Università della Svizzera italiana

About

The Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) is a public Swiss research university with its main campus in Lugano and further sites in Mendrisio and Bellinzona, in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland. Established by cantonal law in 1995 and opened in 1996, it is the only public university in Switzerland in which Italian is an official language of instruction, alongside a broad range of programmes taught in English.

The university occupies a specific position within the Swiss higher-education system as the public university of Italian-speaking Switzerland. It has five faculties: Communication, Culture and Society; Economics; Informatics; Biomedical Sciences; and the Academy of Architecture. The faculties of Communication, Culture and Society, Economics, Informatics and Biomedical Sciences are based in Lugano, while the Academy of Architecture is located in Mendrisio. The Faculty of Theology of Lugano is affiliated with USI.

USI enrolled 4,749 students in 2025, from more than 100 countries. Approximately 60 percent of its student body comes from outside Switzerland, reflecting the university's strongly international profile.

The university is associated with a network of research institutes and centres, including the Institute for Research in Biomedicine and the Institute of Oncology Research in Bellinzona, the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research in Lugano, and the Institute of Finance, which is part of the Swiss Finance Institute.

From 1 July 2023 to 31 December 2025 the university was led by Rector Luisa Lambertini, previously professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. Following her resignation, Vice-Rector Gabriele Balbi was appointed interim rector from 1 January 2026. In May 2026, neurologist Claudio Bassetti was appointed rector, with his term scheduled to begin on 1 September 2026.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.