Motto in English Light after darkness Established 1559 Address 1205 Geneva, Switzerland Acceptance rate 20.8% (2011) Total enrollment 16,908 (2015) | Type Public university Administrative staff approx. 5.600 Undergraduate tuition and fees 1,000 CHF (2014) Phone +41 22 379 71 11 Founded 1559 | |
Motto Post tenebras lux (Latin) Rector Prof. Yves Flückiger (since 2015) Founders John Calvin, Theodore Beza Notable alumni Ferdinand de Saussure, Werner Arber, Vaughan Jones, Jean Starobinski, Michel Mayor Similar University of Lausanne, University of Zurich, École Polytechnique Fédérale, University of Bern, University of Fribourg Profiles | ||
The University of Geneva (French: Université de Genève) is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it dropped its religious affiliations and became officially secular. Today, the university is the second-largest university in Switzerland by number of students. In 2009, the University of Geneva celebrated the 450th anniversary of its founding. At least 40% of the students come from foreign countries.
Contents
- University of geneva universit de gen ve one of top uni in switzerland
- Location
- Uni Bastions
- Uni Dufour
- Uni Mail
- Organisation
- Faculties
- Faculty of Medicine
- Faculty of Humanities
- Faculty Geneva School of Economics and Management GSEM
- Faculty Geneva School of Social Sciences G3S
- Faculty of Psychology and School of Education
- Faculty of Translation and Interpreting
- Interfaculty centers
- Associated institutions
- Finances
- Libraries
- Press
- Admission and fees
- Academic year
- Teaching and degrees
- Bachelor programs
- Master programs
- Executive Education programs
- International partnerships
- Research
- Rankings
- Global rankings
- Subject rankings
- Other rankings
- Student body
- Sports
- Associations
- Alumni
- In fiction
- References
UNIGE has academic research and development programs in various fields that are represented through various faculties such as:
The university holds and actively pursues teaching, research, and community service as its primary objectives. In 2015, it was ranked 58th worldwide by the Shanghai ranking. In 2011, it was ranked 73rd worldwide by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and 69th in the QS World University Rankings.
UNIGE is a member of the League of European Research Universities (including academic institutions such as Amsterdam, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Helsinki and Milan) the Coimbra Group and the European University Association.
University of geneva universit de gen ve one of top uni in switzerland
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 not anymore 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 other less important locations (for instance the Mathematics Section is located at the second and (partly) third and sixth storeys rented by the university in an office building in Carouge).
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 Social Sciences, of Psychology and Education and the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.
Organisation
The University of Geneva is structured in various faculties which are representing teaching, research and service to society in the various disciplines.
Faculties
The University is composed of nine faculties: The university has a partnership with the nearby Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, and students at the university may take courses at these institutes.
Faculty of Medicine
Founded in 1876, ranked one of the top 100 medical schools in the world (#60 in 2015 according to the QS University Rankings, Shanghai, China), both in terms of teaching and medical research. It is one of the larger faculties of the University of Geneva in terms of budget and number of employees. Notable research areas include neuroscience, genetics, and transplantation. It is closely associated with Switzerland's largest hospital complex, the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG).
The University Medical Center (CMU)
Since 1981, the Faculty of Medicine is located in the buildings of CMU in Champel.
Faculty of Humanities
The faculty of Humanities and Arts has various departments and research centers.
Faculty Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM)
GSEM is a new faculty and exists since January 2014. The creation of the GSEM faculty is a result of a merger between two former departments: Economics and HEC. Students of the GSEM Faculty benefit from a bachelor's degree in English and French which brings together the principal disciplines they need to master in a core curriculum. This new curriculum is in place since fall 2015. The GSEM counts more than 1.700 students (Bachelor and Master) and 200 lecturers. The Executive Education counts more than 1.500 participants and over 45 programs (including an Executive MBA (EMBA) and International Organizations MBA (IOMBA). A number of research institutes provide avenues for graduate studies at Master’s and Doctoral levels.
Faculty Geneva School of Social Sciences (G3S)
The Faculty Geneva School of Social Sciences (G3S), was founded on 1 January 2014.
Faculty of Psychology and School of Education
The faculty was created in 1890. It has various departments and several research centers.
Faculty of Translation and Interpreting
The Faculty of Translation and Interpreting (FTI) is one of the oldest translation and interpreting education and research institutions in the world.
Interfaculty centers
Associated institutions
Finances
The University of Geneva had for 2013 a budget of CHF 558,211,000. It mostly comes from the cantonal subventions, the other notable contributors being the federal state and the tuition fees.
Libraries
UNIGE's library facilities are spread across four sites.
Uni Arve is host to seven libraries: the Bibliothèque Ernst & Lucie Schmidheiny, the Bibliothèque d'Anthropologie, the Bibliothèque du Centre universitaire d'informatique, the Bibliothèque Georges de Rham (Mathematics), the 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’Institut 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".
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) (1–2 years), and doctorate (3–5 years).
The University now follows the requirements of the Bologna process: bachelor's (three years), master's (1–2 years), in some departments or sections Master of Advanced Studies (1–2 years), doctorate (3–5 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.
Bachelor programs
Faculty of Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
Faculty Geneva School of Social Sciences (G3S)
Faculty of Humanities
Faculty Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM)
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Theology
Faculty of Psychology and Education
Faculty of Translation and Interpreting
Master programs
While all bachelor programs are taught in French (except in the Faculty GSEM), many master are programs are held in English, mostly in the fields of business and of science.
Faculty Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM)
Faculty Geneva School of Social Science (G3S)
Executive Education programs
Faculty Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM Executive)
The organizational Unit for Executive Education (lifelong learning) of the faculty is called GSEM Executive (formerly it was called HEC Executive).
Master of Advances Studies (MAS)
Diploma of Advances Studies (DAS)
Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS)
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 sociences, 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 2015, the University of Geneva is ranked 58th overall in the world according to the Shanghai Ranking. In 2012, it was ranked 69th overall in the world according to the Shanghai Ranking, 74th overall according to the QS ranking and 133rd 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, UNIGE was ranked sixth.
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 world for most international faculty and 20th in the world for most international student body.
Student body
In 2009-2010, 13,667 students were studying at UNIGE (14,489 students with the IHEID and IEB), of whom 61% were female, the highest female percentage in any Swiss university. 36% of the students were non-Swiss, originating from 131 countries. 3,574 teachers and collaborators, of whom 1,451 are female, are working for UNIGE.
Sports
The Bureau des sports organizes all the sports related activity at UNIGE. Free sports lessons are given everyday and it suffices to show one's student card to access. Other lessons organization with the university's partners demand a small fee. UNIGE is home to the Geneva university championships in basketball, indoor football, rowing, badminton, outdoor football. The university also sends teams to the Swiss university championship in badminton, indoor football, skiing, basketball, fencing, football, golf, ice-hockey, table tennis and volleyball. UNIGE also provides special schedules for students wishing to pursue their high level sporting career and to study at the same time.
Associations
Alumni UNIGE is the alumni association of the University of Geneva, it offers a network of several thousand people to its members, as well as other advantages, such as discount prizes, special events, access to the official networking platform. Atout-lettres is the alumni association of the literature students of the University, founded in 1997. Its purpose is to prepare the professional insertion of the literature students, to establish links between literature student and the working world and to promote the formation given by the Faculté de Lettres.
Alumni
Over the course of its history, a sizeable number of UNIGE alumni have become notable in their fields, both academic, and in the wider world. Affiliates of the University of Geneva have won 10 Nobel prizes. Graduate alumni (Martin Hairer and Vaughan Jones) have won 2 Fields Medals.
The University has hosted several Nobel laureates as students, researchers and/or professors: Norman Angell (1872–1967), Nobel Peace Prize 1933; Karl Gunnar Myrdal (1898–1987) Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 1974; Daniel Bovet (1907–1992), Nobel Prize in Medicine 1957; Niels Kaj Jerne (1911–1994), Nobel Prize in Medicine 1984; Maurice Allais (1911–2010), Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 1988; Edmond H. Fischer (1920–), Nobel Prize in Medicine 1992; Martin Rodbell (1925–1998), Nobel Prize in Medicine 1994; Alan Jay Heeger (1936- ), Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000; Werner Arber (1929– ), Nobel Prize in Medicine 1978; Kofi Annan (1938– ), Nobel Peace Prize 2001.
It has also hosted or graduated three Fields medal laureates: Vaughan Jones (1952– ), Fields Medal laureate in 1990, Stanislav Smirnov (1970– ), Fields Medal laureate in 2010 and Martin Hairer (1975- ), Fields Medal laureate in 2014.