Admission criteria for languages

Foreign language skills are imperative for respectful contact with other cultures and for successful intercultural communication,

Prerequisites
The languages taught at the HSG assume an starting proficiency corresponding to a secondary school education in Switzerland. In terms of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), this means:

Course selection (internal differentiation)
Most of the languages taught at the HSG offer more than one Level I course due to demand (German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Russian). For English, Italian and Spanish, this fact is used for further differentiation. In other words, for these languages you may select a course at a slightly higher or lower level, depending on your prior knowledge. All courses are completed with the Level I test, but the design of the individual courses can address the varying levels of prior knowledge.

The selection for English and Italian courses is based on self-evaluation. For Spanish, there is a web-based placement test during the Freshman Week. There is no differentiation at this level for German and French.

For German an intensive course at Level I with twice the number of hours is offered for students who are looking for highly intense training in the language of instruction at the HSG. For Italian and Spanish, there is also an intensive course offering twice the number of instruction hours in order to help students who have little or no prior knowledge to prepare for the regular Level I examination.

External certification
For language in the Assessment Year, no external certifications are recognised; at this level you must pass a written and oral language test. At the Bachelor’s Level, external certification of linguistic proficiency can be recognised. It is possible to have languages other than those taught at the HSG recognised.