University of Geneva

Founded in 1559 by Jean Calvin, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) is dedicated to teaching, research and dialogue with society. With more than 17’000 students of some 150 different nationalities, it is Switzerland’s second largest university.



UNIGE offers more than 500 programmes (including 136 Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes, 87 doctoral programmes) and 343 continuing education programmes covering an extremely wide variety of fields: exact sciences, medicine, humanities, social sciences, law, etc.

Its domains of excellence in research include life sciences (molecular biology, bio-informatics), physics of elementary particles, and astrophysics. UNIGE is also host and co-host to seven National Centres of Competence in Research: Frontiers in Genetics, MaNEP, PlanetS, SwissMap, Chemical Biology, Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases and LIVES-Overcoming vulnerabilities in a life course perspective.



Just like the city of Geneva itself, the University enjoys a strong international reputation, both for the quality of its research (it ranks among the top institutions among the League of European Research Universities) and the excellence of its education. This acclaim has been won in part due to its strong ties to many national and international Geneva-based organizations, such as the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunications Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research.