The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
in the
Swiss capital of
Bern and was founded in 1834.
It is regulated and financed by the
Canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a broad choice of courses and programs in eight
faculties and some 150
institute
An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes ca ...
s. With around 18,576
students, the University of Bern is the third largest university in Switzerland.
Organization
The University of Bern operates at three levels: university, faculties and institutes. Other organizational units include interfaculty and general university units. The university's highest governing body is the Senate, which is responsible for issuing statutes, rules and regulations. Directly answerable to the Senate is the University Board of Directors, the governing body for university management and coordination. The board comprises the rector, the vice-rectors and the administrative director. The structures and functions of the University Board of Directors and the other organizational units are regulated by the Universities Act.
The University of Bern had 18,576 students in 2019. Of these, 42 percent (7,799) were registered in
bachelor programs and 25 percent (4,611) in
master's
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. programs, 17 percent (3,096) were
doctoral students
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
, and another 16 percent were enrolled in continuing education programs.
There were 1,534 bachelor's degree graduation, 1,570 master's degree graduations and 637 PhD student graduations in 2019.
For some time now, the university has had more female than male students. At the end of 2019, women accounted for 57% of students.
[
]
Physical environment
The University of Bern does not have a single large campus on the edge of the city, but has consistently pursued the principle of a university in the city. Most institutes and clinics are still in the Länggasse, the traditional university district adjoining the city centre, within walking distance of one another. The Faculty of Theology and various institutes in the Faculty of Humanities are now housed in an old chocolate factory (the ''Unitobler''), and in 2005 the former women's hospital was refurbished to serve as a university centre for institutes in the Faculty of Law and Department of Economics (the ''UniS''). The vonRoll site, another former factory building, is in the process of being refurbished to house the Faculty of Human Sciences and the Department of Social Sciences.
History
Early history: Collegiate school and academy (1500–1834)
The roots of the University of Bern go back to the sixteenth century, when, as a consequence of the Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
, a collegiate school was needed to train new pastors. As part of its reorganization of higher education, the government of Bern transformed the existing theological college into an academy
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
with four faculties in 1805. Henceforth, it was possible to study not only theology in Bern, but also law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
and medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
.
The old university: New beginning and development (1834–1900)
As in other countries of Europe, nineteenth century politics in Switzerland were dominated by the struggle between conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
and liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
currents. The liberals gained control of the Canton of Bern in 1831 and in 1834 turned the academy into a university, with an academic staff of 45 to teach 167 students. Owing to the political situation, it was not until the promulgation of the federal constitution in 1848 that the university was able to embark on a period of peaceful development. Between 1885 and 1900, the number of students doubled from 500 to 1,000. As a result, at the turn of the twentieth century the University of Bern was the largest university in Switzerland. This rapid growth reflected the university's attraction for foreign students, in particular Germans
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, pop1 = 72,650,269
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, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
and Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
ns, who accounted for half of the total enrolment. It was also Russian female students who in the 1870s won the right for women to study.
The new university: New building and consolidation (1900–1950)
With the growing prosperity of the city of Bern, the university in the Länggasse quarter expanded at the end of the 19th century. In 1903, a new Main Building was inaugurated on the Grosse Schanze and the number of faculties increased. In 1908–09, three prominent persons put the University of Bern in the limelight. In 1908, Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
taught the first of three semesters of theoretical physics. The following year, Anna Tumarkin, a Russian philosopher, was appointed to an extraordinary professorship and thus became the first female professor at a European university entitled to examine doctoral and post-doctoral theses. Also in 1909, Theodor Kocher
Emil Theodor Kocher (25 August 1841 – 27 July 1917) was a Swiss physician and medical researcher who received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid. Among his many a ...
, a Bernese surgeon, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, according ...
. In the following years the university consolidated its position as a small centre of higher learning with a stable enrollment of about 2,000 students.
The modern university: Expansion and reorganization (1950–2000)
After World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, a growing number of voices called for the expansion of tertiary education in Switzerland. The rapid growth in the 1950s and 1960s (enrolment at the University of Bern had already reached 5,000 in 1968) – generated pressure for expansion. The completely revised University Act of 1996 transformed the University of Bern from an administrative division of the Department of Education of the Canton of Bern into an autonomous institution. a legal entity in its own right. The Act clearly defined the competencies of the university and of the state. The university passed another milestone in 1992, when its enrolment reached 10,000.
The university today: Bologna Reform and restructuring (since 2000)
The Bologna Declaration ushered in the era of ECTS credits and the bachelor's and master's degree structure. The university set strategic research priorities, such as climate research
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of stu ...
, and promoted inter-university cooperation. At the same time, the university reorganized its faculties. With the amendment to the University Act in summer 2010, the University Board of Directors acquired the right to choose its own ordinary professors and keep its own accounts separate from the state.
The University Board of Directors formulated a strategy in 2013, that builds on the previous strategy of 2006, the 2012 mission statement and the performance mandate for the university from the Cantonal Government.
Structure[ ]
Faculties
The University of Bern has eight faculties:
* Theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
* Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
* Business, Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
and Social Sciences
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
* Medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
* Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...
(Vetsuisse)
* Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
* Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
* Human Sciences
The medical faculties of the Universities of Bern and Basel have formed a strategic alliance in the fields of cardiac surgery
Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to co ...
, neurosurgery
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and pe ...
, pathology
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
and microbiology. The Vetsuisse Faculty was created in 2006 through the merger of the Faculties of veterinary medicine of the Universities of Bern and Zurich. The Humanities Faculty is comparable to the arts and sciences departments of American universities and offers majors in the three areas of art and culture, archaeology and history, and languages and literature. The Faculty of Science focuses on the natural and life sciences. The Human Sciences Faculty was founded in 2005 and offers study programmes in education, sports and psychology.
General university institutions
There are six centres with specialized roles and interfaculty units maintained by the University of Bern:
Collegium generale
(CG)
(WBKolleg)
(ICFG)
Microscopy Imaging Center
(MIC)
* Experimental Animal Center (EAC)
(Zentrum für universitäre Weiterbildung, ZUW)
The function of these general university institutions is to promote dialogue between students in different disciplines and faculties through interdisciplinary events for academic staff and students. The Centre for Continuing University Education (ZUW) focuses on scientific further education. The selection of topics in the ZUW programmes ranges from public administration through dentistry to spiritual guidance. In addition, the University of Bern has also taken the lead in the German-speaking world in creating a number of novel study programmes, for instance Evaluation.
Interdisciplinary centres
The university has defined specific focuses of research as strategic and has established interdisciplinary centres of excellence for these that pursue an interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching. For example, the biomedical engineering programmes of the Artificial Organ (ARTORG) Center for Biomedical Engineering Research and the Public Management and Policy programme of the Center of Competence for Public Management (CCPM).
There are 10 strategic centres and interfaculty units at the University of Bern:
Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics
(AEC)
Bern Center for Precision Medicine
(BCPM)
Centre for Development and Environment
(CDE)
(CRED)
Center for Space and Habitability
(CSH)
(KPM)
(MCID)
* Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)
* World Trade Institute (WTI)
A number of the university's centers of excellence focus on the challenges of sustainability. The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) manages research programmes in the field of sustainable development, focusing on its particular areas of expertise in integrated regional development and natural resource
Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...
management. The World Trade Institute (WTI) manages research, education, and outreach focused on global economic governance, including global sustainability policy. The Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR) is at the forefront of international research on climate science
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of stu ...
and policy, and its researchers have participated as co-chair, coordinating lead authors or lead authors in all the assessment reports so far published by the IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ...
.
The Center for Regional Economic Development (CRED) is an interfaculty center for research, teaching and consulting in regional economic development. Researchers from the research units Economics, Entrepreneurship, Geography and Tourism deal with research questions regarding the following research areas: Location dynamics and regional economic policy, Tourism as well as Land use policy and real estate.
The Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) leads the European CHEOPS
Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having ...
(CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite) project. CHEOPS is a planned European space telescope for the study of the formation of extrasolar planets, with a launch window in October to November 2019.
Several of the centers offer specialized graduate programmes. For example: the biomedical engineering programmes of the Artificial Organ (ARTORG) Center for Biomedical Engineering Research; the Public Management and Policy programme of the Center of Competence for Public Management (CCPM); the WTI (offering MAS, LLM, and PhD programs in international economics and economic law); and the OCCR graduate school (offersing an MSc and a PhD program in Climate Sciences, as well as a Swiss Climate Summer School).
Academic Programs
As a comprehensive university, Bern covers a wide range of classical university courses in some 39 bachelor, 71 master and 69 advanced study programs. The Physics Institute contributed to the first flight to the moon and still carries out experiments and provides apparatus for NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
and ESA
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...
space missions on a regular basis.
In addition to the classical disciplines, the University of Bern has also established programmes in newer ones such as sports science
Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally inc ...
and theatre studies
Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychobiological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also e ...
. It is the only institution in Switzerland with a theatre studies course that enables students to major in dance in their master program.
The University of Bern also offers the Master in Applied Economic Analysis (MAEA), which is the only university-level program in Switzerland with focus on applied economic analysis. The Graduate Schools for doctoral candidates offer further-reaching programmes that are closely linked to the university's research priorities in the fields of climate science, health care and penal law and criminology.
Notable people
Professors
A number of professors at the University of Bern were pioneers in their field. The Russian-born Anna Tumarkin
Anna Tumarkin ( be, А́нна-Э́стер Паўлаўна Тума́ркін, he, אנה-אסתר פבלובנה טומרקין, 16 February 1875 – 7 August 1951) was a Russian-born, naturalized Swiss academic, who was the first woman to bec ...
was the first female professor in Europe with the right to examine doctoral and post-doctoral students. The physician Gabriel Gustav Valentin was the first Jewish professor to be elected to a chair at a German-speaking university. Theodor Oskar Rubeli was co-responsible for founding the first faculty of veterinary medicine in the world. Finally, the ice core analyses of physicist Hans Oeschger played a pioneering role in the development of climate research.
Other notable academics at the University of Bern include (by faculty):
;Theology:
Eduard Herzog, Ulrich Luz
Ulrich Luz (23 February 1938 – 13 October 2019) was a Swiss theologian and professor emeritus at the University of Bern.
Early life
He was born on 23 February 1938 in Männedorf. He studied Protestant theology in Zurich, Göttingen and Basel u ...
, Adolf Schlatter
Adolf Schlatter (16 August 1852 – 19 May 1938) was a world-leading Protestant theologian and professor specialising in the New Testament and systematics at Greifswald, Berlin and Tübingen. Schlatter has published more than 400 scholarly and po ...
, Lukas Vischer, Eduard Zeller
Eduard Gottlob Zeller (; 22 January 1814, Kleinbottwar19 March 1908, Stuttgart) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian of the Tübingen School of theology. He was well known for his writings on Ancient Greek philosophy, especiall ...
;Law:
Carl Hilty, Eugen Huber
Eugen Huber (July 31, 1849 – April 23, 1923) was a Swiss jurist and the creator of the Swiss Civil code of 1907.
Biography
Huber was born in Swiss Canton of Zürich on July 31, 1849. His father was a physician. At the University of Zürich, ...
;Medicine:
Jakob Klaesi, Emil Theodor Kocher
Emil Theodor Kocher (25 August 1841 – 27 July 1917) was a Swiss physician and medical researcher who received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid. Among his many a ...
, Hugo Kronecker
Karl Hugo Kronecker (27 January 1839 – 6 June 1914) was a German physiologist from Liegnitz, Prussian Silesia. He was the brother of Leopold Kronecker.
He studied medicine in Berlin, Heidelberg and Pisa, and received the M.D. degree in Be ...
, Theodor Langhans, Ludwig Lichtheim
Ludwig Lichtheim (7 December 1845 in Breslau – 13 January 1928) was a German physician of Jewish descent.
Biography
He was educated at the gymnasium in Breslau, and studied medicine at the universities of Berlin, Zurich, and Breslau, gr ...
, Maurice Edmond Müller
Maurice Edmond Müller (28 March 1918 – 10 May 2009Zentrum Paul Klee: Press release 2009-05-12''. In German. URL last accessed 2009-05-13.) was a Swiss orthopedic surgeon who was instrumental in the development of internal fixation techn ...
, Fritz de Quervain, Hermann Sahli, Gabriel Gustav Valentin, Esther Fischer-Homberger
;Humanities:
Andreas Alföldi
András (Andreas) Ede Zsigmond Alföldi (27 August 1895 – 12 February 1981) was a Hungarian historian, art historian, epigraphist, numismatist and archaeologist, specializing in the Late Antique period. He was one of the most productive 20th- ...
, Elisabeth Ettlinger
Elisabeth Ettlinger, ( Lachmann; 14 July 1915 – 21 March 2012) was a German-born archaeologist and academic, who specialised in archaeology of the Roman provinces and Roman Switzerland. From 1964 to 1980, she taught at the University of Bern, h ...
, Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Hagen, Walther Killy
Walther Killy (26 August 191728 December 1995) was a German literary scholar who specialised in poetry, especially that of Friedrich Hölderlin and Georg Trakl. He taught at the Free University of Berlin, the Georg-August-Universität Göttinge ...
, Julius Pokorny, Ignaz Paul Vitalis Troxler
Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler (August 17, 1780 – March 6, 1866) was a Swiss physician, politician, and philosopher.
Early life, education, and career
Troxler was born in August 1780 in Beromünster, Switzerland. He studied in Jena and Göttin ...
, Anna Tumarkin
Anna Tumarkin ( be, А́нна-Э́стер Паўлаўна Тума́ркін, he, אנה-אסתר פבלובנה טומרקין, 16 February 1875 – 7 August 1951) was a Russian-born, naturalized Swiss academic, who was the first woman to bec ...
, Hermann Usener, George van Driem
George "Sjors" van Driem (born 1957) is a Dutch linguist associated with the University of Bern, where he is the chair of Historical Linguistics and directs the Linguistics Institute.
Education
* Leiden University, 1983–1987 (PhD, ''A Gramma ...
;Natural sciences:
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
, Heinrich Greinacher, Hans Oeschger, Ludwig Schläfli
Ludwig Schläfli (15 January 1814 – 20 March 1895) was a Swiss mathematician, specialising in geometry and complex analysis (at the time called function theory) who was one of the key figures in developing the notion of higher-dimensional space ...
, Bernhard Studer
Prof Bernhard Studer HFRSE (August 21, 1794May 2, 1887), was a 19th-century Swiss geologist.
Biography
He was born at Buren an der Aare near Bern in Switzerland on 21 August 1794.
He was educated to become a clergyman, but his interests later ...
, Hugo von Mohl
Hugo von Mohl FFRS H FRSE (8 April 1805 – 1 April 1872) was a German botanist from Stuttgart. He was the first person to use the word " protoplasm".
Life
He was a son of the Württemberg statesman Benjamin Ferdinand von Mohl (1766–18 ...
, Heinrich von Wild
Heinrich von Wild or Heinrich Wild I (1833–1902) was a Swiss meteorologist and physicist who established a modern meteorological system throughout the Russian empire and developed meteorological instruments.
Biography
He was born on 17 Decem ...
, Hugo Hadwiger
Hugo Hadwiger (23 December 1908 in Karlsruhe, Germany – 29 October 1981 in Bern, Switzerland) was a Swiss mathematician, known for his work in geometry, combinatorics, and cryptography.
Biography
Although born in Karlsruhe, Germany, Hadwi ...
;Economics:
Alfred Amonn, Max Weber
;Others:
Theodor Oskar Rubeli
Students
The following prominent persons studied at the University of Bern:
Researchers
* Sir Paul Nurse – Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2001
Honorary doctorates
In the course of its history, the University of Bern has awarded honorary doctorates to outstanding people for contributions in different fields of society.
;Medicine
Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, César Roux, SIr Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Georg von Békésy
Georg von Békésy ( hu, Békésy György, ; 3 June 1899 – 13 June 1972) was a Hungarian-American biophysicist.
By using strobe photography and silver flakes as a marker, he was able to observe that the basilar membrane moves like a surface w ...
, Stephen W. Kuffler, George Emil Palade, Willy Burgdorfer
Wilhelm Burgdorfer (June 27, 1925 – November 17, 2014) was an American scientist born and educated in Basel, Switzerland, considered an international leader in the field of medical entomology. He discovered the bacterial pathogen that causes Ly ...
, Iván Böszörményi-Nagy, David Sackett
David Lawrence Sackett (November 17, 1934 – May 13, 2015) was an American-Canadian physician and a pioneer in evidence-based medicine. He is known as one of the fathers of Evidence-Based Medicine. He founded the first department of clinical ...
, Luc Pettavino
;Natural sciences
Johann Büttikofer
Dr. Johann Büttikofer (9 August 1850 – 24 June 1927) was a Swiss zoologist. Büttikofer was born in Ranflüh (part of Rüderswil, Canton of Bern) in the Emmental. He is best known for his two zoological expeditions to the Republic of Liberia ( ...
, Hans von Euler-Chelpin
Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin (15 February 1873 – 6 November 1964) was a German-born Swedish biochemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 with Arthur Harden for their investigations on the fermentation of sugar and enzy ...
, Gerold Schwarzenbach
Gerold Karl Schwarzenbach (15 March 1904 – 20 May 1978) was a Swiss chemist.
Schwarzenbach was born and grew up in Horgen, Switzerland. He studied chemistry at the ETH Zurich and graduated in 1928 with his dissertation ''Studien über die Salz ...
, Richard R. Ernst
Richard Robert Ernst (14 August 1933 – 4 June 2021) was a Swiss physical chemist and Nobel Laureate.
Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991 for his contributions towards the development of Fourier transform nuclear magnetic re ...
, David Southwood
;Economics and business
Ernst Karl Abbe
Ernst Karl Abbe HonFRMS (23 January 1840 – 14 January 1905) was a German physicist, optical scientist, entrepreneur, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co-o ...
, Auguste and Louis Lumière
The Lumière brothers (, ; ), Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (19 October 1862 – 10 April 1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (5 October 1864 – 6 June 1948), were French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their ''Ciném ...
, Jean-Daniel Gerber, Thomas J. Sargent, Maureen O'Hara (professor)
;Humanities
Albert Samuel Gatschet
Albert Samuel Gatschet (October 3, 1832, Beatenberg, Canton of Bern – March 16, 1907, Washington, D.C.) was a Swiss-American ethnologist who trained as a linguist in the universities of Bern and Berlin. He later moved to the United States and s ...
, Erwin Heinz Ackerknecht
;Art
Joseph Simon Volmar, Albert Anker, Cuno Amiet
Cuno Amiet (28 March 1868 – 6 July 1961) was a Swiss painter, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor. As the first Swiss painter to give precedence to colour in composition, he was a pioneer of modern art in Switzerland.
Biography
Amiet was ...
, Rudolf Münger, Alberto Giacometti, Walter Linsenmaier, Ilya Kabakov
Ilya Iosifovich Kabakov (Russian: Илья́ Ио́сифович Кабако́в; born September 30, 1933), is a Russian–American conceptual artist, born in Dnipropetrovsk in what was then the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. He worked f ...
;Literature
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (24 September 1878 – 23 May 1947) was a French-speaking Swiss writer.
Biography
He was born in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud and was educated at the University of Lausanne. He taught briefly in nearby Aubonne, and ...
, René Gardi, Kurt Marti, Stefan Heym
Helmut Flieg or Hellmuth Fliegel (10 April 1913 – 16 December 2001) was a German writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym (). He lived in the United States and trained at Camp Ritchie, making him one of the Ritchie Boys of World War II. I ...
, John Edgar Wideman
John Edgar Wideman (born June 14, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, memoirist, and essayist. He was the first person to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. His writing is known for experimental techniques and a focus o ...
, John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
, Eveline Hasler
Eveline Hasler (born 22 March 1933) is a Swiss writer. Born in Glarus, she studied Psychology and History at the University of Fribourg and worked as a teacher in St. Gallen. She has written novels (for adults) and children's books which have bee ...
;Politics
Charles Albert Gobat
Charles Albert Gobat (21 May 1843 – 16 March 1914) was a Swiss lawyer, educational administrator, and politician who jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize with Élie Ducommun in 1902 for their leadership of the Permanent International Pea ...
, Rudolf Minger, Annemarie Huber-Hotz
Annemarie Huber-Hotz (16 August 1948 – 1 August 2019) was a Swiss politician who served as the Federal Chancellor of Switzerland between 2000 and 2007. She was nominated by the FDP for the office, and elected to it on 15 December 1999. In 20 ...
, Adolf Ogi
Adolf Ogi (born 18 July 1942) is a Swiss politician from the village of Kandersteg in the Swiss Alps.
He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on 9 December 1987, as member of the Swiss People's Party from the Canton of Berne. He handed over o ...
, Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
, Prince Albert II of Monaco
Albert II – Website of the Palace of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is Prince of Monaco, since 2005.
Albert was born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, and he is the second child and only son of Prince Rai ...
;Others
Hermann Müller-Thurgau, Eduard Herzog, Mathis Wackernagel
Mathis Wackernagel is a Swiss-born sustainability advocate. He is President of Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in Oakland, California; Brussels, Belgium, and Geneva, Switzerland. The think-tank ...
, Heidi Tagliavini
Heidi Tagliavini (born 1950 in Basel) is a Swiss former diplomat noted for her service with international aid and peacekeeping missions; a 2003 profile in the monthly magazine of the '' Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' called her "Switzerland's outstandin ...
, Hannah Cotton, Stephen Kosslyn
Stephen Michael Kosslyn (born 1948) is an American psychologist and neuroscientist. Kosslyn is best known for his work on visual cognition and the science of learning. Kosslyn currently serves as the president of Active Learning Sciences Inc., w ...
Rankings
Today the University of Bern is one of the top 150 universities in the world. In the QS World University Rankings
''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for the ...
2019 it ranked 139th. The Shanghai Ranking (ARWU) 2018 ranked the University of Bern in the range 101st–150th in the world. In the Leiden Ranking
The CWTS Leiden Ranking is an annual global university ranking based exclusively on bibliometric indicators. The rankings are compiled by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (Dutch: ''Centrum voor Wetenschap en Technologische Studies'' ...
2015 it ranked 122nd in the world and 50th in Europe. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli ...
it ranked 110th in 2018/2019 and 2016/2017 (and 82nd in Clinical, pre-clinical & health 2017.).
See also
* List of largest universities by enrollment in Switzerland
This is a list of Swiss universities and other higher education institutions according to the size of their student population recognized by the Federal Higher Education Act, HEdA.
Universities and higher education institutions by size
Notes ...
* List of modern universities in Europe (1801–1945)
The list of modern universities in Europe (1801–1940) contains all universities that were founded in Europe after the French Revolution and before the end of World War II. Universities are regarded as comprising all institutions of higher ed ...
* List of universities in Switzerland
This list of universities in Switzerland lists all public and private higher education institutions accredited and coordinated according the ''Federal Act on Funding and Coordination of the Swiss Higher Education Sector'' (short: Federal Higher ...
*
Notes and references
Bibliography
* Im Hof, Ulrich et al. (ed.). ''Hochschulgeschichte Berns 1528–1984. Zur 150-Jahr-Feier der Universität Bern 1984.'' Bern: Universität Bern, 1984.
* Im Hof, Ulrich et al. (ed.). ''Die Dozenten der bernischen Hochschule. Ergänzungsband zu: Hochschulgeschichte Berns 1528–1984.'' Bern: Universität Bern, 1984.
* Rogger, Franziska. "Die Universität Bern und ihre gesammelte(n) Geschichte(n)", ''UniPress'', 139 (December 2008), pp. 12–31.
* Rogger, Franziska, and Bankowski, Monika. ''Ganz Europa blickt auf uns! Das schweizerische Frauenstudium und seine russischen Pionierinnen.'' Baden: Hier + jetzt Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte GmbH, 2010.
External links
University of Bern
University of Bern
University of Bern
Website of the Swiss National Science Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bern, University Of
University of Bern
The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a compreh ...
Educational institutions established in 1834
Buildings and structures in Bern
1834 establishments in Switzerland
Schools in Bern