Admission, Tuition, Deadlines

Application  To apply, please complete the Registration Form.  Make sure you specify the event for which you apply (use the "Comments" field for this purpose) and list your most important qualifications & experiences (in the field "Other qualifications & experience," no more than five altogether). Alternatively, you may submit your qualifications & experience by emailing a short CV to the School Director, at the time of submitting the registration form. Your application and your personal data will be treated confidentially. If for any reason the registration form should not work properly, you may also apply by emailing the information requested in the registration form to the School Director. For inquiries prior to application, use the same email address.

[Note: Due to the closure of the Summer School per end of 2013, application is no longer possible. See the "Announcements" page of this site.]

Admission  Applicants from all applied disciplines and professional fields are welcome (see the page "Participants"). Applications for admission are decided on the basis of individual qualifications & experience as well as motivation (as expressed by a short statement of motivation or by current professional or educational commitments).

Requirements: You should be currently enrolled in a doctoral, postdoctoral or Master of science program, or employed as research or teaching staff. Adequately prepared practitioners of applied disciplines such as those mentioned in the "Participants" page will also be considered for admission. Some demonstrated familiarity with systems thinking, acquired through studies in a related field of study, is normally required; alternatively, a short statement of motivation may help in which you explain your current interest in soft and critical systems thinking. A good level of proficiency in English (both spoken and written) is indispensable.

Please submit your application through the registration form or through an email message in which you give the information requested in the page "Registration Form."  Your application will be confirmed by email. Once your application has been accepted, you will receive formal notification of your admission or non-admission, equally by email. Please provide all the information requested. It is at the discretion of the School to reject applications due to insufficient preparation or availability of study places. With your admission, you will be billed for the tuition fee and you will receive information about payment details. Definitive registration requires full payment of tuition.

Registration Deadlines 

Attention latecomers: Applications will be considered as long as study places are available. About the availability of places, please consult the latest progress report in the page "Current Announcements" of this site. Definitive admission requires formal admission as well as full payment of tuition. Study places will be assigned in the order of tuition payments received; for this reason, early application and payment are recommended to secure your study place. Timely arrangement of your Summer School participation is equally advisable because the earlier you are, the easier it will be for you to find good yet affordable accommodation in Lugano, as well as low-cost flights to Europe (if needed). And of course, timely enrollment helps us in planning and preparing the Summer School events. So, please try to decide about your participation as early as possible and don't wait with your application until the last moment!

Tuition Fees

Due to the difficulty of predicting currency exchange rates for the Euro (EUR) and the US Dollar (USD), the Summer School budget and tuition fee has been calculated in Swiss Francs (CHF). In Swiss Francs, the fee for LSS 2012 is slightly lower than that for previous summer schools; however, due to varying exchange rates, the amount may be higher if translated into equivalent amounts in EUR or USD, depending on the exchange rates that will obtain at the time of payment (a factor beyond the control of the Summer School). The fee includes all charges. Payment is requested in Swiss Francs. Account details for bank transfers will be communicated to the participants with their notification of admission (cf. "Payment options" below).

Reductions  Effective from January 2007, the Lugano Summer School lowered its tuition fees considerably. Consequently, the former discounts for participants coming from economically weaker countries (defined as countries other than Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan) can no longer be offered. In any case, they failed to do justice to the different individual situation of participants and for this reason could be experienced to be unfair or arbitrary by some participants. All participants now pay the same reduced tuition fee, which at any rate is lower than was the previous, reduced fee for participants coming from economically weaker countries. Compare the note on the changed fee policy in the "Current Announcements" page.

Likewise, the School cannot offer any further reductions or even complete tuition waivers, for reasons that are explained in the "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)" page of this site.

The tuition fee does not include meals and accommodation. Participants are requested to arrange their own accommodation. The School can provide a small number of "superior" level self-catering apartments or help with the hotel accommodation (see the page "Facilities and Accommodation").

Refunds  In cases of unforeseen circumstances that do not allow admitted participants to participate, such as medically attested illness or other severe circumstances, tuition fees will be refunded, except for an administrative charge. The extent to which fees are refundable will depend on the time of withdrawal; for details, see the section "Refunds" under FAQs. Of course tuition fees will be fully refunded, with no administrative charge being deducted, if the Summer School event in question should have to be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment or other reasons. In any case, participants are strongly advised to take out some cancellation cost insurance, to help them cover all costs that may not be refundable in a specific case, including flight tickets and accommodation costs.

Invoice   Once your application (see above) has been accepted, you will receive a formal notice of admission that also informs you about the amount to be paid as well as the details for making a bank transfer. If however you need a formal invoice, email the School Director before sending your payment. In any case, you will receive a confirmation of receipt of payment through email.

Payment options  Payment is possible through international bank transfer to the account of the Lugano Summer School (preferred mode of payment) or by on-line credit card payment:

• Bank transfer: Payment details for bank transfers will be given to applicants with the formal confirmation of their admission. Please ask your bank to transfer the tuition directly in the currency specified for the event in which you participate (e.g., for LSS 2008: EUR = Euros), and to make sure that no third-party charges will be deducted from the amount transferred.
• On-line payment through PayPal: For on-line payments (with or without credit card), you may use the link provided below. Please add the applicable transaction fee to the School's tuition fee, to help cover the higher handling cost of such transfers.

On-line credit card payment   You can use the on-line payment service of PayPal to pay your tuition. This option is not recommended, as it tends to be more expensive to both the participant and the Summer School; however, there may be cases where it makes sense for reasons of ease and speed of payment.