Zurich, August 2, 2012:
The Jacobs Foundation in Zurich and the Swiss Coordination Center for Research in Education (SCCRE) plan to hold a series of conferences and
closed‐door meetings in collaboration with the Swiss Leading House on Economics of Education, a joint initiative of the Chair for Business and Personnel Economics at the University of Zurich and the Center for Research in Economics of Education at the University of Berne.
These events, which will take place between 2013 and 2015, will include two international academic conferences at the Jacobs Foundation Conference Center, located at Marbach Castle on the shore of Lake Constance. In addition, two closed‐door meetings will be held in Zurich. The purpose of these meetings is to bring together researchers and representatives of the policy and administrative spheres to discuss issues of great importance for Switzerland’s education policy.
The first closed‐door meeting, focusing on university dropouts, will take place in May of 2013. The September 2013 academic conference will address the topic of “The optimal mix: An international comparison of education systems.”
The Jacobs Foundation is active worldwide in promoting child and youth development. It was founded in 1989 by entrepreneur Klaus J. Jacobs in Zurich. The Jacobs Foundation allocates a budget of approximately
35 million Swiss francs per year to fund research projects, intervention programs and scientific institutions. It is committed to scientific excellence and evidence‐based research. With its investment of 200 million euros to support Jacobs University Bremen (2006), the Jacobs Foundation has set new standards for private funding.
The Swiss Coordination Center for Research in Education (SCCRE) was founded in 1971 and is a joint institution of the Federal Authorities of the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK). It documents Swiss research on education, coordinates opportunities for dialogue between researchers, administrators and policymakers, and issues Switzerland’s report on education, which comes out every four years.