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University of Lausanne
University of Lausanne

The University of Lausanne (UNIL; French: Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of theology, before being made a university in 1890. As of fall 2017, about 15,000 students and 3,300 employees study and work at the university. Approximately 1,500 international students attend the university (120 nationalities), which has a wide curriculum including exchange programs with world-renowned universities.

Since 2005, the University follows the requirements of the Bologna process. The 2011 Times Higher Education World University Rankings[1] ranked the University of Lausanne 116th globally. The CWTS Leiden Ranking 2015 ranks the University of Lausanne 11th in Europe and 41st globally, out of 750 universities.[2]

Together with the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) the university forms a vast campus at the shores of Lake Geneva.

Faculties and schools

The University of Lausanne comprises seven faculties:

The University of Lausanne also comprises schools and different sections, including but not limited to:

  • School of Criminal Justice (ESC)
  • School of French as a Foreign Language (EFLE)
  • French summer and winter courses (Cours de vacances)
  • Science-Society Interface

History

The Academy, forerunner of the UNIL, was founded in 1537. Its vocation at that time was to train ministers for the church. The university enjoyed a certain renown due to the fact that it was the only French language Protestant school of theology. As the centuries passed, the number of faculties increased and diversified until, in 1890, the Academy (Académie de Lausanne) received the name and status of a university.

In 1909, Rodolphe Archibald Reiss founded the first school of forensic science in the world: the Institut de police scientifique.

From 1970, the university moved progressively from the old centre of Lausanne, around the Cathedral and Château, to its present site at Dorigny.

The end of the 20th century witnessed the beginnings of an ambitious project aiming at greater co-operation and development among the French-speaking universities of Lausanne, Geneva, and Neuchâtel, together with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Among others, this led to the transfer of the sections of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry from the University to the EPFL; the funds that were made available following this transfer were invested in the development of the life sciences at the University, including the creation of a Center for Integrative Genomics.

In 2003, two new faculties were founded, concentrating on the life and human sciences: the Faculty of Biology and Medicine and the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment.

On 1 January 2014, the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) was integrated into the University of Lausanne.[3]

Since August 2016, the rector of the University of Lausanne is Nouria Hernandez; before then, the University was led by Dominique Arlettaz.

Campus

The main campus is presently situated outside the city of Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Léman, in Dorigny. It is adjacent to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and is served by the Lausanne Metro Line 1 (M1). The two schools together welcome about 20,000 students.

The UNIL and the EPFL share an active sports centre located on the campus, on the shores of Lake Geneva[4] and their campus is also equipped with a bicycle sharing system.[5]

The university campus is made up of individual buildings with a park and arboretum in between. The university library also serves as eating hall and is centrally located. The view from the library across the sports fields to the lake of Geneva and the French and Swiss Alps. On a clear day, Mont Blanc can be seen.

The Swiss Institute of Comparative Law and the central administration of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics are also located on the main campus.

In addition to its main campus at the lakeside, the University of Lausanne also has other sites. The Faculty of Biology and Medicine is also located in two other sites: around the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) (site called Bugnon) and in Épalinges (to the north of Lausanne).

The Department of Biochemistry, the Ludwig Cancer Research branch of the University of Lausanne and the WHO Immunology Research and Training Centre and some laboratories of the University Hospital of Lausanne are located in Épalinges. The Biopôle was built next to the Épalinges campus. The Faculty of Biology and Medicine also comprises a fourth site, the Psychiatric Hospital of Cery, in Prilly.

Associated institutions

Reputation and rankings

The University of Texas at Dallas TOP 100 BUSINESS SCHOOL RESEARCH RANKINGS ranked the Faculty of Business & Economics of the University of Lausanne (HEC Lausanne) as follows:

According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the University ranked 62nd in Life Sciences worldwide (4th in Switzerland) in 2017.[11] The overall rankings[1] are as follows:

The QS World University Rankings[12] ranked the University of Lausanne 96th in Life Science and Medicine[13] with the overall rankings as follows:

The THE-QS World University Rankings (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings) ranked the University of Lausanne as follows:

The Academic Ranking of World Universities [ARWU] ranked the University of Lausanne in 2016 as 101-150th in Life Science and Medicine and 151-200th in Social Science.[14] The overall ranking is as follows:

The Leiden Ranking of the University of Leiden, when ranking universities by the size-independent, field-normalized average impact of their research publications (CPP/FCSm) among the 250 largest universities worldwide, ranked the University of Lausanne as follows:

The Leiden Ranking of the University of Leiden, when ranking universities by citations-per-publication (CPP) among the 250 largest universities worldwide, ranked the University of Lausanne as follows:

4 International Colleges & Universities [4icu.org] ranked the popularity of the website of the University of Lausanne as follows:

Press

The UNIL publish free monthly campus magazine entitled L'Uniscope [22] . The UNIL also publish Allez savoir ! [23] , a magazine aimed at a larger audience (general public), published three times a year (in May, September and January) and whose subscription is free.

Besides these, L'auditoire is the students newspapers from both UNIL and EPFL, of a circulation 19 000 free copies.

Alumni

In 2011, an on-line network of the UNIL alumni, called ALUMNIL, was created.[15] Since then, regular events (throughout the year) and an annual party (in autumn) are organised every year for the alumni.

More alumni from the Faculty of Business and Economics

School of Lausanne

Neoclassical school of thought in economics founded at the University of Lausanne by two of its professors: Léon Walras and Vilfredo Pareto. The School of Lausanne is associated with the development of general equilibrium theory as well as the marginalist revolution.

See also

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