Università della Svizzera Italiana

The University of Lugano or the Università della Svizzera Italiana is a public university located in Switzerland.

It was established in 1995 with campuses in Lugano, Mendrisio and Bellinzona. It is the only university in Switzerland where the official language is Italian.

There are four faculties on the Lugano campus: communication sciences; economics; informatics and biomedical sciences. The Academy of Architecture is on the Mendrisio campus. On the Bellinzona campus you can find the Institute for Research in Biomedicine and the Institute of Oncology Research.

The university has six bachelor's programmes, 22 master's programmes, 11 executive programmes, and 10 PhD programmes. The teacher student ratio is 1:8.

There are many research areas that the university is actively engaged in including architecture, communication sciences, computational science, data science, economics, health studies, humanities, informatics, medicine and biomedicine.

There are approximately 20 student associations and other student clubs based around economics and informatics. There is also a student newspaper called L'universo.

It hosts 120 public events on a wide range of topics incorporating public lectures delivered by Nobel Prize winners, foreign heads of state, internationally acclaimed scientists, architects, writers, artists, actors, journalists, and leading figures in business.

The university also encourages entrepreneurship among students with the Start-up Training Programme of Innosuisse. The Start-Up Promotion Centre has contributed to the creation of 59 companies and has generated about 150 jobs. It has also supported 84 start-ups in total.

The Italian Institute of Studies works to promote the Italian culture, literature and language. It showcases Italian artworks and collections for the general public.