I want to do a career change and enter psychology, I don’t speak German/French so I will likely opt for studying remotely at a UK or EU Univerisity.
To become a member of FSP, a BSc+MSc that’s strongly aligned with Swiss unis is needed, but that’s all the info I could get, as each application submission/request for equivalence is treated individually, so they gave me no response to the question is a BSc+MSc for uni XYZ something you’d approve as equivalent. They more or less said, when you have a BSc+MSc, then you can apply and then you will find out, they don’t have a list of approved programs.
What I want to avoid is doing a BSc+MSc ( significant time and money investment ) and then hearing, “sorry but we don’t approve equivalence”, so I was wondering has anyone had foreign degrees recognised as equivalent? what was their experience with the process?
If the degrees were done as remote learning ( how I plan to study ), this would be even more interesting to me as it would help me chart a path of studies likely to lead to FSP membership.
Do you hold any EU nationalities? If you are lacking on language and EU citizenship, the road to working here as a psychologist could be very difficult.
No, that is your Plan A. Even if you do get a degree that might be recognised here I suspect without speaking either German or French you wouldn’t be accepted to practice here. So yes, you need a Plan B that includes learning whichever Swiss language is officially spoken in your area. Otherwise I suggest coming up with a Plan C which means choosing a different career change that doesn’t require you to learn a Swiss language to do.
That is a question for later times though.
Now it’s the equivalence that I care about, so that I can become a registered “psychologist” ( specifically for the “psychologist” title, not “clinical psychologist” nor educational psychologist ).
In principle, the following documents must be scanned and uploaded to the SERI online portal:
copy of passport / identity card
qualification subject to recognition (in its original language)
official translation of the qualification if it is in a language other than French, Italian, German or English
Once you have submitted your application, you may be required to submit further documents, such as a certified copy of your qualification, or in some cases a language certificate. This varies on a case-by-case basis and you will receive an email indicating which additional documents, if any, need to be uploaded to the online portal before your application can be examined."
I believe you would be better off asking directly to the SBAP (the official association ) or the FSP (Federation of Swiss Psychologists) more than a general forum. The regulations on the physician’s front are state-regulated and rather strict.
Thank you, this sounds like the best route.
I’m aware of cases they have recognised but I’d want a validation of recognistion for specific BSc’s+MSc’s before starting my studies.
Hopefully they can say something along the lines of, we have members with these BSc+MSc degrees.
Unless you are a citizen of a EEA state, there is no obligation on a member state to recognise your qualification, even if you obtain the qualification within the EEA. This was ruled on by the ECJ during the BREXIT discussions, where a few UK professionals (accountants, solicitors and barristers) tried to use their Irish qualifications to gain EU recognition.
Why later? If your plan is to remain in CH and practice psychology, it seems that an obvious, and much simpler, way to get there would be to learn the language first and take your course of study on that language within the Swiss system. No equivalence required.
You should also consider that in the time it will take you for your studies, things could always change. No one can give you certainty now and even if you get in writing that a certain course of study will be accepted, they could still deny it later.
Important is also to understand if there is any requirements from health insurance since nowadays psychologists are reimbursed.