Swiss universities and colleges should become more elitist, raising fees and entrance requirements, the principal of one of the country's most prestigious institutions has said.

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The director of the Technical Institute, ETH, Lino Guzzella, told newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that tuition fees should double and the bar for entry should be raised. 

This would mean an increase in fees from 1,300 francs ($1,328) to 2,600 francs ($2,655) per year.

Although this is currently only under discussion for the Zurich college, such increases are also being considered to the Lausanne Technical Institute, newspaper Tribune de Genève reported.

Those behind the initiative maintain that the idea is not to exclude poorer students, but is intended as a measure to curb the flow of students, which has been steadily increasing in the past ten years.

A good deal of the traffic comes from abroad, but also includes Swiss mature students.

“This is the result of political choices,” Markus Bernhard, communications chief at ETH, told the newspaper.

The college maintains that the additional income generated would be applied to creating more scholarships. However this does not satisfy some critics, who say that the scholarship system often excludes individuals whose means are marginally over the limit, meaning that assistance for them is just out of reach.