The University of Fribourg (French: Université de Fribourg; German: Universität Freiburg) is a university in the city of Fribourg, Switzerland.
The roots of the university can be traced back to 1580, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg. In 1763, an Academy of law was founded by the state of Fribourg which formed the nucleus of the present Law Faculty. The University of Fribourg was finally created in 1889 by an Act of the parliament of the Swiss Canton of Fribourg.
The University of Fribourg is Switzerland’s only bilingual university and offers full curricula in both French and German, two of Switzerland's national languages. Students number about 10,000; there are about 200 tenured professors and 700 other academic teaching and research personnel. The Misericorde Campus, constructed between 1939–42, was designed by the architects Honegger and Dumas, students of Swiss architect Le Corbusier.
There are five faculties: Catholic theology, law, natural sciences, humanities, and economics and social sciences.
The university owes its earliest origin to the foundation of the Jesuit College St. Michel on Belze Hill by Peter Canisius in 1580 at the invitation of the government of Fribourg. In 1763, an Academy of Law was founded, housed in the Albertinium (now a Dominican residence). In 1834, the cantonal library was formed from works brought to Fribourg (from Catholic monasteries) for safekeeping. The College St. Michel was closed following the expulsion of the Jesuits from Fribourg after the canton's defeat in the Sonderbund war.
In 1886, Georges Python, founder of the cantonal bank and State Counsellor for Fribourg (M.P. in the upper house of the Swiss parliament) became Director of Public Education. He raised funds through a lottery and was granted some 2,500,000 CHF by the canton. The cantonal library became integrated with that of the university and the Academy became the Faculty of Law. In 1939, the university moved to a new campus constructed on the former cemetery of Misericorde, ceding St. Michel to one of Fribourg's gymnasia, which took the name College St. Michel. During the Second World War, the university set up "university camps" along with the University of Zürich, HEC in St. Gall and a Lycée camp at Wetzikon provided a wide variety of courses to educate Polish prisoners of war.
The Perolles campus was constructed on the site of a former wagon factory.
Although many lectures were originally in Latin, Fribourg is now the only French/German bilingual university in the world (45% French and 55% German). The town itself is 70% French and 30% German. This fact, coupled with the traditional dominance of French as the language of the city aristocracy explains why French has remained so dominant in university administration and in the AGEF (Association Generale des Etudiants Fribourgois), the Student's Union. To commemorate the centerary of the university, La Poste issued a stamp depicting the figures Science and Sagesse.
In 2005, the university inaugurated its Perolles 2 campus, to which the Faculty of Economics and Social Science relocated. The university has the third largest collection of Biblical antiquities in the world after the British Museum and the Cairo Museum. Fribourg has also developed FriMat, a centre of excellence in nanotechnology. As part of the BeNeFri association comprising the Universities of Berne, Neuchâtel and Fribourg, students at any one of these universities may take courses at another in the association and still receive credit at their home institution. The academic degrees were the Demi-Licence, Licence, DEA / DESS, Doctorate. The university now follows the requirements of the Bologna process. The University of Fribourg launched for the 2009–2010 academic year a new postgraduate law programme, the "Master of Laws in Cross-Cultural Business Practice" (MLCBP), an LL.M taught entirely in English.
Fribourg has no central campus and its buildings are located throughout the city. The main sites are:
Misericorde - Humanities and central administration (including the famous Senate room)Perolles - SciencePerolles 2 - Economics & Social SciencesRegina Mundi - PsychologyBCU centrale - Main LibraryPierre Aeby - Department of Classical PhilologyBonnesfontaines - PedagogyStade St. Leonard - University StadiumThe Fribourg University is divided in five faculties:
The Faculty of Humanities is the largest faculty with about 4,000 students. They follow courses and seminars in the fields of philosophy, historical sciences, languages, literature, education, psychology or social sciences.The Faculty of Law has about 1,900 students. The program includes national and international law; both subjects areas can be followed bilingual.The Faculty of Theology is the largest and the most international of Switzerland, and, with Lucerne, it is the only state university in Switzerland to have a Faculty of Catholic Theology.Approximately 1,900 students are enrolled in one of the four Bachelor programmes and one of the seven Master programmes of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences. The faculty is composed of four departments: business management, economics, computer science, media and communication. In addition, the international institute of management in technology (iimt) and the Verbandsmanagement Institute (VMI) are attached to the Faculty.The Faculty of Science was founded in 1896 and has seven departments: biology, chemistry, geosciences, computer science, mathematics, medicine and physics. The Faculty is composed of 14 fields: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, geography, computer science, human medicine and dentistry (Bachelor), mathematics, neuroscience, pharmacy, physics, biomedical sciences, environmental sciences, earth sciences (geology) and sport.Dies Academicus - On this day in November every year, no lectures are held. Festivities begin with Mass in the Chapel of the Collège St. Michel. The members of the University then proceed to the Aula Magna (Great Hall) in solemn procession. After an address by the rector and a prominent guest speaker, honorary degrees are awarded. The student guilds attend in ceremonial dress including swords.Corporations - These are similar to the Studentenverbindungen in Germany and Austria, but there is no de facto constraint to participate as it is in the student nations at the universities of Uppsala, Lund and Helsinki. They maintain Central European student traditions and meet at least once a week around a Stammtisch ("regulars’ table") in order to socialise, drink and sing together. They tend to be organised on linguistic lines. One of them is still engaged in dueling, while the other corporations in Fribourg already rejected this tradition at the time they were founded, amongst others for religious reasons. Membership has often been considered advantageous for those wishing to pursue a career in business, politics or law. Most of Fribourg's student corporations belong to the formerly Catholic Schweizerischer Studentenverein. An example is AV Fryburgia.The Day of Welcomes (Jour D’Accueil) - Similar to Freshers’ Week in anglophone universities. New students are invited to the Aula Magna, where they are welcomed to Fribourg by the Rector and the Syndic (Mayor of the City of Fribourg). This is followed by a meal in the university mensa provided by the city, where new students are expected to dine with the rest of the faculty to which they have been admitted.Every year, the Catholic Church holds collections during masses throughout Switzerland. Known as Fribourg Sunday, the funds raised are mainly used to award scholarships to foreign priests by the Faculty of Theology.Branding
The university seal depicts a cross and bishop's ring representing the university's Catholic ethos on a shield of black and white, representing the canton of Fribourg. The logo of the university is a blue stylized "F" (with triangles echoing the facade structure of the Miséricorde Building and symbolizing the Alps) and the name of the university in Latin.
Writers and academics
Maurice Zermatten, writer, winner of the Schiller International PrizeLéon Savary, writer and journalist.Tariq Ramadan, philosopher and Islamic scholarMichel Plancherel, mathematicianAlbert Gockel, physicist, a graduate of Heidelberg but a Professor of Fribourg, involved in the discovery of cosmic radiationGonzague de Reynold, writer and academic, author of Cités et pays suisseMary Daly, feminist theologian and advocate of parthenogenesisEmmanuel Levinas, philosopherThierry Madies, economic advisor to French Prime Minister Dominique de VillepinPhilippe Gugler, president, European International Business AcademyPeter Trudgill, British sociolinguist and dialectologistJerome Murphy-O'Connor Professor of New Testament at the Ecole Biblique in JerusalemJean Zermatten, academic and Chair of U.N. Commission on the Rights of the Child.Luc E. Weber, Rector Emeritus of the University of GenevaWerner Ulrich, Swiss social scientist and practical philosopher, one of the originators of "critical systems thinking" (CST).Hans Wolfgang Brachinger, German mathematician and econometricianPatrick Aebischer, the current president of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneCaroline Jaden Stussi, Screenplay Writer and ActressPietro Balestra, Swiss economist specialized in econometricsPhilippe J. Deschamps, Belgian economist specialized in econometricsReiner Eichenberger, Chair of the Center for Public Finance at the University of FribourgHugo Obermaier, prehistorian and anthropologistWilhelm Schmidt (linguist), Austrian linguist, anthropologist, and ethnologist.Peter Thullen, mathematicianWinfried Sebald, German writerVincas Mykolaitis, Lithuanian poet and writerEliseo Verón, sociologistCardinal Georges Cottier, official theologian to the Papal Household (under John Paul II), Secretary of the International Theological CommissionCardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of ViennaCardinal Franciszek Macharski, former Archbishop of CracowCardinal Angelo Scola, Patriarch of VeniceCardinal Basil Hume, former Archbishop of WestminsterCardinal Henri Schwery, Bishop of SionCardinal Michael Browne O.P., Master General of the Order of PreachersCardinal Gilberto Agustoni, Prefect Emeritus of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic SignatureCardinal Gaspard Mermillod, attended the Jesuit Seminary that was the forerunner of the university, Cardinal Beer takes its name from him.Cardinal Aloisius Joseph Muench, Bishop of Fargo, North DakotaPrince Max von Sachsen, Bishop, Prince of Saxony and son of King George of Saxony and Donna Maria Anna, the Infanta of PortugalBernard Genoud, Bishop of Geneva, Lausanne and FribourgDom Henry Wansbrough OSBCardinal Clemens August Graf von GalenRupert Mayer Blessed, Jesuit critic of the Nationalist Socialist RegimeGiuseppe Motta, Federal Chancellor (Swiss Cabinet member) 1911-40 (President of Switzerland 1915, '20, '27, '32, '37), President of the League of Nations 1924-25Joseph Deiss, Federal Chancellor 1999-2006, President of Switzerland 2004, President of the United Nations General Assembly 2010-11Ruth Metzler, Federal Chancellor, Member of the Swiss Federal Council 1999-2003, Vice President of Switzerland 2003Chaim Weizmann, First President of IsraelJuan Carlos I, King of SpainAlbert Pintat, head of the government of AndorraGiuseppe Lepori, Federal Chancellor and Consigliere del popolo (M.P.) for TicinoIgnacy Mościcki, President of Poland 1926-1939Bill Press, U.S. political commentator and former Chairman of the Democratic Party of CaliforniaCorina Casanova, Federal Chancellor of Switzerland 2008–2015Flavio Cotti, President of the Swiss Confederation 1991, 1998Enrico Celio, President of the Swiss Confederation 1943, 1948Kurt Furgler, President of the Swiss Confederation 1977, 1981 and 1985Ludwig von Moos, President of the Swiss Confederation 1964, 1969Hans Hürlimann, President of the Swiss Confederation 1979Arnold Koller, President of the Swiss Confederation 1990, 1997Simonetta Sommaruga, Member of the Swiss Federal Council 2010–Present, President of the Swiss Confederation 2015Martine Brunschwig Graf, Swiss politician, member of the Swiss National CouncilRichard Thomas "Dick" McCormack, US Ambassador to the Organization of American States 1985-1989, US Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs 1989-1991Otmar Hasler, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein 2001-09Gerard Batliner, former Head of Government (Regierungschef) of Liechtenstein (1962–1970)Elijah Malok Aleng,Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan and President of othe Bank of Southern Sudan(BOSS) (2005–2011)Joseph Bech, Luxembourgian politician and 15th Prime Minister of LuxembourgJean-Marie Musy, Federal Chancellor, Member of the Swiss Federal CouncilJuli Minoves, Andorran ambassador, plenipotentiary, and political scientistBusiness and economics
Heinrich Burk, former CEO of ACNielsenStephan Klapproth, Swiss journalist and television presenterKlaus Martin Schwab, German economist, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic ForumAdolphe Merkle, founder of Vibro-Meter International AG, Adolphe Merkle FoundationUrs Felber, Swiss industrialist, philanthropist and design pioneer.Albert M. Baehny, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Geberit Group since January 1, 2005Jean-Marie Ayer, co-founder of Dartfish, Chairman and CEO 1999-2003.Arthur Dunkel (August 26, 1932 - June 8, 2005) was a Swiss (Portuguese-born) administrator and a professor at the University of Fribourg. He served as director-general of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade between 1980 and 1993.Marc Moret, former Chairman of Sandoz, uncle of Daniel Vasella's wifeRené Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)Gianni Infantino, current FIFA presidentMario Botta, Founder of the Academy of Architecture at Mendrisio (Honoris Causa)Antonin Gregory Scalia, U.S. JusticeGiusep Nay, president of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland 2005-2006, 1988–2006Alois Pfister, member of the Federal Supreme Court of SwitzerlandLuzius Wildhaber Swiss judge and first President of the European Court of Human RightsMiguel San Juan, Mister Switzerland 2006Andrea Jansen, Journalist - Swiss National TelevisionThree of the members of the medieval ensemble Freiburger Spielleyt are graduates of the university's early music programKarl Friedrich, Prince of HohenzollernProf. Paul Cantonneau, modelled on Georges Python, is a Professor at Fribourg in one of the Tintin comics.