Higher ed, research officials reject immigration initiative

Curbing free movement would be harmful to education and research in Switzerland, the country’s top research officials have argued. The country relies on attracting top scientists and on international collaboration to tackle crises like the Covid-19 pandemic. Representatives from five major university and research bodies were speaking ahead of a nationwide vote, set for September 27, on a Swiss People’s Party-backed initiative to scrap the free movement of people accord with the European Union. The vote is seen as crucial for future relations between non-EU member Switzerland and the 27-nation bloc – and for Swiss education, research and innovation (ERI), as speakers at a joint press conference in Bern on Thursday pointed out. Switzerland needs to be able to attract the best researchers as “these are the people who are busy developing vaccines against the coronavirus, or inventing equipment to enable people with spinal injuries to climb stairs again” It would be hard to bring in...