Registration kihz Daycare Centres

The kihz Foundation was set up by ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich in order to provide childcare for children between 4 months and 4 years whose parents belong to one of these universities i.e. professors, staff or students. Staff of the related institutes WSL, Empa, Eawag and PSI as well as members of the ETH Board can use this offer too.

This service

1. helps parents to better combine family and career / studies
2. benefits the universities, as it offers excellent conditions in their search for world-class researchers and staff
3. raises the attraction of Zurich as a centre of research.

The criteria for allocating places in the kihz daycare centres take these aims into consideration.

Since our daycare centres are mostly filled to capacity, we can only allocate a place when we know that one will be free. Chances of obtaining a place are higher in the summer when the older children enter kindergarten. The kihz Foundation has a waiting list for parents interested in securing a place.

Please let us know of your interest by filling in the registration form online. As soon as we have received your registration, you will be sent an email summarising your details.

Once your application has been registered, you will receive another email with information on the next steps.

As soon as we receive notice that a place will be free, the head of the daycare centre will mail or personally call all parents who come into question. In order to keep the waiting list up to date, we will ask you once or up to twice a year to confirm that your application is still valid. Please inform us via info@kihz.ethz.ch if your details have changed or if you wish to withdraw your application.

For legal reasons, and due to the universities’ subsidies, we are obliged to adhere to certain admission criteria. The following chart shows a summary of the priorities and criteria for allocating daycare places.

Parents are only entitled to a place if they can prove that a real need exists in order to be able to combine family and career i.e. the amount of childcare must bear a reasonable relationship to the percentage that both parents work (1 day = 20%). The parents’ work volumes are added together and whatever exceeds 140% counts as justifiable childcare hours. Parents who can prove that their profession binds them to working only on certain days of the week are entitled to extra childcare time.

The kihz Parents Administration Office is obliged to verify this before allocating a place.