No evidence of brain-drain in canton

According to the latest statistics, only nine per cent of university students from Zug failed to return to their home canton within five years of graduation. Only the canton of Fribourg had a higher proportion of its graduates returning to their home canton if one excludes the cantons which typically attract highly qualified graduates, namely Geneva, Bern, Vaud, Zurich and the city of Basel.

Speaking in his role as cantonal director of education, Stephan Schleiss said he was very pleased and not surprised to hear so many graduates return here. Naturally with Zurich being so close, many young people here had the opportunity to study or work there yet still carry on living here. And with the levels of growth in the population of Zug, the second highest in the country, Schleiss felt this had a role to play, too.

In addition, the SVP politician felt the canton’s strong economy and the good image it enjoyed also played a part. He mentioned, too, the many international companies here, which relied on highly specialised staff, adding how there was evidence of much specialisation in certain areas; “Anyone wanting to work in the banking sector needs to go to Zurich,” he said.

Since there was no evidence of any brain drain, there was therefore no need for projects to encourage young graduates to stay. “It has been repeatedly said by some firms here how they regard having a pool of highly qualified staff more important than lower rates of tax.”

At present, the amount of financial support cantons with universities get is being re- evaluated, with Zug actually having had to pay as much as CHF 16.85 million to the Inter-cantonal University Agreement in 2018 on account of young people from here studying elsewhere in the country. Of note here is that costs have increased as more students opt to study natural sciences and technical subjects rather than the humanities, medical students costing the most.

Out of interest, of the 1,675 students from Zug in the period 2018 -19, 625 went on to study at the University of Zurich (photograph), 376 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) also in Zurich, 195 in St Gallen,133 in Lucerne and 132 in Bern.