Switzerland flows through the Swiss institution on behalf of Movetia; grant administration for Swiss students going outbound flows through the Swiss home institution.

SEMP vs Erasmus+: Side-by-Side

The two programmes are structurally similar in intent but differ in several operationally significant ways. Understanding these differences prevents administrative errors, particularly around grant payment routing and document formatting.

The structural difference that catches institutions most off-guard is the direction of grant administration. Under Erasmus+, the sending institution holds the grant budget and distributes it to students before departure. Under SEMP for students coming to Switzerland, it is the Swiss institution (the receiving university) that holds and distributes the grant on behalf of Movetia. EU students applying to study in Switzerland under SEMP receive their grant from the Swiss host institution, not from their home university. International offices should verify the exact payment routing with each Swiss partner before briefing outgoing students.

SEMP Traineeships in Practice: The Swiss Labour Market

For universities with active placement channels in Switzerland, SEMP traineeships represent a well-funded, academically recognised pathway into one of Europe's most competitive labour markets. Switzerland's economy spans world-class pharmaceutical companies (Novartis, Roche, Lonza), financial institutions (UBS, Julius Baer, Zurich Insurance), engineering and industrial groups (ABB, Georg Fischer, Schindler), and a dense cluster of life sciences, medtech, and cleantech startups centred on Zurich, Basel, Geneva, and Lausanne.

Swiss internship salaries are typically among the highest in Europe. The CHF 440/month SEMP grant therefore functions as a meaningful supplement to employer remuneration rather than the primary income source, which is different from the Erasmus+ traineeship context in lower-wage destination markets. Students should be aware of the CHF 2,000/month combined ceiling when evaluating paid Swiss placements.

The administrative prerequisite remains unchanged: there must be an active bilateral agreement between the student's home institution and a Swiss higher education institution. An independent internship at a Swiss company without institutional affiliation does not qualify for SEMP funding, even if the placement itself is excellent. Universities that want to support Swiss traineeship opportunities for their students should ensure that SEMP agreements are in place and that their career or international offices understand the Learning Agreement and reporting requirements.

Students preparing for a SEMP traineeship in Switzerland can access internshipabroad.ch, Internship Abroad's dedicated Swiss market platform, for placement support aligned with the SEMP documentation framework, including Learning Agreement preparation and welfare check-ins throughout the placement period.

The Re-association Question: Planning Under Uncertainty

Whether Switzerland will eventually re-associate with Erasmus+ comes up regularly at European international office conferences. The answer as of mid-2026 remains genuinely uncertain. Negotiations between Bern and Brussels have resumed under the framework of a new bilateral agreements package, but progress is tied to much larger questions about Swiss-EU institutional relations that extend well beyond higher education.

For operational planning, the correct assumption is that SEMP will remain the operative framework for the foreseeable future. Movetia has demonstrated a decade of stable programme administration. Grant rates have been consistently maintained. The bilateral agreement infrastructure is mature and well-tested. If re-association eventually occurs, existing SEMP agreements would transition into standard Erasmus+ inter-institutional agreements, which is an administrative conversion rather than a structural change.

Universities that delay building Swiss partnerships in anticipation of an Erasmus+ re-association are deferring access to one of Europe's strongest academic systems on the basis of a political outcome with no clear timeline. The more practical position is to sign bilateral agreements under the current SEMP framework and adapt the administrative format if and when circumstances change.

How Internship Abroad Supports SEMP-Compatible Placements

As the institutional platform for international internship placement across 16 markets, Internship Abroad works directly with universities and their students to support SEMP-compatible placement documentation. Our Swiss market operations at internshipabroad.ch include Learning Agreement preparation, tripartite contract coordination, and welfare monitoring throughout the traineeship period.

For university international offices looking to connect their students with verified Swiss placement partners, or for Swiss institutions looking to support incoming students in finding appropriate traineeships, our partnerships team handles the full documentation chain. The SEMP grant application itself remains with the student's home institution and Movetia; we coordinate the placement and the surrounding paperwork.

For universities that are part of the Internship Abroad university network, Switzerland is an available destination market fully integrated into our placement workflow. For government mobility offices looking to understand how SEMP fits into national outbound mobility strategy, the government partnerships page covers the programme alignment landscape across all 16 markets we serve. You can also explore the full network at internshipabroad.eu/network.

Students who want to understand what a Swiss traineeship profile looks like in practice can browse the free internship toolkit on the Internship Abroad student platform.