The University of Geneva (French: Université de Genève) is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for enlightenment scholarship. Today, it is the third largest university in Switzerland by number of students.
In 1873, it dropped its religious affiliations and became officially secular. In 2009, the University of Geneva celebrated the 450th anniversary of its founding. Almost 40% of the students come from over 150 foreign countries.
The university holds and actively pursues teaching, research, and community service as its primary objectives. The University of Geneva is a member of the League of European Research Universities, 4EU+ Alliance, Coimbra Group, International Forum of Public Universities, and European University Association. It is also home to numerous research centers and institutes, including the Global Studies Institute, and the Institute of Global Health.
History
The university was founded in 1559 as the Academy of Geneva (Académie de Genève) by French theologian John Calvin, as a seminary administered by the Company of Pastors, to be the center of public education in Protestant Geneva. With the goal of educating not only pastors but also magistrates for the republic, in 1565 the academy began the teaching of Law.
During the French annexation of Geneva (1798–1813), the school was reorganized into a more universal format, with the introduction of degrees and its division in faculties. This process of modernization continued into the period of national Restoration.
In 1964, Sophie Kanza became the first Congolese woman to graduate from a university when she received her diploma from the University of Geneva with a degree in sociology.
Location
The University of Geneva is located in several districts in the eastern part of the city and in the nearby city of Carouge (on the left bank of the Lake Léman and the Rhône), and the different buildings are sometimes very distant from each other (the Battelle buildings are for instance more than three kilometers away from the Bastions). The oldest building (1559) is the Collège Calvin, and is no longer a university building. Lectures are given in six different main locations, Les Bastions, Uni Dufour, Sciences I, II and III, Uni Mail and Uni Pignon, Centre Médical Universitaire (CMU), and Battelle; as well as in several other locations.
Uni Bastions
Built between 1868 and 1871, Uni Bastions is the symbol of Geneva's academic life. It is located in the middle of a park and is host to the faculty of Protestant Theology and to the Faculty of Arts.
Uni Dufour
Its architecture was inspired by Le Corbusier. It hosts the Rectorat and the administration of the university.
Uni Mail
It is Switzerland's biggest building dedicated to social sciences. It currently hosts the Faculty of Law, of Economics and Management, of Psychology and Education and the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.
Centre Medical Universitaire
Home to the Faculty of Medicine as well as the departments of fundamental and clinical medical research, it is situated in the neighborhood of La Cluse, opposite to of the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Geneve (HUG) (Geneva University Hospitals). The construction of this large-scale medical and academic complex was started in 1970, halted in 1989 and the 6th phase of the project was finished in 2017, and it is now composed of 5 underground levels and 12 above-ground levels. The building now houses the École romande de pharmacie, the Clinique Universitaire de Medecine Dentaire (CUMD) numerous laboratories, facilities for clinical development and research, inter-faculty workspaces, an animal facility and a medical simulation centre. In addition, it also contains a daycare center, several lecture theatres, a cafeteria, communal areas, individual and shared office spaces necessary to house technical equipment, provide storage, and accommodate parking.
Organisation
The University of Geneva is structured in various faculties and interfaculty centers which are representing teaching, research and service to society in the various disciplines.
Faculties
The university is composed of nine faculties:
- Faculty of Sciences
- Faculty of Medicine
- Faculty of Humanities
- Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM)
- Geneva School of Social Sciences (G3S)
- Geneva Law School
- Faculty of Theology
- Faculty of Psychology and Education
- Faculty of Translation and Interpreting
Interfaculty centers
The university is composed of fourteen interfacultary centers. Amongst others:
Associated institutions
The university has also several partnerships with the nearby institutions, where students at the university may take courses.
The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) was administratively associated with the University of Geneva from 1927 to 2009.
Finances
The University of Geneva had a budget of roughly 760 million CHF for the year 2016. It mostly comes from the cantonal subventions, the other notable contributors being the federal state and the tuition fees.
Awards
Nessim-Habif World Prize given since 1963, granted to academics "who illustrate, through particularly original and in-depth thinking and work, a field of exact, medical or human sciences", by the Faculty of Sciences, during its Dies academicus ceremony, in Geneva.
Libraries and press
Libraries
UNIGE's library facilities are spread across four sites.
- Uni Arve is host to seven libraries: Bibliothèque Ernst & Lucie Schmidheiny, Bibliothèque d'Anthropologie, Bibliothèque du Centre universitaire d'informatique, Bibliothèque Georges de Rham (Mathematics), Bibliothèque de l'Institut des Sciences de l'environnement (ISE), Bibliothèque de l'Observatoire (Astronomy) and the Bibliothèque des Sciences de la Terre et de l'environnement.
- Uni Bastions hosts the language libraries, as well as the university's libraries focused on history and musicology.
- Uni CMU is home to an extensive collection of medical issues. Besides, it is also hosts the Centre de documentation en santé (CDS) and the Bibliothèque de l'nstitut de la médecine et de la santé et de l'Institut d'éthique biomédicale (IHMS – IEB).
- Uni Mail's collection is focused on the following themes: Economics and social sciences, Law, Psychology and Learning Sciences, Translation and Interpreting, European studies, French as a foreign language and Musicology. Besides, it also hosts UNIGE's multimedia library.
Press
The journal de l'UNIGE is released biweekly. Its purpose is to ease communication inside the university, to inform the students about the research being carried at UNIGE, to convey new opinions and to inform students and teachers of upcoming university events via l'Agenda.
Campus is released monthly with the objective to ease communication between the scientific community and the citizens and to be a "bridge between science and city".
Academics
Admission and fees
To be enrolled in a bachelor programme, one must hold a Swiss maturity diploma or a secondary diploma considered by the University of Geneva to be equivalent. If the degree was not pursued in French, applicants must pass an eliminatory French language test at the beginning of September, which consists of an oral and a written comprehension test and of a piece of argumentative writing. Tuition fees are of CHF 500 per semester.
Academic year
UNIGE's academic year runs from mid-September to mid-June. It is divided in two semesters, each one being concluded by an examination session, held respectively at the beginning of January and at the beginning of June. An examination session is held at the end of August and beginning of September as a retake for students who failed their January or June examinations.
During the three days before the start of the new academic year, the Journées d'accueil (Welcome Days) are organized by the university to introduce the new students to the city and the facilities, tips are also given on how to succeed at university. A second chapter including city tours, outdoor concerts and animations is also organized by the student association UniAccueil (AUA) to celebrate the new academic year.
Teaching and degrees
Before 2005, the university applied various very different models, depending on Faculties, and sometimes even on Departments (or "Sections"). Some Faculties applied the French education model of granting academic degrees, with some minor differences: demi-licence (two years), trois-quarts de licence (three years), licence (four years), diplôme d'études approfondies and diplôme d'études superieures spécialisées (DEA/DESS) (one–two years), and doctorate (three–five years).
The university now follows the requirements of the Bologna process: bachelor's (three years), master's (one–two years), in some departments or sections Master of Advanced Studies (one–two years), doctorate (three–five years).
UNIGE offers more than 240 types of diplomas: about 30 bachelor's degrees, 70 masters and 78 doctorates. It also provides more than 200 programmes of continuing education in various sectors.
International partnerships
Students at UNIGE have the possibility to study abroad for a semester or a year during their degree. Partner universities include Free University of Berlin, Harvard Law School, École Normale Supérieure, Trinity College Dublin, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Université Libre de Bruxelles, King's College London, McGill University, HEC Montreal, University of Ottawa, University of Oxford, Uppsala University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan, UCLA, University of Southampton, University of Sydney, University of Tokyo.
Research
The key sectors of research at the University of Geneva are sciences (molecular biology, bio-informatics, etc.), elementary physics, astrophysics, economics, social sciences, psychology, chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics.
UNIGE is home to six national research centers: in genetics (Frontiers in Genetics), in material sciences (MaNEP), in study of emotions (Affective Sciences), in chemical biology (with EPFL), in study of mental illness (Synaptic, with EPFL and Unil), in study of life path (with Unil). UNIGE also carries research in international studies since the creation in 2013 of the Global Studies Institute, in finance with the Geneva Finance Research Institute, and in environmental studies, with the creation in 2009 of the Institut des sciences de l'environnement.
Famous discoveries have been made by researcher working at UNIGE including the discoveries of extrasolar planets by Michel Mayor, and of quantum teleportation by Nicolas Gisin.
Rankings
The University of Geneva is consistently ranked one of the top universities in the world.
Global rankings
In 2023, the University of Geneva was ranked 49rd overall in the world according to the Shanghai Ranking. It was ranked 125th overall according to the QS ranking and 183rd overall according to the THE ranking. In 2006, Newsweek ranked the university 32nd in the world.
The QS World University Rankings ranked the University of Geneva as follows:
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked the University of Geneva as follows:
Subject rankings
In molecular biology, the impact of the research carried in Geneva was ranked 4th in Europe by Times Higher Education for the period 1999–2009, directly behind the University of Oxford.
In physics, the 2024 Shanghai ranking placed the University of Geneva at 3rd place in continental Europe and 15th place globally.
The QS 2013 subject ranking placed the University of Geneva at the 21st place in the field of Pharmacy and at the 49th place in Philosophy. In every subject, the university was ranked in the world's top 200.
Other rankings
In the 2013 QS ranking, the university was ranked 24th in the world for most international faculty and 20th in the world for most international student body. In 2023, it was ranked 26th best university overall in Europe.
Student body
In 2016, 16,530 students were studying at UNIGE, of whom 61% were female. 37% of the students were non-Swiss, originating from 151 countries.
4,449 teachers and collaborators, of whom 49% are female, are working for UNIGE.