The University of Fribourg is a place where learning, research, employment and events all happen at the same time. Its innovative force makes it an important mover in the commercial and cultural life of the region. Since it attracts students and researchers from every part of Switzerland and from all over the world it has shaped life in the bilingual city of Fribourg since it was founded in 1889. Its wide range of course offerings, together with its comfortable size, make the University of Fribourg a place where interdisciplinary and personal contacts are the order of the day.
Multilingual and personal
The University of Fribourg encompasses five faculties where people study, teach and research. These are Arts and Humanities, Science, Economics and Social Sciences, Law and Theology. As well as these there are numerous interdisciplinary institutes and centres of excellence. The approximately 10,000 students in the Bachelor, Masters and PhD programs receive first-class personal support from over 800 professors, lecturers and research assistants.
Personal contact in learning and teaching
Great emphasis is placed on direct contact between the teaching staff and students because we believe that this is the optimal way to further the development of each individual.
Bilingual studies: unique in Europe
As the only bilingual university in Switzerland, the University of Fribourg offers a wide range of courses of study in French, German or both. There are also a number of courses with an international aspect which is offered in English. Languages are not only studied here, but they form part of everyday life in the University community.
Centres of excellence
With their work in the centres of excellence and on research projects, our committed researchers continually contribute to extending the horizons of knowledge in all disciplines. In doing so, their attention is constantly focused on solving society’s current and future challenges. The University of Fribourg also enjoys an excellent international reputation in research. Besides numerous research projects funded by the SNSF, the University hosts a National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) as well as a variety of Interdisciplinary Centres of Research.
A university town “par excellence”
The members of the University community come from 110 countries and make Fribourg with its 40,000 inhabitants a university town “par excellence”. Besides the two main locations of Miséricorde and Pérolles, there are many other University buildings spread over the whole city.
Distances are short, so that the whole of Fribourg becomes, as it were, one campus. The combination of its medieval heritage and its animated student life imparts an incomparable charm to this city of the Dukes of Zähringen.