Tech universities boost economy by billions – Report

Swiss Info 09 February 2018

Switzerland’s federal technology institutes account for 100,000 jobs and CHF13 billion (US$13.7 billion) in added value to the economy, a new report calculates. This represents a fivefold return on investment, reports Swiss Info.

The institutes – notably the universities of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and ETH Zurich – have long been acknowledged as vital components of the Swiss image and economy; the report by British consulting firm BiGGAR now tries to put a value on it.

According to the report, the entire federal technology (ETH) domain employs around 21,000 staff and has an annual budget of CHF3.5 billion. However, the estimated gross added value to the economy, BiGGAR claims, is almost four times as much, at CHF13.3 billion. The consultants also claim that another 98,000 jobs in Switzerland depend on the EPF domain, which means that each staff position is responsible for the creation of five more.
Full report on the Swiss Info site

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