Bachelor’s Degree Program in Applied Law

Legal issues increasingly permeate both everyday life and people’s professional lives. Whether in companies, public authorities, or organizations, sound legal knowledge is a decisive success factor today. The Bachelor’s program in Applied Law helps prepare you specifically to take on responsible legal tasks. 

The degree program offers a broad, practice-oriented, generalist legal education and covers the central core areas of Swiss law. You will acquire the necessary specialist knowledge, as well as legal language and methodological competence, to develop viable solutions to legal challenges. 

The course is designed for individuals who wish to qualify for a wide range of legal activities in business and administration. It opens up perspectives in areas of private, public, and criminal law and lays the foundation for a responsible position in the legal sector.

The Bachelor's degree program in Applied Law combines a sound legal education with practical relevance and prepares you specifically for a legal career. Here are three practical examples from the program: 

This degree qualifies you for entry into professional legal practice, for example, in the following areas:

• In municipal, cantonal, or federal administrations in Switzerland, such as residents’ register offices, social services, civil register offices, driver and vehicle licensing offices, or areas of immigration or customs;
• In law enforcement agencies, the police, and the penal system;
• In government-related entities at the federal, cantonal, or communal level (e.g., SwissPost, SBB, Swisscom, or utility companies);
• In social insurance or public health, such as health and accident insurance companies, compensation offices, invalidity insurance offices, hospitals, clinics, or care/retirement homes;
• In associations, NGOs, and NPOs, such as trade unions or employers’ associations, trade associations, tenants’ or consumers’ associations, and environmental organizations;
• In companies operating in highly regulated markets and in the agencies regulating these companies, such as in the insurance, financial services, pharmaceutical, energy, or telecommunications sectors.

A BSc in Applied Law presents numerous professional training and continuing education opportunities. Graduates gain favorable access conditions to Swiss university Master of Law programs and the opportunity to be admitted to the bar. 

Further information can be found here: A Master's Program After a BSc in Applied Law.

The Bachelor’s degree program consists of two levels: the first year (“Assessment”) and the main study period (“Hauptstudium”). At both levels of study, professional legal competence accounts for two-thirds of the curriculum, and legal language and methodological competence for the other one-third. As a part-time course of study, the program usually takes eight semesters to complete and allows students to have a part-time job of up to 60% in addition to their studies. The full-time course of study usually takes six semesters to complete.

You may choose between a part-time and a full-time course of study. For part-time students, the program takes eight semesters, and you will have classes on only two days a week. As a full-time student, you will have classes on four or five days a week, and the program will take six semesters to complete.

• Swiss federal commercial vocational baccalaureate: no entrance exam or additional professional experience required
• Swiss federal (non-commercial) vocational baccalaureate: no entrance exam but at least one year of regular work in the commercial field
• Swiss federal baccalaureate: no entrance exam but at least one year of regular work in the commercial field
• No definitive debarment from a (business) law degree program at a university

Further details about the admission requirements