University of Teacher Education in the Canton of Valais

The University of Teacher Education in the canton of Valais is located on two sites which are 100 km apart: St-Maurice in the French-speaking part of the canton and the Alpine town of Brig in the German-speaking region. It is a bilingual institution (French and German) which offers all levels of training, from primary school through to gymnasium level.

The institution was founded in 2001. For the bachelor course in primary education, the Haute Ecole Pédagogique du Valais (HEP-VS)/Pädagogische Hochschule Wallis (PH-VS) has a unique system whereby all of the students are required to do one third of their training in the second cantonal language (French or German). The Secondary I and II level course (gymnasium) is a part-time system, which allows students to undertake a professional activity as a teacher.

Research and collaboration

The HEP-VS/PH-VS collaborates with other universities in the French-speaking part of Switzerland on many themes, one example of which is didactics. For many other research projects, the HEP-VS/PH-VS collaborates with the universities of education in the mountainous cantons of Ticino and Graubünden. Together, these institutions cover four languages – French, German, Italian and Romansh – with an accent on the problems of teaching in small schools with many levels in mountainous regions.