Small – but great!
We are one of the leading business universities in Europe, hosting the largest Department of Economics in the German-speaking world, and we have a threefold accreditation: AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA. We are one of the twelve universities of Switzerland, and with around 8,800 students we are counted among the smaller Swiss universities – but the only one with a distinct profile in the study of economics. Our mandate covers research, teaching and executive education; and to this end we organise research mostly in our institutes or centres, teaching within our schools, and executive education partly via the Executive School and partly via the institutes or centres. Moreover, we are in the process of setting up a School of Computer Science and a Joint Medical Master, the latter in collaboration with the University of Zurich.

Many-faceted Research and Researchers
In our research we aspire not only to satisfy international academic demands but also to achieve impact in society. Following our slogan “From insight to impact”, we therefore carry out fundamental research as well as research that is practical in orientation. In selected areas, such as the Global Center for Customer Insight (GCCI) and the Global Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (GCE&I), we are counted at the very top of international research. Since the foundation of our University as a Business Academy, in 1898, we have attributed great significance to the question of knowledge transfer. We frequently work together with companies in long-term research partnerships. Our excellence in research subsists because of the multiplicity of our specific academic disciplines, and it is sustained by a strong and differentiated support for research in Switzerland generally. Our approaches and methods in research are no less diverse in consequence. We bring together academic researchers who work in the field and who work at a desk, just as we bring together those who publish in leading subject journals and those who write path-breaking books. The people who are significantly involved in these research results are not just the full and associate professors, the assistant professors as well as the senior lecturers, but also the roughly 900 younger academic talents on the Ph.D. and post-doctoral levels.

A High Degree of Self-financing
As a cantonal university, we receive our basic funding from the Swiss federal government and the cantons. To supplement our basic public funding, we generate on average 50 per cent of our budget ourselves. In comparison to other Swiss universities, we thus have the highest degree of self-financing at our disposal. The keystones for this are our commitments to executive education as well as to externally funded research and to the provision of services. To these commitments must be added donations from private individuals, foundations and companies.