ETH Zurich ( ) or
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich is a
science and technology university in the
City of Zurich, Switzerland
. Locals sometimes refer to it by the name
Poly, derived from the original name
Eidgenössisches
Polytechnikum or
Federal Polytechnic Institute.
Like its
sister institution École Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne
, it is an integral part of the ETH Domain that is directly subordinate to the
Federal Department of
Home Affairs.
ETH is ranked among the top universities in the world. It is a
founding member of the
IDEA League and
the
International
Alliance of Research Universities . It is a member of
Top Industrial Managers for
Europe network.
History
ETH Zürich Zentrum
ETH was
founded in 1854 by the Swiss Confederation and opened its doors in 1855 as a polytechnic
institute (Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule).
It comprised in the beginning six departments:
architecture,
civil engineering,
mechanical engineering,
chemistry,
forestry, and a
catch-all department for
mathematics,
natural sciences, literature, and social and political
sciences.
ETH is a
federal institute (i.e., under direct administration by
the Swiss government), whereas the University of Zurich
is a cantonal institution. The
decision for a new federal university was heavily disputed at the
time, because the liberals pressed for a "federal university",
while the conservative forces wanted all universities to remain
under cantonal control, with the goal of giving liberal thoughts no
refuge. In the beginning, both universities were co–located in the
buildings of the University of Zurich.
In 1909, the course program of ETH was restructured to that of a
real university, from its early, very schoolish agenda,and ETH was
granted the right to award doctorates. In 1911, it was given its
current name,
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule. In
1924, another reorganization structured the university in 12
departments. However, it now has 16 departments.
Interior skylights in the main
building
Since 1993
ETH Zürich, the EPFL
, and four
associated research institutes were joined and administered
together as the "ETH Bereich".
Reputation
ETH is regularly ranked among the top universities in the world.
Typically, popular
rankings
placed ETH as the best university in Switzerland and on the main
European continent, among the top 5 European universities, and
among the best 25 of the world (e.g., in 2008, rank 24 in both the
Times and Shanghai ranking, see
Ranking
Overview).
Historically, ETH achieved its reputation particularly in the
fields of
chemistry,
mathematics and
physics.
There are 21
Nobel Laureates who are
associated with ETH, counting only graduates of ETH and Professors
who have been honored for their work at ETH. The most recent Nobel
Laureate is
Kurt Wüthrich who was
awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2002.
In a comparison of Swiss universities by
swissUP Ranking and
a ranking published by
CHE comparing the universities of German-speaking
countries, ETH traditionally is ranked first in natural sciences,
computer science and engineering sciences.
In the
survey CHE ExcellenceRanking on the quality of Western
European graduate school programmes in the fields biology,
chemistry, physics and mathematics, ETH was assessed as one of the
three institutions to have excellent graduate programmes in all
considered fields, the other two being the Imperial
College
and the University of Cambridge
.
On the 2009
THE–QS World University
Rankings list, ETH Zurich was ranked inside the top 50 for the
fifth consecutive year. An overview of the last years:
| Year |
Rank (Change) |
| 2005 |
10 |
| 2006 |
24 ( 3) |
| 2007 |
42 ( 18) |
| 2008 |
24 ( 18) |
| 2009 |
20 ( 4) |
Admission and education
Students and locals in ETH front
courtyard
ETH is not selective in its undergraduate admission procedures.
Like every public university in Switzerland, ETH is obliged to
grant admission to every Swiss citizen who took the
Matura. However, most applicants from foreign
countries are required to take either the
reduced entrance
exam or the
comprehensive entrance exam; an applicant
can be admitted to ETH even without any verifiable educational
records by passing the
comprehensive entrance exam.
There are no obligatory examinations during the first academic year
which is divided into two semesters.However, the actual selection
process takes place in the summer shortly after the second
semester. Students have to pass the block examinations of courses
of the first year, called the
Basisprüfung. If the
weighted average score is not sufficient, you are required to
retake the entire
Basisprüfung which usually means that
you have to resit through the first year. More than 50% of the
students fail the
Basisprüfung on first try and many of
them choose to drop out after the failure.The structure of
examinations in higher academic years is similar to the
Basisprüfung (Basis examination), but with a higher
success rate.The regular time to reach graduation is six semesters
for the
Bachelor of Science
degree and three further semesters for the
Master of Science degree. The last
semester is dedicated to writing a thesis.
Education at ETH tends to be theoretically oriented with a high
amount of
mathematics involved
throughout the courses. The main language of teaching in
undergraduate studies is German while English is lingua franca in
Master's studies and graduate studies.
Campus
ETH Hönggerberg with the new HIT
building
ETH Zürich has two campuses. The main building was constructed in
the 1860s in the heart of the city, and when the university grew,
it spread out into the surrounding quarters. Its
Zentrum
location consists thus of various buildings and institutions
throughout Zurich, firmly integrating ETH in the city.
The main building is
right across the street from the University of Zurich.
Because this geographic situation substantially hindered the
expansion of ETH, a new campus was built from 1964 to 1976 on the
Hönggerberg in the
outskirts of the city. The last major expansion project of this new
campus was completed in 2003; since then, the
Hönggerberg
location houses the departments of
materials science,
architecture,
civil engineering,
physics,
biology, and
chemistry.
Main building
Main building as seen from
Polyterasse
The main building of ETH was built 1861 to 1864 under
Gustav Zeuner; the architect, however, was
Gottfried Semper, who was a
professor of architecture at ETH at the time and one of the most
important writers and theorists of the age. Semper worked in a
Neo-classical style that was
unique to him. It emphasized bold and clear massings with a
detailing, such as the rusticated ground level and giant order
above, that derived in part from the work of
Andrea Palladio and
Donato Bramante. During the construction of
the University of Zurich, the south wing of the building was
allocated to the University until its own new main building was
constructed (1912 – 1914). At about the same time, Semper's ETH
building was enlarged and also got its impressive
cupola.
Science City
In the year of ETH's 150th anniversary, an extensive project called
"Science City" for the Hönggerberg Campus has begun with the goal
to transform the campus into an attractive district based on the
principle of sustainability.
ETH Hönggerberg from the south,
looking at the five "fingers" of the HCI and behind the high HPP
building.
ETH HIT building from inside
ETH HPT Tree in Winter
ETH HIT F 21 Seminar room
ETH HIL, HIP, and HIT buildings
ETH HPS building
BWI Center for Enterprise Sciences
Formerly known as the
Institute of Industrial Engineering and
Management of the ETH,The BWI Center for Enterprise Sciences
conducts enterprise research as well as education and services for
the ETH and commercial enterprises. The private-sector
Association for the Promotion of the ETH Institute of
Industrial Engineering and Management (BWI) was founded on .
The BWI was inaugurated the same year on , together with a
specialized library. Currently, 650 companies and individual
customers draw services of the BWI every year. The subscribers of
the journal io new management are not included in that
number.
The research of the BWI in the areas
logistics, operations and
supply chain management, global
service management and service
innovation addresses enterprises that concentrate on technology and
deals with questions and challenges concerning their
value added. The goal of the applied science at
the BWI is to obtain generalizable recommendations for action for
the decision-making of an enterprise on the basis of
practice-oriented problems.
BWI Management Further Education “organizes seminars and workshops
since 1931. About 150 seminars with 400 seminar days are held every
year. The publicly announced seminars cover 45 titles and originate
from the four subject areas
project
management,
leadership,
supply chain management and
management techniques. The company-internal
seminars are „in-house“-organized standard seminars for enterprises
from the areas engineering industry, information and communication
industry, medical engineering, banks and insurance companies,
chemical and pharmaceutical industry as well as public
administration.
The BWI is editor of the management journal „io new management“.
The journal was launched in 1932 as „Industrial Organization“(io).
It appears 10 times a year and is now published by
Axel Springer Schweiz. The circulation
figure in 2008 was, according to WEMF (corp. for advertising media
research), 4428.
The know-how group on "Production and Information Management"
(Erfa-group PIM) is a working group of participants from industry
and the university. It deals with the topics production, logistics
and information management. Goal of the Erfa-group PIM is to inform
its members about trends and to promote the exchange of
experiences.
Student life
ETH students were found to be the busiest students of all
institutions of higher education in Switzerland . The
undergraduates' tight curriculum consists of as much as twice the
number of lectures as comparable courses of other Swiss
universities.
ETH has well over 100 student associations. Most notable is the
VSETH (
Verband der Studierenden an der ETH) which
comprises all department associations. The associations regularly
organize events with varying size and popularity.
Events of the
neighboring University of
Zurich are well-attended by ETH students and vice
versa. The VSETH organizes events of greater public
attention, such as the
Polyball, the
Polyparty
and the
Erstsemestrigenfest, the first two housed in the
main building of ETH.
Sometimes, the annual
Erstsemestrigenfest takes place at extraordinary
locations, for example the Zurich Airport
. All freshmen enjoy special treatment at
that event.
The Academic Sports Association of Zurich (ASVZ) offers more than
80 sports. The biggest annual sports event is the
SOLA-Stafette (SOLA relay race) which consists of 14
sections over a total distance of 120 kilometers. More than 760
teams participated in the 2009 edition.
Traditions
The annual
Polyball is the most
prestigious public event at ETH, with a long tradition since the
1880s. The end of November, the
Polyball welcomes around
10000 dancers, music-lovers and party animals in the extensively
decorated main building of ETH. The
Polyball is the
biggest decorated ball in Europe.
The amicable rivalry between ETH and the neighbouring University of
Zurich has been cultivated since 1951 (Uni-Poly).
There has been an
annual rowing match between teams
from the two institutions on the river Limmat
.
There are many regular symposia and conferences at ETH, most
notably the annual
Wolfgang Pauli Lectures, in honor of
former ETH Professor
Wolfgang Pauli.
Distinct lecturers, among them 24
Nobel
Laureates, have held lectures of the various fields of
natural sciences at this conference since
1962.
Departments
As of 2008, ETH Zurich comprises the following departments:
Architecture and civil engineering
Engineering sciences
Natural sciences and mathematics
System-oriented natural sciences
Other sciences
Notable alumni and faculty
ETH Zurich has produced and attracted many famous scientists in its
short history. More than twenty Nobel laureates have either studied
at ETH or were awarded the
Nobel prize
for their work achieved at ETH. Other alumni include scientists who
were distinguished with the highest honours in their respective
fields, amongst them
Pritzker Prize
and
Turing Award winners. Academic
achievements aside, ETH has been Alma Mater to many Olympic
Medalists and
world champions.
Master programs
See also
References
- [1]
- SOLA-Stafette 2009
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