Lugano - Education and Research

Education and Research

In Lugano about 63.7% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).

In Lugano there were a total of 7,931 students (as of 2009). The Ticino education system provides up to three years of non-mandatory kindergarten and in Lugano there were 1,356 children in kindergarten. The primary school program lasts for five years and includes both a standard school and a special school. In the municipality, 2,280 students attended the standard primary schools and 129 students attended the special school. In the lower secondary school system, students either attend a two year middle school followed by a two year pre-apprenticeship or they attend a four year program to prepare for higher education. There were 1,932 students in the two year middle school and 47 in their pre-apprenticeship, while 884 students were in the four year advanced program.

The upper secondary school includes several options, but at the end of the upper secondary program, a student will be prepared to enter a trade or to continue on to a university or college. In Ticino, vocational students may either attend school while working on their internship or apprenticeship (which takes three or four years) or may attend school followed by an internship or apprenticeship (which takes one year as a full-time student or one and a half to two years as a part-time student). There were 492 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 722 who attend part-time.

The professional program lasts three years and prepares a student for a job in engineering, nursing, computer science, business, tourism and similar fields. There were 89 students in the professional program. As of 2000, there were 3,537 students in Lugano who came from another municipality, while 887 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Lugano is home to 2 libraries. These libraries include; the Biblioteca universitaria di Lugano and the Biblioteca cantonale Lugano. There was a combined total (as of 2008) of 448,811 books or other media in the libraries, and in the same year a total of 51,740 items were loaned out.

Some of the schools in Lugano include;

• University of Lugano: Lugano is the home of the faculties of informatics, economics, and communication sciences.
• Swiss National Supercomputing Centre: an autonomous unit of ETH Zurich that focuses on high-performance computing.
• Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence: a non-profit oriented research institute for artificial intelligence, affiliated with both the Università della Svizzera Italiana and SUPSI.
• Franklin College Switzerland: an American and Swiss accredited liberal arts college.
• The American School In Switzerland: an international secondary school.
• SUPSI: University of Applied Science of Southern Switzerland.
• Centro scolastico per le industrie artistiche (CSIA): A school after secondary education for studying art and design.