Navigation auf uzh.ch
Navigation auf uzh.ch
The faculty of medicine at the University of Zurich is the largest of the five medical faculties in Switzerland. It hosts 4,000 students (about 400 students in each of the six years) plus 1,600 doctoral students.
Over 240 full professors (faculty members), more than 1,200 associate professors and other teaching faculties are in charge of putting the curriculum into practice.
The language of all lectures and courses in the undergraduate curriculum is German.
The primary teaching hospital is theUniversity Hospital Zurich which concentrates 43 departments and institutes. It comprises all fields of modern medicine and treats more than 38,000 inpatients and 134,000 outpatients per year.
The University of Zurich was founded in 1833, though its origins stretch back as far as 1525 and the days of protestant reformer Ulrich Zwingli. Today the University enjoys international renown as a place of education and research. Two thousand lecturers in 150 special institutes provide the broadest range of subjects and courses available from any Swiss seat of higher education. With 28,000 students and 6,100 graduates every year, Zurich is also Switzerland’s largest university. The University provides academic services, works with the private sector and considers itself part of a national and global network for the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge. Zurich’s international reputation is based on groundbreaking research, particularly in molecular biology, brain research and anthropology, and on the work of the University Hospital and Veterinary Hospital. The University’s researchers, lecturers and students benefit from the infrastructure that Zurich provides as a center of teaching and research. Apart from its own institutions, the University offers its members access to archive collections, libraries and the facilities of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), as well as to the city’s private institutions. Nine museums and collections, covering subjects from anthropology to zoology, constitute yet another valuable academic resource.
The City of Zurich (440,000 inhabitants, with agglomerations almost one million) is the largest city of Switzerland. While Berne is the political capital of the country, Zurich is the financial and economic centre. In addition a broad offer of theatres, concerts, museums, art-galleries, libraries and bookshops makes Zurich a culturally attractive city. Thanks to its central and beautiful location at the Zurich lakeside, Zurich is a very attractive but as well relatively expensive place.
The medical curriculum at the University of Zurich has applied the Bologna Model since 2007. The curriculum has fully adopted the ECTS Credit Point system.
All lectures and courses in the undergraduate curriculum are in German. Therefore good German language skills are necessary, especially for clinical electives (B2-C1).
Student exchange within the framework of Swiss-European Mobility Programme (formerly Erasmus programme) is possible for students higher than 3rd year of study. They can participate in courses of the study-years 3 or 4. Combinations are possible only to a limited extend, due to conflicting time schedules.
Clinical clerkships are only possible in exceptional cases and are organized individually by the office of medical education. A clinical clerkship in Zurich usually last at least one full month (from the first until the last working day) requires about 40 - 50 hours of presence per week at the hospital ward. 6 ECTS credit points are allocated for 1 month of clinical rotation. The specialties in which clinical clerkships are possible must be negotiated individually.
Lectures and Courses 3rd Year 2024/2025 (PDF, 122 KB)
Lectures and Courses 4rd Year 2024/2025 (PDF, 130 KB)
Curriculum Overview Zurich 2024 (PDF, 68 KB)
In Zurich, written examinations take place at the end of each semester except for year 5 and 6. For the students of the University of Zurich, the passing of these examinations is a prerequisite for the allocation of the credit points for the thematic bock courses.
Learning success in practical / clinical courses and in the elective study modules is assessed by evaluation on the site.
Our written examinations integrate clinical knowledge from different subjects (e.g. internal medicine, pathology, paediatrics’ etc.) and are not discipline centred. Therefore, examinations in one single subject require a special procedure.
Details regarding the procedure are available on request.
If you are a student from one of our listed partner universities you can contact the local Erasmus Coordinator at your university.
If you are a medical student from another university please understand that we can only handle your application in exceptional cases and if there are vacant places in the courses.
Contact the local Erasmus Coordinator at your university and make sure that she / he endorses your application.
Complete the learning agreement and submit it to your local Erasmus Coordinator.
Your home university carries out the initial selection and nominates the students. The nomination has to be sent to the University of Zurich: Global Student Experience:
The Learning Agreement has to be sent to Monique Dupuis (exchange@medicine.uzh.ch) of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zurich as soon as possible.
After you have been nominated for student's exchange, you will receive an e-mail with the link to the online application platform "Mobility Online". Please upload all documents required and respect the application deadline. This deadline is valid for both semesters of the academic year 2024/2025 (autumn semester 2024 and spring semester 2025).
Information on housing and grants is published on the website of the Global Student Experience of the University of Zurich.
The Global Student Experience is a very important partner for your stay as a guest student at the University of Zurich. The office provides a broad offer of useful information regarding all aspects of living in Zurich (immigration, insurance, language courses, housing etc.) and is in charge of the formal procedure of the Swiss European Mobility Programme including the grants. Visit their website early and contact them if you have questions or need help.
Once you have completed your study programme and eventual examinations you will be handed out a Transcript of Records on the basis of the documentations that you have completed during your stay. Detailed information about the formal procedure will be provided after your arrival in Zurich.
