With its 12'200 students and its buildings that are concentrated in the city center rather than tucked away into a campus, the University of Geneva is a human-sized institution that is in constant interaction with the city and the world that surround it.
The University itself includes seven faculties that cover most fields of intellectual endeavour. Furthermore, it is linked to several other institutions, for example the two Graduate Institutes that concern respectively International Studies and Development Studies. A renowned School for translation and interpretation is also at hand, as well as a Center for Ecumenical Research.
In fact, since its foundation in 1559 by Protestant reformer John Calvin, the University of Geneva has been a scientific mainstay in many areas of research. It has traditionally remained strong in the Humanities, such as theology, history, ancient and modern languages, philosophy and archaeology.
It is even said that modern linguistics was founded here, by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), whose 'Cours de linguistique générale' was written up by his students after their master's untimely death. In the field of child psychology, the world-famous Jean Piaget (1896-1980) taught in two Swiss universities :
He was the first to show that children have thinking patterns that are completely different from those that prevail in adults.
More recently, the University of Geneva has developed a strong interest in the social and economic sciences, drawing on the influence of the United Nations and on the fact that Geneva is one of the world's major financial centers.
As for 'hard' science, it appeared remarkably quickly at the University of Geneva, especially in the biological field, and became a priority over 100 years ago. Together with astronomy and physics in general (two researchers from Geneva spotted the first extra-solar planet in 1995), biology and medicine have come into the limelight several times over the past few years.
These are just a few examples of the high-level research that is going on in Geneva. Indeed, in August 1998, ' Science ', the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, pinpointed the Geneva-Lausanne area as the third most important research center in Europe, after Cambridge (UK) and Oxford-Reading.
Press releases :