Switzerland / Entry requirements

General requirements for undergraduate courses

GCE A-Levels and the International Baccalaureate (IB) at good grades are considered for entrance to undergraduate programmes. See individual programmes for specific information.

For Schools with specific entry requirements, one or both A-levels will be required in named subjects. For example, entry to engineering courses usually requires A-levels in Mathematics and Physics.

Students taking the Swiss Federal/ Maturity Certificate would generally be asked to achieve between 4.5 – 5.5 for courses requiring ABB – A*A*A*. Additionally, students may be required to achieve 5 or 6 in specific subjects (where courses require an A or A* at A-level).

General requirements for postgraduate/research courses

Students who have completed a Diplôme/Diplom/Diploma/Diplôme d'État/Staatsdiplom/Diploma di Stato/Licence/Lizentiat/Licenza with a minimum of 5/6 or 8/10 or 2.5/5 would generally be considered for acceptance to our postgraduate taught programmes. Please note that there are additional requirements for the MBA.

PhD

Applicants with masters degrees from strong institutions may be considered for PhD entry.

Postgraduate research degrees are individually supervised. We strongly recommend that prospective applicants make initial enquiries with the potential supervisor or school before submitting a formal application.

A research proposal is required along with your formal application.

English language requirements

All applicants to the University (from the UK and overseas) are required to show evidence of English language proficiency.

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) requires that every student from outside the UK must show evidence of a minimum level of English language in order to be granted a UK visa (Tier 4 visa) to study at undergraduate or postgraduate level. This level is often referred to as the ‘B2 level’.

Additionally, our individual Schools may ask for specific English language proficiency levels that are necessary for their academic programmes. In most cases these requirements are likely to be higher than the B2 level. Our English language policy outlines some of the English language qualification we accept. 

Some Schools ask that the appropriate score has been met before you apply for a course, while others give conditional offers subject to applicants achieving our general entry requirement level of English language proficiency before starting the course.

Under certain circumstances, the University may consider IGCSE/O-level English, or International Baccalaureate Language (English) or Language and Literature (English) at high grades as a recognised English language qualification.

Other entry requirements

Please note that this is generic information only. Faculties and Schools have different entry requirements and some qualifications may not be acceptable for certain courses, so it is important to check with the School directly before you apply.

Some courses have additional entry requirements such as previous work experience, submission of written work with the application or previous study of a particular subject. Take a look at the individual course profiles for course specific entry requirements. 

Undergraduate courses

Taught master's courses

Postgraduate research programmes

If you are studying the Swiss Matura, you will generally find that entry criteria for this qualification are published under “Alternative Entry Requirements” and “Other International Entry Requirements” on the course profile pages.  You may find that some Schools don't publish their entry requirements for this qualification online, but this doesn't necessarily mean that it is not accepted.  If you need to find out more about Swiss Matura entry criteria for a specific subject and can't find this online, please email international@manchester.ac.uk