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University of Bern

193= 279   Arts & Humanities272  Natural Sciences
-  Engineering & IT275  Social Sciences
World Rankings-  Life Sciences & Biomedicine
192= 242   Arts & Humanities-  Natural Sciences
-  Engineering & IT276  Social Sciences
World Rankings296  Life Sciences & Biomedicine
214 257  Arts & Humanities377  Natural Sciences
408  Engineering & IT290  Social Sciences
World Rankings231  Life Sciences & Biomedicine
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World Rankings  

The University of Bern offers top quality
across the board: it enjoys special
recognition in leading-edge disciplines, is
reputed for the excellent quality of its
teaching, offers a delightful setting, and
a campus environment intimately linked
to the social, economic and political life
of the city. The university’s comprehensive
offering includes 8 faculties and
some 160 institutes that date back to
the XVIth century. With 13,000 students,
it is of mid-range size among Swiss
universities. It retains a human dimension
and a warm and friendly atmosphere.
Its academic and research organisation
prides itself on its interdisciplinarity,
exemplified by its three National Centres
of Competence in Research (NCCR):
“Climate”, “North-South” and “Trade
Regulation”. The university is actively
involved in a wide range of European
and worldwide research projects, notably
in the field of space research.

Faculty

Number of Faculty Staff Headcount: 2,338 FTE: 1,289

Total number of academic faculty staff who are responsible for planning, directing and undertaking teaching only, research only or both teaching and research. Please include: vice-chancellors, deputy vice-chancellors, principals, professors, heads of school, associate professors, principal lecturers, tutors or postdoctoral researchers. Please exclude research assistants*, PhD students who contribute to teaching, hospital residents and exchange scholars or visiting faculty staff who are members of another university. * The important distinction for us is that staff counted as 'research only' should be academically involved in that research and should be likely to publish research outputs. A research assistant, in our understanding, is any individual who is not doing own research and is therefore not likely to publish own research outputs. Said individual is (only) involved in research in terms of operation execution , such as lab technician or equipment operator.

Number of International Faculty Staff Headcount: 640 FTE: 445

Number of academic faculty staff who are of foreign nationality. The term 'international' is hereby determined by citizenship. For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even if from another EU state. In Hong Kong, this includes professors from Mainland China. Inclusion and exclusion mirrors those for academic faculty staff. In case of dual citizenship, the 'deciding' criteria should be 'citizenship obtained through birth', basically first passport obtained.

Number of Staff with PhD Headcount: 1,151

Number of academic faculty staff employed by your institution that have studied a PhD

Undergraduate Information

Number of Undergraduate Students Headcount: 6,594 FTE: 6,594

Number of students pursuing a Bachelor’s level or equivalent degree. This excludes certificates/diplomas and associate’s degrees.

Number of International Undergraduate Students Headcount: 477 FTE: 477

Number of undergraduate students who are foreign nationals. The term 'international' is hereby determined by citizenship. For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states. In Hong Kong, this includes students from Mainland China. In case of dual citizenship, the 'deciding' criteria should be 'citizenship obtained through birth', basically first passport obtained. Please exclude all exchange students. As for language students, if the language students take up a particular language course that is outlined as 'undergraduate degree program' they should be included under 'international undergraduate students' . Language students who take part in a course not contributing to a degree qualification should be counted under 'Total International Students'.

Number of Outbound Exchange Undergraduate Students Headcount: 161 FTE: 161

Number of undergraduate students registered at your institution who have attended another institution abroad for at least 1 semester on an exchange program in the last 12 months.

Average International Undergraduate Fees $ EUR 811

Average tuition fees per academic year (two semesters) that an international student would be expected to pay for an undergraduate program, with ‘program’ referring to the complete range of courses contributing to a degree. FAQ: How do I calculate average fees?

Average Domestic Undergraduate Fees $ EUR 811

Average tuition fees per academic year (two semesters) that a domestic student would be expected to pay for an undergraduate program, with ‘program’ referring to the complete range of courses contributing to a degree. FAQ: How do I calculate average fees?

Average Undergraduate Class Size Headcount: 20

The average size of class across all undergraduate programs. The term ‘class’ refers to an unit of instruction or taught session in which a teacher has pre-defined material to cover. It does exclude tutorial seminars.

Graduate / Postgraduate Information

Number of Graduate / Postgraduate Students Headcount: 6,498 FTE: 6,498

Students pursuing a higher-level degree (Master and Doctorate), including both taught and research postgraduates (e.g. PhD students)

Number of International Graduate/Postgraduate Students Headcount: 769 FTE: 769

Number of graduate / postgraduate students who are foreign nationals. The term 'international' is hereby determined by citizenship. For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states. In Hong Kong, this includes students from Mainland China. In case of dual citizenship, the 'deciding' criteria should be 'citizenship obtained through birth', basically first passport obtained. Please exclude all exchange students. As for language students, if they take up a particular language course that is outlined as 'postgraduate degree program', they should be included under 'international postgraduate students'. Language students who take part in a course not contributing to a degree qualification should be counted under 'Total International Students'.

Number of Outbound Exchange Graduate/Postgraduate Students Headcount: 95 FTE: 95

Number of postgraduate students registered at your institution who have attended another institution on an exchange program for at least 1 semester in the last 12 months.

Average International Graduate / Postgraduate Fees $ EUR 811

Average tuition fees per academic year (two semesters) that an international student would be expected to pay for a graduate / postgraduate program, with ‘program’ referring to the complete range of courses contributing to a degree. FAQ: How do I calculate average fees?

Average Domestic Graduate / Postgraduate Fees $ EUR 811

Average tuition fees per academic year (two semesters) that a domestic student would be expected to pay for a graduate / postgraduate program, with ‘program’ referring to the complete range of courses contributing to a degree. FAQ: How do I calculate average fees?

Average Taught Graduate / Postgraduate Class Size Headcount: 22

The average size of class across all taught graduate / postgraduate programs. The term ‘class’ refers to an unit of instruction or taught session in which a teacher has pre-defined material to cover. It does exclude tutorial seminars.

Students

Total Students Headcount: 13,322 FTE: 13,322

Total number of students.

Total International Students Headcount: 1,194 FTE: 1,194

Number of students who are foreign nationals. The term 'international' is hereby determined by citizenship. For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states. In Hong Kong, this includes students from Mainland China. In case of dual citizenship, the 'deciding' criteria should be 'citizenship obtained through birth', basically first passport obtained.

Total Outbound Exchange Students Headcount: 256 FTE: 256

Total number of students registered at your institution who have attended another institution on an exchange program for at least 1 semester in the last 12 months.

Total Inbound Exchange Students Headcount: 313 FTE: 313

Total number of students attending your university on international exchange programs for at least 1 semester in the last 12 months.

Average International Student Fees $ EUR 811

Average tuition fees per year that an international student would be expected to pay for any course

Average Domestic Student Fees $ EUR 811

Average tuition fees per academic year (two semesters) that a domestic student would be expected to pay for any program, with ‘program’ referring to the complete range of courses contributing to a degree. FAQ: How do I calculate average fees?

Average Class Size Headcount: 20

The average size of class across all programs. The term ‘class’ refers to an unit of instruction or taught session in which a teacher has pre-defined material to cover. It does exclude tutorial seminars.

Graduate Output

Proportion of Graduates Employed Headcount: 94 %

Proportion of graduates (excluding those opting to pursue further study) in permanent employment within 6 months of graduation

Number of PhDs Awarded Headcount: 477

Total number of PhDs awarded in the last 12 months

Entry Requirements

Avg Entry Requirements Headcount: 3

Please express the average academic achievement entry requirements for your institution. Please convert your domestic requirements to the US Grade Point Average system. The five-point numerical scale is typically correlated with the A-F/A-E quality index. (A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0, E or F = 0.0) In our context, a value of 0 will imply to us that your institution has an "open access" admissions policy and will in no way count against your institution in any future table built upon this data. You can use World Education Services (WES) Toolkit as guidline: http://www.wes.org/gradeconversionguide/index.asp (copy and paste)

Range of Fees

Undergraduate, postgraduate: Eur 811
PhD: EUR 496
MAS: EUR 9800 (average)

Finance and Scholarships

The University of Bern will offer every academic year a total of 6 scholarships for excellent international students for postgraduate studies. For 2008/09 the deadline has expired and no more applications can be accepted. Details about the application requirements and deadline for the year 2009/10 you will find on the homepage in autumn 2008.
Government grants and scholarships for foreign students and artists.

Language Support

The Centre for Language Competence ZSK also offers various classes in English and provides liaison services for tandem language-learning partnerships.
For more information, please contact
University of Bern
Centre for Language Competence (ZSK)
Gesellschaftsstrasse 25, CH-3000 Bern 9
Tel. +41 (0)31 631 83 91, Fax +41 (0)31 631 36 03
e-mail: info@zsk.unibe.ch
www.zsk.unibe.ch

Non-English Language Requirements

The teaching language at University of Bern is German. If you want to improve your German, you can enrol for classes at the university.

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