Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Former names
The Graduate Institute of International Studies (1927–2007)
Semi-private, semi-public graduate school
1927[1]
84 professors, 10 lecturers, 58 visiting faculty[2]
951 (89% international)[3]
The Graduate Institute
Geneva Graduate Institute
IHEID
HEI
The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (French: Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement, abbreviated IHEID), also known as the Geneva Graduate Institute, is a public-private graduate-level university located in Geneva, Switzerland.[4][5][6]
The institution counts one UN secretary-general (Kofi Annan), seven Nobel Prize recipients, one Pulitzer Prize winner, and numerous ambassadors, foreign ministers, and heads of state among its alumni and faculty.[7] Founded by two senior League of Nations officials,[8] the Graduate Institute maintains strong links with that international organisation's successor, the United Nations,[9] and many alumni have gone on to work at U.N. agencies.
History[edit]
Founding and early years[edit]
The Graduate Institute of International Studies was co-founded in 1927 by two scholar-diplomats working for the League of Nations Geneva secretariat: the Swiss William Rappard, director of the Mandates Section, and the Frenchman Paul Mantoux, director of the Political Section.[8][17][18] A bilingual institution like the League, it was to train personnel for the nascent international organisation.[8] Its co-founder, Rappard, served as director from 1928 to 1955.[8]
Academics[edit]
Admission to the Graduate Institute's study programmes is highly competitive, with only 14% of applicants attending the Graduate Institute in 2014.[37] The Institute awards its own degrees.[38] It does not award undergraduate degrees.
As a small institution offering exclusively master's and PhD programmes, the Institute does not participate in university rankings that rank large universities.[39] However, It has been ranked by a handful of rankings for specialized universities. In Foreign Policy's 2014[40] Inside the Ivory Tower ranking of best international relations schools in the world, the Graduate Institute's master's program was ranked 24th among Master's Programs for Policy Career in International Relations. It ranked 29th in 2018.[41] In 2012, The Graduate Institute was listed among the Foreign Policy Association's "Top 50 International Affairs Graduate Programs."[42] Foreign Policy's Inside the Ivory Tower ranked its PhD program in international relations 47th worldwide in its 2018 ranking of top PhD programnes for academic career in international relations.[43]
The LL.M. in international dispute settlement, offered jointly with the University of Geneva by the Geneva Center for International Dispute Settlement, was ranked second worldwide according to a 2012 survey of law firms conducted by the Global Arbitration Review.[44] This same LL.M. also consistently featured in the top 10 LL.M. for alternative dispute resolution by the specialised website LL.M.-guide.[45][46] The Graduate Institute's LL.M. in international law also featured in the top 10 LL.M. for public international law compiled by LLM-guide.[47] The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights' LL.M. in international humanitarian law and human rights—a joint programme between the Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva—also featured in LLM-guide's top 10 LL.M. programmes for human rights law.[48]
Organisation[edit]
Leadership[edit]
The founding directors of the Graduate Institute of International Studies were Paul Mantoux (1927-1951) and William Rappard (1928-1955). The school was then headed by Jacques Freymond (1955-1978), Christian Dominicé (1978-1984), Lucius Caflisch (1984-1990), Alexandre Swoboda (1990-1998), Peter Tschopp (de) (1998-2002), Jean-Michel Jacquet (2002-2004) and Philippe Burrin (2004-2020). Its current director is Marie-Laure Salles.[60]
Legal status[edit]
The Graduate Institute is constituted as a Swiss private law foundation, Fondation pour les hautes études internationales et du développement, sharing a convention with the University of Geneva.[61] This is a particular organisational form, because the Graduate Institute is constituted as a foundation of private law fulfilling a public purpose. In addition, the political responsibility for the Institute shared between the Swiss Confederation and the canton of Geneva. Usually in Switzerland, it is the responsibility of the cantons to run public universities, except for the Federal Institutes of Technology (ETHZ and EPFL). The Graduate Institute is therefore something like a hybrid institution, in-between the two standard categories.[62]
Foundation Board[edit]
The Foundation Board is the administrative body of the Institute. It assembles academics, politicians, people of public life and practitioners. Its members have included Carlos Lopes (ex-U.N. under secretary general), Julia Marton-Lefèvre (former director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature) and Jacques Marcovitch.[35][63]
Academic awards and prizes conferred[edit]
The Paul Guggenheim Prize in International Law was created in 1981 and is awarded to young practitioners of international law on a biannual basis.[72] The Edgar de Picciotto International Prize is awarded every two years and worth 100,000 Swiss Francs. It rewards an internationally renowned academic whose research has contributed to enhancing the understanding of global challenges and whose work has influenced policy-makers.[73]
The Graduate Institute has more than 24,000 alumni working around the world. Notable alumni and faculty include one UN secretary-general (Kofi Annan), seven Nobel Prize recipients, one Pulitzer Prize winner, and numerous ambassadors, foreign ministers, and heads of state.[74]