University of Geneva
The University of Geneva 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 third largest university in Switzerland by number of students. In 2009, the University of Geneva celebrated the 450th anniversary of its founding. Almost 40% of the students come from foreign countries.
The university holds and actively pursues teaching, research, and community service as its primary objectives. In 2016, it was ranked 53rd worldwide by the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities, 89th by the QS World University Rankings, and 131st in the TIMES Higher Education World University Ranking.
UNIGE is a member of the League of European Research Universities the Coimbra Group and the European University Association.
Location
The University of Geneva is located in several districts in the eastern part of the city and in the nearby city of Carouge, and the different buildings are sometimes very distant from each other. The oldest building 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, and Battelle; as well as in other less important 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.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:-
Interfaculty centers
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences
Associated institutions
- Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
- Bossey Ecumenical Institute
- Wyss Center for Bio- and Neuro-engineering
- Swiss National Supercomputing Centre
-
Finances
Libraries and press
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 , the Bibliothèque de l'Institut des Sciences de l'environnement , Bibliothèque de l'Observatoire 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 and the Bibliothèque de l’Institut de la médecine et de la santé et de l’Institut d’éthique biomédicale.
Uni Mail
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 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 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. Some Faculties applied the French education model of granting academic degrees, with some minor differences: demi-licence, trois-quarts de licence, licence, diplôme d'études approfondies and diplôme d'études superieures spécialisées , and doctorate.The University now follows the requirements of the Bologna process: bachelor's, master's, in some departments or sections Master of Advanced Studies, doctorate.
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, elementary physics, astrophysics, economics, social sociences, psychology, chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics.UNIGE is home to six national research centers: in genetics, in material sciences, in study of emotions, in chemical biology, in study of mental illness, in study of life path. 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 2016, the University of Geneva is ranked 53rd 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:
| Year | In Switzerland | In Europe | In the World |
| 2016 | - | - | 89th |
| 2015 | - | - | 85th |
| 2012 | - | - | 74th |
| 2011 | - | - | 69th |
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked the University of Geneva as follows:
| Year | In Switzerland | In Europe | In the World |
| 2015-2016 | 6th | 131st | |
| 2012-2013 | 5th | 52nd | 133rd |
| 2011-2012 | 7th | 46th | 116th |
| 2010-2011 | 5th | 34th | 118th |
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 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.
Student life
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 have won 2 Fields Medals.The University has hosted several Nobel laureates as students, researchers and/or professors: Norman Angell, Nobel Peace Prize 1933; Karl Gunnar Myrdal Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 1974; Daniel Bovet, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1957; Niels Kaj Jerne, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1984; Maurice Allais, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 1988; Edmond H. Fischer, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1992; Martin Rodbell, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1994; Alan Jay Heeger, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000; Werner Arber, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1978; Kofi Annan, Nobel Peace Prize 2001; Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, Nobel Prize in Physics 2019.
It has also hosted or graduated three Fields Medal laureates: Vaughan Jones, laureate in 1990, Stanislav Smirnov, laureate in 2010 and Martin Hairer, laureate in 2014.
Notable scholars
Notable alumni
In fiction
- James Bond briefly studied at the University of Geneva, as his creator, Ian Fleming did.