With the age of 558 years, founded on 4 April 1460, the University of Basel is the oldest university in Switzerland, but also one of the best in the world. It is ranked between the top 100 best universities in the world from the Times Higher Education magazine. Besides that, there are also some other very convincing facts that support the greatness of this university. Do you want to find out which ones they are?
Some Numbers
The University of Basel hosts, to this date 12,852 students of whom 3047 come from abroad. This makes the university a great choice for international students. It has more than 5700 employees of whom 4300 are scientists. It consists of 7 faculties: Theology, Law, Medicine, Humanities, Science, Business and Economics and Psychology. In addition to that, did you know that nine Nobel prize winners have studied at this very university? These are the chemists Paul Hermann Müller and Kurt Wüthrich, the politician Charles Albert Gobat, the chemist Leopold Ruzicka, the biochemists Tadeusz Reichstein and Jacques Dubochet, the biologists Werner Arber and Christiana Nüsslein-Vollhard and the immunologist Rolf Zinkernagel and in addition to that, also two Presidents of the Swiss Confederation, Hans-Peter Tschudi and Otto Stich. And did you know that Nietzsche was a professor there? In the 1869 Nietzsche took the professorship for classical philology at the age of 24. He managed that even without having completed his doctorate.
A Great Variety of Degree Programs
Being one of the oldest and best universities certainly means that there are a lot of different interesting degree programs to choose, you can find the right program for you here, there are more than 130 of them. Even if the university is the oldest one, this doesn’t mean that is not innovative. Since 2015, the university offers online courses in different subject areas with videos, exercises, discussions and much more. As expected, a great variety of courses is also held in English.
A Great Position
Basel is the third biggest city in Switzerland and is located in a great position as well, near the French and German borders. By living in this city you will nearly experience living in the three countries at the same time, as you can easily move from one to another country. Maybe this is one of the reasons why it is so popular among international students. This makes Basel a great place to meet people from all over the world. It is a small city, unique in many aspects, with interesting places to visit and the opportunity to explore other countries. Basel is well connected by train with the other Swiss cities like Zurich, Bern, Lausanne, Geneva, but also by plane with more distant places. It is a great place to live also because students can make worldwide friendships.
Sport and Accommodation
The University of Basel provides a sport centre with free of charge training sessions, a great thing if you are into sports. In addition to that, students have the possibility to live in university accommodations. Before renting a room or a flat, you should know that Basel is divided in two parts, Kleinbasel (small Basel) and Grossbasel (Big Basel). In Kleinbasel the rent expenses are lower and it is, for this reason, very popular between students. Grossbasel is the part of the city that hosts the centre and many University buildings, but is really expensive. You can find the right accommodation for your budget and taste at the Unimark website. What makes Basel a great place for students is that it is also a great place to live. The city is very clean and organized, there are a lot of bicycle paths and a lot of sightseeing worth visiting. But the best thing of all is that you can explore Switzerland, Germany and French during weekends.
All in all, there are all possible evidences which show why the University of Basel still is one of the leading Universities in Europe and in the world. Where else you can find such a great position, a city which feels like being in three countries, an everyday international atmosphere, worldwide friendships, and a great lifestyle? We leave the judgement to you.