Twenty-one Nobel Prizes have been awarded to students or professors of the Institute in the past, the most famous of which is Albert Einstein in 1921, and the most recent is Kurt Wuthrich in 2002. It is a founding member of the IDEA League and the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). It is a member of the CESAER and Top Industrial Managers for Europe networks.
History:
ETH was founded in 1854 by the Swiss Confederation and opened its doors in 1855 as a polytechnic institute (Eidgenossische 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. It is locally still known as Poly, derived from the original name Eidgenossische polytechnische Schule"Federal polytechnic school"
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 neoclassical 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.
From 1905 to 1908, under the presidency of Jerome Franel, 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 1909 the first doctorates were awarded. In 1911, it was given its current name, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule. In 1924, another reorganization structured the university in 12 departments. However, it now has 16 departments.
Student admitions:
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 (does not exist any more) 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.
ETH's junior enterprise ETH juniors ranks top 5 within Europe. ETH juniors is a student association that offers consulting services to companies and gives ETH students a chance to gain work and project experience next to their studies.
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 140 kilometers. More than 760 teams participated in the 2009 edition. The 40th edition of the SOLA, held on May 4th 2013, had 900 enrolled teams, of which 893 started and 876 were classified.
Ranking:
ETH Zurich is regularly ranked among the top universities in the world. Typically, popular rankings place the institution as the best university in Switzerland and on the main European continent, among the top 3-5 European universities, and among the best 10-20 of the world (e.g., in 2012, rank 12 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and rank 23 in the 2012 Shanghai ranking.
In 2012 the QS World University Rankings placed ETH Zurich at 13th overall in the world, and 1st in mainland Europe, while only four UK universities performed better than it in Europe. In the 2012 Times Higher Education World University Rankings ETH Zurich ranked 12th overall, 8th in the field of Engineering & IT and 11th in Physical Sciences.
According to the 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the ETH is ranked 23rd in the world, the 4th best university in Europe, and 1st in Switzerland. It is also ranked 5th in the field of Chemistry and 8th in the broad subject field of Natural Sciences and Mathematics worldwide.
ETH Zurich is consistently ranked by all major World University rankings among the top universities in the world. It is considered the best university in continental Europe by the Shanghai Ranking ARWU, the Times Higher Education Ranking and the QS World University Ranking. It is currently ranked 8th best university in the world in engineering, science and technology and 2nd in Europe after the University of Cambridge.
In the survey CHE Excellence Ranking 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 London and the University of Cambridge. To support its cutting edge research, ETH Zurich has a budget of 1.36 billion CHF (approx. 1.72 billion USD) in the year 2011.
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