For the Fifth Switzerland
The Swiss passport you never used. Use it.
838,600 Swiss citizens live abroad. If you are one of them — or your parents are — you can study hotel management in Lucerne in English, rebuild your German where it is actually spoken, and take 30% off tuition while you do it.
The offer
30% off tuition. Because coming back should be easier.
BHMS gives Swiss citizens and C-permit holders a 30% reduction on tuition fees for every English-taught programme of twelve months or longer. We publish it plainly, and we mean it plainly: we want the Swiss abroad to find their way back — and cost should not be the thing that stops you.
30%
off the tuition component — Swiss citizens and C-permit holders, English-taught programmes of 12+ months
~CHF 8,730
what that is worth in Year 1 alone, on the published tuition of CHF 29,100
~CHF 27,090
across the three-year bachelor — before counting CHF 43,000+ gross from the three paid internships
The reduction applies to tuition, not to the accommodation, meals and insurance inside the all-inclusive fee. The 10-week Graduate Certificate is shorter than 12 months and does not qualify. Admissions confirms the exact figures on your Letter of Acceptance — treat the arithmetic above as what it is: 30% of the published tuition components.
Why this works for second-generation Swiss
Study in your strongest language. Rediscover the other one.
Most children of Swiss parents abroad grew up in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese — with German somewhere between kitchen-table fluency and three words and a song. That is exactly the student this programme suits.
Taught in English
Every programme is delivered in English. Your grades ride on your strongest language — not on whether your Schwiizerdütsch survived two generations abroad.
German built into the timetable
German Communication is a Year 1 module and a language elective follows in Year 2 — learned in Lucerne, practised at the bakery counter, consolidated on a Swiss hotel floor.
Your German pays at placement time
BHMS says it directly: internship placements inside Switzerland depend very much on German, French or Italian. The language you rebuild in class converts into the Swiss placements everyone wants.
A degree that travels back with you
The bachelor is awarded jointly by BHMS and Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen (UK) — 180 ECTS, 360 UK credits. Stay in Switzerland afterwards or take it home; it is legible in both worlds, exactly like you.
You are not a niche
The Fifth Switzerland is real, and it is young
At the end of 2025, 838,600 Swiss citizens lived abroad — nearly 11% of all Swiss citizens, enough that Switzerland calls its diaspora the Fifth Switzerland alongside the four language regions. One in five is under 18: a whole generation holding a passport to a country they mostly know from summer visits.
Some of that generation wants a reason to spend real time here — not a holiday, but years that count for something. A hospitality degree in Lucerne is precisely that: a recognised qualification, 18 months of paid Swiss work experience, and the language and the grandmother's recipes on weekends.
Figures: Swiss Federal Statistical Office / FDFA, Swiss Abroad statistics, end-2025.
Why Switzerland, for everyone else
The practical part
Simpler for you than for anyone else in the room
No visa. No wait.
International classmates budget 8–12 weeks for visa processing. You book a flight. Swiss citizens need no visa and no permit; C-permit holders already hold residence.
Everything still included
The all-inclusive structure applies to you too: accommodation, meals, health insurance, first airport pickup. Landing back in Switzerland with housing already solved is not a small thing.
Same intakes, same door
17 August 2026 · 16 November 2026 · February 2027. Apply through the same application as everyone else and tell admissions you are Swiss or hold a C permit — the reduction is applied to your offer.
Questions
Straight answers
Who qualifies for the 30% reduction?
Swiss citizens and holders of a C permit. BHMS publishes it as a 30% reduction on tuition fees for all programmes taught in English with a duration of at least 12 months. Dual citizens qualify as Swiss citizens — a second passport does not disqualify you.
Is it 30% off the whole fee?
No — off the tuition component. The all-inclusive fee also covers accommodation, meals, insurance and administration, which are not reduced. On Year 1's published breakdown, tuition is CHF 29,100, so the reduction is worth about CHF 8,730 in that year alone — and roughly CHF 27,090 across the three-year bachelor. Admissions confirms the exact invoice when you apply.
Which programmes qualify?
Every English-taught programme of 12 months or longer: each year of the three-year bachelor path, the Postgraduate Diploma and the MSc. The 10-week Graduate Certificate is shorter than 12 months and does not qualify.
I grew up abroad and my German is weak. Is that a problem?
No — it is close to the point. All teaching is in English, and German Communication is a scheduled Year 1 module with a language elective in Year 2. You study in the language you are strongest in and rebuild the family language alongside, in the country where it is spoken.
Does my Swiss passport change the internship picture?
The placements themselves are the same guaranteed, paid, six-month placements every student gets — CHF 2,390 a month gross in Switzerland before deductions. BHMS notes that placements inside Switzerland depend very much on German, French or Italian skills, so the language you rebuild in class works directly in your favour at placement time.
Do I need a visa or permit to study here?
As a Swiss citizen, no — no visa process, no permit paperwork, no 8-to-12-week processing wait. You register your residence when you arrive, like any Swiss national moving within or back to Switzerland. C-permit holders already hold Swiss residence.
Grüezi, willkommen zuhause. Three intakes a year.
Next intakes: 17 August 2026 · 16 November 2026 · February 2027 · Lucerne, Switzerland
Every academic semester is followed by a six-month paid internship — CHF 2,390/month gross in Switzerland, three times across the bachelor. How the internship model works →