Our history
Generations of psychology students have built this association through events, projects and volunteer work. Known as psyCH for most of its history, the association entered a comprehensive organizational renewal in 2025 and continues today as PsyCH-Students.
This is a look at some of the projects, people and turning points behind the association we are rebuilding today.
2003
Sven Gross and Markus Hausamann founded psyCH as the umbrella association of psychology students in Switzerland. The founding member associations came from the Universities of Bern, Zurich, Lausanne, Fribourg and Basel.
2004
Neuchâtel, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) joined in 2004, expanding the association's national network.
2004-2005
psyCH organized an Executive Board meeting of the European Federation of Psychology Students' Associations (EFPSA) in Solothurn and took part in a group exchange with Croatia and the Netherlands.
Learn more about EFPSA2005-2006
The first version of the internship platform, then called psyPra, went online. A member of the Swiss association also took on the EFPSA presidency.
2006-2008
Geneva joined in 2006-2007. psyCH began producing starter kits for psychology students and introduced motivation days in 2007-2008.
2008-2010
Another EFPSA board and representative meeting took place in the Basel countryside. psyPra gained new features and more internship listings in 2009-2010, and psyCH began attending the presidential conference of the Federation of Swiss Psychologists.
psyCH also organized psyLive, a public event about prejudice that received national media attention.
2010-2011
psyKo 2011 in Därstetten sold out within a week. psyPra recorded 2'000 registrations within a month.
2011-2012
The team distributed 2'500 information kits to new students across Switzerland. During 2011-2012, psyPra received around 20'000 visits a month.
2012-2013
The tenth psyKo was organized, and Switzerland hosted another EFPSA board and member representative meeting, this time in a castle. In March 2013, Antje Stahnke, Eva Eggemann and Rebekka Kuhn produced the first handbook to help pass knowledge to the next team.
2013-2014
Team training with EFPSA trainers was introduced. psyCH also began developing the "professional perspectives" project with the Federation of Swiss Psychologists, with a launch planned for the following July.
Pandemic years
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hit the association hard. Engagement declined, handovers became more difficult, and established processes and partnerships were lost. Several parts of the organization later had to be rebuilt from the ground up.
2025
psyCH began a period of organizational renewal, revisiting its structure and the way the association worked.
2026
On 9 February 2026, the association publicly relaunched as PsyCH-Students. The renewed structure includes seven departments, including a dedicated Politics department for student representation, alongside clearer governance, roles and digital foundations.
See how the association works todayTo the Dinos and everyone who came before us
To our Dinos: this association exists because generations of students cared enough to build it, carry it and make it their own. You gave psyCH its foundations, its traditions and a sense of community that reached far beyond any single board year. We are deeply grateful for the time, energy and care you invested, often simply because you believed that psychology students across Switzerland deserved something worth passing on.
That gratitude extends to the founders, former board members, local student associations, working groups and the many volunteers whose names do not appear on this page. The projects you started, the relationships you built, the knowledge you documented and the memories you left behind are all part of PsyCH-Students today. Much of what we can rebuild now is possible because others took responsibility before us.
We are especially thankful to those who took the time to document what they had learned and update the handbook for the people who would come next. That kind of work rarely gets much attention, but it preserves experience, prevents knowledge from being lost and gives each new generation a stronger place to begin. We hope to continue that same spirit of care for those who will take over after us.
Share a memory or help complete the record