Despite its multilingual society and four national languages, Switzerland has for the longest time offered tertiary education in French and German only. Historically, universities have existed in the German-speaking part since the 15^thcentury and in the French-speaking part since the 16^th century. Ticino, the only officially monolingual Italian-speaking canton, founded the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) in 1995. To this day, the USI only offers six study programs. This implies that Italian-speaking students are forced to choose among not to study at all, choose a study program out of the limited offer, move to Italy or to a different linguistic region in Switzerland to study in either French or German.

The university attracting most Italian-speaking students is the French- and German-bilingual University of Fribourg (UNIFR). According to UNIFR (UNIFR, 2022a), approximately 10% of its students are Italian-speaking, either from the canton of Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Grisons, or Italy. Although Italian is the L1 of the third largest language group of speakers after French (39%) and German (36%) and is a national language, there are no official language policies or offers to support Italian at university. The university language policy explicitly states that 

1. French and German are the languages used in teaching and administration. 
2. The faculties may permit other languages of instruction. 
3. The University favors and promotes understanding between persons from different linguistic and cultural areas; in particular, it encourages bilingual studies in French and German. (University law, Art. 6)

Rather, the strict emphasis on the two official languages can be seen to reinforce ideological language choices and create exclusion not only for Italian-speaking but also for any international students who do not speak French or German. 

The present study investigates the lived experiences of language and the resulting challenges of Italian-speaking and international students at UNIFR by asking: 

1. What are students’ language practices and perspectives on the university’s language policies? 
2. What challenges do they face when starting university in a different linguistic region and/or national context?
3. To what extent does English contribute to or impede language and identity development? 

The study aims at raising awareness of hegemonic practices through linguistic homogenization and monolingual language policies when multilingual diversity is the social and university’s reality. A special focus is put on the global phenomenon of ‘Englishization' in the context of higher education describing the spread and common use of English as a medium of instruction without any official status as a national language in the local linguascape (Lanvers, 2018), which has been attested to be the case also in Switzerland (Studer & Siddiqa, 2021). In fact, in their study on English in Swiss higher education, Studer and Siddiqa (2021) conclude that 

"the Swiss pragmatic way lack[s] a comprehensive and overarching commitment to national languages and national multilingualism as an expression of the nation’s culture and identity. English…is not only used as a welcome and efficient tool for communication but may, locally, be elevated to rank side-by-side with national languages." (p. 137) 

The study is embedded in a qualitative research design and draws on the ethnography of multilingualism (Heller, 2008). Recently, critical approaches have been adopted to investigate institutional power structures to which this study will contribute by analyzing the space in which students meet every day and create experiences that positively and/or negatively shape their lived experiences of language. According to Heller (2008), multilingualism must be understood as a social practice in which languages and their speakers cannot be subsumed under one closed entity or neatly separated from each other, but rather one in which the speakers actively negotiate and reproduce themselves and the social order. The focus then expands from multilingual people and the improvement of their language skills to critically examining practices and their interwovenness within institutions and other historical or socio-political contexts. Ethnography of multilingualism investigates linguistic practices, language hierarchies, inclusion and exclusion mechanisms, and other power relations transmitted through language (Blackledge & Creese, 2010). The participant observations and interviews were conducted from 2020-2022 in three BA classes as well as a Diploma of Advanced Study (DAS) program and included 14 students (4 BA and 10 DAS). Students gave their explicit consent to participate in the study and for me to disseminate the data in academic publications. All of the students except for one followed a French-German bilingual program. The data are comprised of field notes, informal conversations, and semi-structured interviews. The interviews lasted approximately 90 minutes, were conducted in Italian, French, or German, audio recorded, and transcribed verbatim. The field notes and transcripts were analyzed in MaxQDA using a qualitative, ethnographic codebook (LeCompte & Schensul, 2013), resulting in the following themes, which will be presented in the following section: • Challenges when starting university in non-L1 and/or international context • Multilingual repertoires in mono-/bilingual instructional contexts • Advantages and disadvantages of the Englishization at UNIFR

Given Switzerland’s self-attributed identity as Willensnation [nation united by the will of the people], a nation not founded on one ethnicity or language compared to its neighboring countries, but on multiculturalism and multilingualism, including (at least) all three national languages seems to be the more equitable solution, as argued by this study. English, on the other hand, is included as lingua franca adopting a semi-official status through readings, classroom activities, presentations, and most obviously, language policy promoting its necessity in academic settings. As advertised on its website, “some study programs are even [offered] entirely in English” (UNIFR, 2022b). This corresponds with most of the participants’ perspectives on English, too. It is often uncritically recognized as the only acceptable academic language, which is "[legitimized]…through meritocratic rhetoric" (Carlucci, 2017, p. 134). Problematically, the uncritical adoption of English as an academic language not only obfuscates underlying power relations mobilized through language (Heller & Duchêne, 2012) but also contributes to the dispossession of individuals' L1 linguistic capital. That said, English proficiency in academia is beneficial; it improves intercultural communication, enables cooperation and research projects, and increases academic/professional opportunities globally. Van Parijs (2021, p. 355) sharply asks, “is the Englishization of Europe’s higher education a problem?” This contribution has argued that it would only be a problem if English were to hegemonize the local linguistic landscape and impede identity and language development in students' L1s and Switzerland's local languages. Establishing English as an additional language while being critical of underlying power relations, language hierarchies, and commodification processes of languages but also higher education more generally, can be a resource for students and faculty members. As Van Parijs (2021, p. 366) summarized it, multilingual local or international students can be “go-betweens,…bridge builders between the irreversibly internationalized and Englishized academic community and our stubbornly distinctive local communities.”

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