History

In the year 1996 ESN Zurich was founded as the first Swiss section of ESN with two equivalent sections (Uni Zurich and ETH Zurich). For a long time these two sections were the only one in Switzerland.

In October 2000 students at the University of Lausanne and at the University of Applied Sciences in Winterthur decided to do likewise and created each an ESN section.

Due to the rise in the number of sections, thus the necessity for a national co-ordination and on 24 August 2001 in Zurich the national platform ESN Switzerland was founded.

Since August 2001 the contact among the sections, potential sections and other interested people increased substantially. Closer co-operation and support lead to a rise in the quality of the services offered on a local, national and international level.

In January 2003 ESN CH and éCHange, an association to promote inner Switzerland students exchange at Universities of Applied Sciences, merged. Thereby ESN CH increased its number of sections by three and got in charge of exchange students at Universities of Applied Sciences.

In 2003 ESN CH reached to establish important contacts with other organisations (VSS-UNES-USU, S-O-L) and got a new sponsor, the Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology.