In the present work we study extensively the manipulation of superconductivity through ferromagnetismin a new category of hybrids. The studied hybrids consist of antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic (AF/FM)[La0.33Ca0.67MnO3/La0.60Ca0.40MnO3]15 multilayers (MLs)in contact with a low-Tc Nb superconductor (SC). In these hybrids a relatively thick FM buffer layer wasused as a reservoir for the generation of stray fields that influence the SCintensively. Our results show that in the parallel field configuration the SCbecomes ferromagnetically coupled to the ML when field-cooled through itsTcSC. Thus, although the SC should behave diamagnetically in respect to the externallyapplied magnetic field, its bulk magnetization behaves ferromagnetically andswitches together with the magnetization of the ML when its coercive field isexceeded (switching effect). By employing specific experiments, where the ML wasselectively exchange biased or not, we clearly demonstrate that the ML structure,separating the FM buffer and the SC layers, inflicts its magnetic properties on thewhole hybrid. Thus, in such ML/SC hybrids the exchange bias mechanism can beused for regulating the switching of the SC magnetization. By employing specificexperimental protocols for our magnetization measurements we directly uncoverthat the multidomain magnetic state of the ML strongly suppresses both thetransition’s height and the critical temperature of the SC. Simple FM/SC bilayers havealso been studied. In these samples the switching effect is observed only for zeroexternal field, while it is absent when a magnetic field is applied. This indicates thatthe ML structure is an essential ingredient for the generic observation of theswitching effect. Our experimental results support recent theoretical studies referringto the mutual proximity effect (Kharitonov et al 2006 Phys. Rev. B 73 054511),to the possible formation of spin-triplet superconductivity (Bergeret et al 2001Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 4096), and to the influence of an FM domain state on theproperties of an SC (Buzdin and Mel’nikov 2003 Phys. Rev. B 67 020503(R)) inrelevant hybrids. Apart from their importance for theory, our results are valuablefor the design of spin-valve devices that recently have attracted great interest.