University of Zurich

The University of Zurich is a public research university in Zurich and Switzerland's largest comprehensive university. It was founded in 1833 by the Canton of Zurich as a secular state university and absorbed older chairs in theology and law. Faculties, not colleges, are the structural unit, and teaching is spread across sites in the city center, at Irchel, and at other Zurich locations.

Seven faculties cover theology; law; business, economics and informatics; medicine; veterinary medicine (the Vetsuisse Faculty, shared with Bern); arts and social sciences; and science. Graduate strength is in medicine, life sciences, economics, law, and the humanities. University Hospital Zurich and the Irchel science campus are the main sites for clinical and laboratory work.

Enrollment is about 26,000 students, including a large master's and doctoral population. A substantial share of doctoral students come from outside Switzerland, from Germany, Italy, and many other countries. Faculty number several thousand. Albert Einstein received his doctorate from the university in 1905 and later taught there; immunologist Rolf Zinkernagel, a faculty member, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996.

Graduate study follows the Bologna pattern of master's and doctoral degrees, with the M.D. in medicine. Doctorates are research-based under a supervisor in a chair or institute. The academic year is a two-semester calendar. Graduate life is urban: students use Zurich's transit, hospitals, and libraries rather than a single enclosed campus.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Zurich lists 22 graduate programs across 12 subjects: 16 master's programs and 6 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in biology, computer science and economics. University of Zurich holds rank 68 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.