It was the end of the sixties, and Fleming College, a program of The American School in Switzerland, was closing its doors. Four of its faculty, Theo Brenner, Wilfried Geens, Pascal Tone and Jacques Villaret teamed up with the chair of Fleming’s European board to found a new higher education institution named after Benjamin Franklin. They believed that by providing international experiences to students, Franklin College would strengthen the relationships between members of different nations and cultures.

Pascal Tone spent the summer of 1970 recruiting the first class in New York City while the others completed preparation of the first campus at Villa Cirla, an 18th century building in Lugano. That year, Franklin employed 10 faculty and offered 36 courses under 4 subjects: Study of Civilizations, Art, Politics and Economics, and Languages and Literature.

During the seventies, Franklin moved to Villa Ferrari and then to Villa Sassa, where it was first accredited as a two-year college by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). In 1986 Franklin College Switzerland finally took residence in its permanent campus on Via Ponte Tresa in Sorengo. In that same year it was accredited as a four-year college by the MSCHE.