History and Accreditation
Named for Benjamin Franklin, the United States’ first ambassador to Europe, Franklin Switzerland was founded in 1969 as Franklin College Switzerland, a non-profit, independent post-secondary institution. From the outset, Franklin College was “dedicated to a new kind of international education, taking as its cornerstone Benjamin Franklin’s vigorous support of a universal, intellectual interchange.”
Franklin earned accreditation as an Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree-granting institution from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in 1975. In the fall of 1986, the College opened the academic year as a four-year institution. In 1990 the Middle States Commission affirmed the accreditation status of the College as a bachelor's degree-granting institution. In 2005, the Swiss University Conference (Schweizerische Universitätskonferenz) and the Swiss Center of Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education recognized all programs of study leading to the Franklin bachelor's degree.
In 2013, following reaccreditation by the Middle States Commission and institutional accreditation by the Swiss University Conference, Franklin College officially became Franklin University Switzerland. This recognition established Franklin as a uniquely positioned institution within higher education, institutionally accredited in both the United States and Switzerland. Over the following decade, Franklin expanded its graduate offerings and strengthened its position as a globally engaged liberal arts institution.
In 2021, Franklin’s accreditation was reaffirmed by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. That same year, the Swiss Accreditation Council reaffirmed Franklin’s institutional accreditation within Switzerland’s newly established category of University Institute, recognizing the University’s distinctive mission, focused academic portfolio, and authority to offer bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. In both the United States and Switzerland, Franklin is accredited to offer Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Master of Arts (M.A.), and Master of Science (M.S.) degrees. In 2025, Franklin launched its first doctoral program, a Ph.D. in Political Science accredited in Switzerland. Following changes in Swiss higher education nomenclature, the institution adopted the name Franklin Switzerland in 2025–2026 while maintaining its dual accreditation in the United States and Switzerland.
As a liberal arts institution since its foundation, Franklin has emphasized what it has designated the “international imperative” in higher education. Today more than ever we see the growing urgency for experiential, international education. Franklin’s emphasis on cross-cultural perspectives is designed to affect the direction and meaning of a student’s university years, life, and career. Accordingly, the institution advocates that substantive international studies should be an integrated part of a university education as both a prelude to and a basis for commitment to a major field of study. This commitment to providing courses of study that are international in perspective and cross-cultural in content remains the cornerstone of Franklin’s educational mission in the global environment of the twenty-first century.