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 (IARU). It is a member of Top Industrial Managers for Europe network.
History
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.
Since 1993 ETH Zürich, the EPFL, and four associated research institutes were joined and administered together as the "ETH Bereich".
Campus
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.
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.
Departments
As of 2008, ETH Zurich comprises the following departments:
Architecture and civil engineering
Architecture
Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Engineering sciences
Biosystems Science and Engineering
Computer Science
Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
Mechanical and Process Engineering
Materials Science
Natural sciences and mathematics
Biology
Chemistry and Applied Biosciences
Mathematics
Physics
System-oriented natural sciences
Agriculture and Food Sciences
Earth Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Other sciences
Humanities, Social and Political Sciences
Management, Technology and Economics
ETH Zurich was ranked 24th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking
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