UNIVERSITY OF LAUSANNE

The University of Lausanne is a higher teaching and research insitution composed of seven faculties where approximately 13,350 students and 2,800 researchers work and study. UNIL is focused on several academic disciplines, especially Medicine, Life Sciences, Geosciences, Environment, Business, Humanities and Social Sciences. An emphasis is placed on an interdisciplinary approach, with close cooperation between students, teaching staff, and professors. The Academy, the 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 received the name and status of a university. In 1970, the university moved progressively from the old city of Lausanne, around the Cathedral and the 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 EPFL. In 2003, two new faculties were founded concentrating on life and human sciences: the Faculty of Biology and Medicine; and the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment.More