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University of Basel

The University of Basel (Latin: Universitas Basiliensis, German: Universität Basel) is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universities. The university is traditionally counted among the leading institutions of higher learning in the country.[4]

Type

Public

4 April 1460 (1460-04-04)

CHF 768 million (2020)[1]

Andrea Schenker-Wicki[2]

4,700[1]

13,139[1]

Basel
,
Basel-City
,
Switzerland

47°33′31″N 07°35′00″E / 47.55861°N 7.58333°E / 47.55861; 7.58333

Mint, Red, Anthracite[3]
     

Utrecht Network, EUCOR

unibas.ch

The associated Basel University Library is the largest and among the most important libraries in Switzerland. The university hosts the faculties of theology, law, medicine, humanities and social sciences, science, psychology, and business and economics, as well as numerous cross-disciplinary subjects and institutes, such as the Biozentrum for biomedical research and the Institute for European Global Studies. In 2020, the university had 13,139 students and 378 professors. International students accounted for 27 percent of the student body.[5]


In its over 500-year history, the university has been home to Erasmus of Rotterdam, Paracelsus, Daniel Bernoulli, Leonhard Euler, Jacob Burckhardt, Friedrich Nietzsche, Tadeusz Reichstein, Karl Jaspers, Carl Gustav Jung, Karl Barth, and Jeanne Hersch. The institution is associated with ten Nobel laureates and two Presidents of the Swiss Confederation.[6]

University rankings

81 (2023)

=124 (2024)

=123 (2024)

=150 (2023)

(THE) (2021): 92[24]

Times Higher Education World University Ranking

(2019): 53[25]

CWTS Leiden Ranking

(ARWU) (2019): 87[26]

Academic Ranking of World Universities

Well-respected rankings attest to the University of Basel's international academic performance:

Organization[edit]

University administration[edit]

Since 1 January 1996, the University of Basel has been independent. The University Law of 1995 stipulates that, "The University of Basel is an institution established under public law. It has its own legal personality and right to self-government."[27] As the entity that formally receives the Performance Mandate (Leistungsauftrag) for the University from both supporting cantons, the University Council (Universitätsrat) is the supreme decision-making body of the university.[28] The Council consists of eleven voting members and three non-voting members, including the President, the Executive Director, and the Secretary of the Council. Beneath the University Council are the Senate (Regenz) and the President's Board. The 80-member Senate consists of the senior members of the President's Board, faculty deans, professors, lecturers and research assistants, assistants, students, and administrative and technical employees. The President's Office is tasked with leading the overall university business. It consists of the President and her staff, a General Secretariat, an Administrative Directorate, the Communications and Marketing Office, and two respective Vice-Presidents for Research and Education.[29]

Paracelsus, physician and alchemist[41]

Paracelsus, physician and alchemist[41]

Jacob Bernoulli, mathematician[42]

Jacob Bernoulli, mathematician[42]

Leonhard Euler, mathematician and physicist[43]

Leonhard Euler, mathematician and physicist[43]

Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher[44]

Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher[44]

Friedrich Miescher, physician[45]

Friedrich Miescher, physician[45]

Karl Gustav Jung, physician and surgeon[46]

Karl Gustav Jung, physician and surgeon[46]

Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist[47]

Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist[47]

Karl Jaspers, philosopher and psychiatrist[48]

Karl Jaspers, philosopher and psychiatrist[48]

Tadeus Reichstein, chemist and Nobel Prize laureate[49]

Tadeus Reichstein, chemist and Nobel Prize laureate[49]

Werner Arber, microbiologist and Nobel Prize laureate[50]

Werner Arber, microbiologist and Nobel Prize laureate[50]

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, biologist and Nobel Prize laureate[51]

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, biologist and Nobel Prize laureate[51]

The University is counted among the country's leading institutions of higher learning and thus boasts a large number of politicians, scientists and thinkers as professors and alumni from all around the world alike:[40]

Alumni association[edit]

The university has a general alumni association, AlumniBasel, as well as specific alumni associations for the Europainstitut, Medicine, Law, Business and Economics, Dentistry, and Nursing.[61]

Biozentrum University of Basel

List of largest universities by enrollment in Switzerland

List of medieval universities

Basel University Library

Bonjour, Edgar, Die Universität Basel von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart 1460–1960 (Basel : Helbing und Lichtenhahn, 1971)

Official Website of the university

History website of the university

– an associated institute of the university – travel and tropical medicine, international health, medical parasitology and the biology of infection, public health and epidemiology.

Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH)

Information about the university

Studierendenstatistik der Universität Basel

University Rankings – University of Basel (2008)