The SWITCH Foundation and its special mission
Midway through the 1980s, Switzerland was heading for a crisis. In the absence of a strong programme for promoting computer science, it faced a real risk of seriously losing ground as a centre for education and research. This negative tendency was reversed with the creation of SWITCH.
The spark that set it all off
In 1985, the Swiss Federal Parliament initiated a targeted development programme whose measures provided, inter alia, for a financial appropriation for building up the teleinformatics services for education and research. That was the first inspired step in the process that led to the setting-up of SWITCH.
Putting the ideas down in writing
A landmark ceremony was held in Berne on 22 October 1987, attended by representatives of the Swiss Confederation and those eight cantons that at the time had universities on their territories (Basel-Stadt, Berne, Freiburg, Geneva, Neuchâtel, St. Gallen, Vaud and Zurich). They formally signed a historic document, the foundation deed for "SWITCH – Teleinformatics services for education and research".
A mission on everyone's behalf
What the founding mothers and fathers immortalised in that epoch-making document is still the conviction driving SWITCH today, namely to create, promote and maintain information and communication technologies in Switzerland at the service of education and research.
The Foundation's Governing Board
Today, the Governing Board of the Foundation is comprised of representatives of the Swiss universities, the Swiss Confederation, the cantons with universities on their territories and the federal bodies responsible for educational policy.