Università della Svizzera italiana


The Università della Svizzera italiana, sometimes referred to as the USI University or the University of Lugano in English-speaking contexts, is a public Swiss university established in 1995, with campuses in Lugano, Mendrisio and Bellinzona. USI is the only university in Switzerland where the official language is Italian, but many of its programs are in English.
Five of the university's faculties are located at the Lugano campus, while the Academy of Architecture is at the Mendrisio campus. Two affiliated institutions, the Institute for Research in Biomedicine and the Institute of Oncology Research, are located in Bellinzona.
In 2020, USI was ranked 273 in the 2020–2021 QS World University Rankings. In 2021, it climbed to rank 240. In other university rankings, USI ranked 54th in the 2020–2021 "Young University Rankings" of Times Higher Education World University Rankings, where universities with less than 50 years of activity are ranked.
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Organisation and research areas

The Università della Svizzera italiana conducts teaching and research across a range of disciplinary fields, with a particular emphasis on internationalisation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and integration between research and education. Its academic activities cover architecture, communication sciences, computational and data science, economics and management, informatics, biomedical and medical sciences, humanities, and theology.
USI is organised into five Faculties, distributed across three campuses, and complemented by a network of affiliated and associated research institutes operating at the cantonal and national level.

Faculties and campuses

Faculty of Architecture (Mendrisio)

The Academy of Architecture of Mendrisio was founded in 1996 on the initiative of Swiss architect Mario Botta and is located on the Mendrisio campus. The Academy offers bachelor and master programmes in architecture and is characterised by a studio-based pedagogical model integrating design practice, theory, and history. Its academic staff has included internationally recognised architects and scholars, and the Academy has established itself as a specialised centre for architectural education within the Swiss university system.

Faculty of Economics (Lugano)

The Faculty of Economics is based at the Lugano campus and provides undergraduate and graduate education in economics, management, finance, and public policy. Research and teaching activities focus on areas such as banking and finance, management and organisation, international economics, marketing, and economic policy. The Faculty maintains close links with international academic networks and professional institutions, reflecting USI's orientation towards applied and policy-relevant research.

Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society (Lugano)

The Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society brings together disciplines in communication sciences, media studies, philosophy, humanities, and social sciences. Its research and teaching address topics such as media and journalism, corporate and public communication, cultural industries, digital technologies, philosophy, education, health communication, and tourism. The Faculty also hosts a Master programme in Philosophy, with research areas including metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and ancient and medieval philosophy, supported by an internationally active faculty.

Faculty of Informatics (Lugano)

Established in 2004, the Faculty of Informatics offers bachelor, master, and doctoral programmes in computer science and related fields. Its educational model combines solid theoretical foundations with project-based learning and teamwork. Research areas include software engineering, distributed and embedded systems, artificial intelligence, applied informatics, and data-intensive computing. The Faculty plays a central role in USI's digital and computational research profile and collaborates closely with affiliated research institutes.

Faculty of Biomedical Sciences (Lugano and Bellinzona)

The Faculty of Biomedical Sciences was established in 2014 with the objective of contributing to the education of physicians and biomedical researchers in Switzerland. It offers a master programme in medicine and advanced education in biomedical sciences, developed in collaboration with ETH Zurich, the University of Basel, and the University of Zurich, as well as with cantonal hospitals in Ticino. The Faculty is closely linked to biomedical research institutes located in Bellinzona.

Faculty of Theology (affiliated, Lugano)

The Faculty of Theology of Lugano is a private ecclesiastical faculty affiliated with USI and academically integrated into its institutional framework following approval by the Canton of Ticino. The Faculty collaborates with USI in teaching, research, and academic procedures, particularly in areas related to humanities, ethics, and religious studies.

Affiliated and associated research institutions

USI is supported by a network of research institutes that contribute to its scientific output and interdisciplinary orientation.
  • The Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research, founded in 1988, is affiliated with USI and SUPSI and conducts internationally recognised research in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and optimisation.
  • The Institute for Research in Biomedicine, founded in 2000 in Bellinzona, focuses on immunology and biomedical research and has been affiliated with USI since 2010.
  • The Institute of Oncology Research, established in 2003 and affiliated with USI since 2017, conducts basic and translational cancer research and is part of the Bellinzona Institutes of Science.
  • The Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno is associated with USI and carries out research in solar physics, particularly in high-precision solar spectropolarimetry.
  • The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Switzerland's national high-performance computing centre, relocated to Lugano-Cornaredo in 2012 and collaborates with USI in computational research and education.
  • USI hosts a UNESCO Chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites, established in 2013, focusing on the role of digital technologies in sustainable cultural and tourism development.
  • The Sasso Corbaro Foundation, associated with USI since 2019, promotes research and education in medical humanities and interdisciplinary approaches to health and medicine.
  • The European School for Advanced Studies in Ophthalmology, established in 2008 and associated with USI since 2018, provides postgraduate education and research in ophthalmology and visual sciences.

Academic programs

USI adheres to the education system established with the Bologna Process, offering three-year undergraduate programmes and two-year graduate programmes. In addition, USI organises a selection of doctoral schools and, in the field of continuing education, a number of Executive Master programmes.
Bachelor study curricula are offered in five disciplines: Architecture, Communication Sciences, Economics, Informatics and Italian Language, Literature and Civilisation.
Twenty three Master study curricula are offered in fields of specialisation related to the research institutes of the USI Faculties: Architecture, Italian Literature, Finance, Management, Political Economics, Philosophy, International Policies, Health Communication and Management, Corporate Communication, Marketing, International Tourism, Financial Communication, Public Management, Computational Science, Embedded and Cyberphysical Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Software and Data Engineering, and Financial Technology and Computing.
Doctoral schools are at the heart of research conducted at USI and are offered in Finance, Communication Sciences, Philosophy, Informatics, Architecture, Economics, Immunology, Drug design, and Cancer Biology and Oncology

Notable faculty

Honorary degrees

Università della Svizzera italiana confers, since 2003, honorary degrees to distinguished academics during its annual Dies academicus, including Robert F. Engle, Jimmy Wales, Barbara H. Liskov, Mimmo Paladino, and many others.

History

Higher-education initiatives in the 19th century

The first plan for a public university in Ticino dates to the founding of the Canton, when in 1801 the Cantonal Diet decided for the establishment in Lugano of either a university or an academy. The project of an Accademia Cantonale was further developed in the 1840s by Stefano Franscini. Although in 1844 the Grand Council approved with an overwhelming majority the bill to establish the institution, the Accademia was never established due to financial problems and more urgent issues with other sections of public education.

The public debate in the 1970s and 1980s

The immediate predecessor to the current USI was the project that began in 1970 for an institute of higher-education focused on post-graduate continuing education and based on Regional Science and on the Humanities titled Centro Universitario della Svizzera Italiana.
Carlo Speziali, then Councilor of State, was the main promoter of CUSI. However, although a bill about CUSI was passed by the Grand Council on 11 December 1985, a committee led by Augusto Bolla and UDC deputy Giovanni Maria Staffieri launched a referendum against it. The committee formed in favor of CUSI drew on the earlier legacy of Franscini, to demonstrate the historical necessity of higher-education in Ticino.
Despite the support that the project of CUSI had received by the Canton, on 20 April 1986 CUSI was turned down by the public vote: at a 41,5% turnout, voters rejected the bill with 47,011 votes, against 21,512 votes that went in favor of it. This controversial result was received by public institutions in Ticino as a threat to the hopes for the development of higher education outside of the German and French speaking regions.

Federal and cantonal initiatives of the 1990s

Following the defeat of CUSI, several new groups and institutions at different levels of government and civil society began formulating alternative proposals for a university based in Ticino.
On 27 October 1990 Swiss Federal Councilor Flavio Cotti gave a speech in Poschiavo on multilingualism where he clearly supported the idea of a public university in the Italian-speaking Switzerland, this time however as a full-fledged institute of higher-education supported by a favorable economic growth. Cotti's speech echoed the manifesto that a group of politicians, scholars, and professionals published on 30 May 1990 on Libera Stampa, the newspaper of the Socialist Party. The group consisted of linguists Alessio Petralli and Stefano Vassere, economists Mauro Baranzini and Christian Marazzi, politician Rossano Bervini, Franco Cavalli, Mauro Martinoni, Silvano Toppi, Mauro Wolf.
At the Cantonal level, the Ticino Government appointed architect and scholar Pier Giorgio Gerosa as delegate for university problems. In the spring of 1990, from this institutional position and in a period of ongoing debates about the presence of multilingualism in the Swiss Federal Constitution, Gerosa asked the Swiss University Conference to contemplate the possibility of an academic institution in Italian-speaking Switzerland. Furthermore, beginning in December 1991 Gerosa drafted a series of reports to demonstrate the case for a university with as many as four departments.
At the Federal level, in 1992 the ETH Board commissioned architect Mario Botta to draft a project for a national academy of architecture, which however would not be approved. In response to this rejection, Botta brought the project to the attention of the Ticino Government, which reviewed it positively in May 1993. Consequentially this event brought about friction between the Government and Pier Giorgio Gerosa, which led eventually to Gerosa's dismissal.
Meanwhile, between 1992 and 1993 the Istituto Accademico di Teologia di Lugano was established under the support of Catholic Bishop Eugenio Corecco. Although private institutions of higher education were already present at that point in Ticino - one example of which was the English-speaking Franklin University Switzerland - the initiative of the Catholic Church would be recognized as the first contribution towards a university in Italian-speaking Switzerland.

The opening of USI on October 21, 1996

In the following years, the project for a university was further developed by dedicated parliamentary commissions. In 1994 a group of Mauro Baranzini, Sergio Cigada, and Lanfranco Senn drafted a project for the Departments of Economics and of Communication Sciences. In the same year the Council of State of the Canton Ticino approved dispatch n° 4308 pertaining the Bill for the Università della Svizzera italiana, which in twelve articles outlined the structure of the future institution, to be built around the Accademia di Architettura and with the contribution of private financing. A pivotal role in building consensus for this bill was played by Counselor of State Giuseppe Buffi. On Tuesday 3 October 1995, at 19:11, the Grand Council of Ticino approved the bill that established USI, with seventy-three of eighty favorable votes.
After twelve months of preparations, on 21 October 1996 USI opened its doors in Lugano and Mendrisio to the first class of students. Marco Baggiolini was appointed to serve as USI's first President. Mauro Dell'Ambrogio, who was the author of the bill, and who thus had previously played an important role on the side of Giuseppe Buffi - the Ticino Councilor of State at the head of the Dipartimento dell'Istruzione e della Cultura - was appointed to serve as USI's first General Secretary. In 2000 USI granted its first degrees, concluding the first cycle of studies, thus meeting the acknowledgement of Federal authorities. In 2004 the Faculty of Informatics was established. In 2006, Marco Baggiolini was succeeded by Piero Martinoli. In 2014 the Government of the Canton Ticino approved the creation of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences. In 2015, a new governance structure of USI was announced, with the position of President turned into a Rectorship. In 2016, Boas Erez was appointed Rector of USI, succeeding Piero Martinoli, and the new governance model was confirmed, including the appointment of two Pro-Rectors and the institution of an Academic Senate.

Rankings since 2020

In June 2020, USI was included in the 2021 QS World University Rankings for the first time ever. USI was ranked 273° in the world. One year later, USI had climbed to rank 240.
Following Google Scholar, several USI professors have received more than 100,000 scientific citations and have an h-index greater than 100, for example, Michele Parrinello, Jürgen Schmidhuber, and Antonio Lanzavecchia.

Campus and student life

The Lugano campus developed around the existing city hospital circa 1996. Several state-of-the-art buildings have been added, most notably Informatics, Aula Magna, Aule, Library, and LAB.
The main building consists of four floors containing: Communications and Economics offices, the Executive Centre, four computer labs, classrooms, the cafeteria, and third-floor auditorium. The library is four floors tall. The LAB has 5 floors, in great part occupied by the Institute of Computational Sciences, and the rest by other Communication Sciences and Informatics departments.
[Image:USI-ch-campus-map.gif|thumb|left|200px|Campus map]
The "Aule" building, informally known as Palazzo Rosso, hosts six classrooms on each of its three floors, and is commonly used for Economics and Communication Sciences courses. The modern-looking concrete and metal Informatics building finished in 2007 contains classrooms, offices and study areas reserved for CS students and mentors.The Aula Magna is the university's convention hall and capable of seating around 400 people; it is used to host university conferences, speeches, and other public or private events; solely the entrance to the hall is visible above ground. South of the main building, the Central Services offices houses the Rectorate, the Institute for Italian Studies, and core units of the university such as the Media and Communication Service, and the Research Service. Adjacent to the Rectorate building is the so-called "Blue building", formerly home to the Cantonal laboratory, and today occupied by a number of research institutes of the Faculty of Economics, with offices for faculty, PhD students, assistants, and related administrative staff.
Università della Svizzera italiana has 4190 students in 2022–2023; of these 33% are Swiss, and 67% are foreign.
Off-campus, students participate in city-sponsored tourism events, school-sponsored sporting activities, and student associations, despite the town's small population. Around twenty student associations have been established, with student clubs oriented around economics, informatics, and communications.