Venue

With its 28,000 enrolled students, the University of Zurich (UZH) is Switzerland's largest university. Founded in the year 1833, UZH was Europe's first university to be established by a democratic political system; today, UZH is one of the foremost universities in the German-speaking world. Made up of seven faculties covering some 100 different subject areas, the University offers a wide variety of Bachelor's, Master's and PhD programs. In addition, UZH's continuing education programs offer excellent learning opportunities.

The spacious Irchel campus with its modern institute and laboratory buildings provides a counterpoint to the center location. With plenty of space, it invites you to take a deep breath. Today, around 5,700 students and 3,200 employees work and study there.

Irchelpark serves the neighborhood and the University of Zurich (UZH) as a popular recreational area. It was created in the early 1980s as a near-natural landscape park and, at 32 hectares, is one of the largest parks in Switzerland.

Zurich unites creative city life and idyllic scenery within the smallest of areas. Art connoisseurs and culture enthusiasts have over 50 museums and more than 100 galleries to choose from, while inquisitive city explorers can discover the striking contrast between the picturesque Old Town and the modern, constantly changing urban quarters. Nature lovers seeking fresh air and green open spaces will delight in the city’s location directly by the lake, in its abundant expanses of forest and parkland, and in its very own mountain, the Uetliberg. In addition, the vibrant nightlife, offering the widest choice of entertainment facilities in Switzerland, is perfectly suited to night owls and the young-at-heart.

Zurich is situated in the very heart of Europe and at the foot of the Swiss Alps, and is the ideal base from which to explore Switzerland. Zurich Airport, which has direct connections to 170 destinations all over the world, is just a 10-minute train ride from the centrally located Zurich Main Station.

In Zürich-West, where in days gone by machines clattered and soot hung in the air, a trendy entertainment mile has now breathed new life into the former industrial quarter. Nowadays in a constant state of change, Zurich-West unites the city’s industrial past with urban advances and a diversity of leisure activities.

Art and culture play a key role in Zurich, for the city already showed itself to be avant-garde as early as the Middle Ages – as a major center for silk production and the silk trade in the 13th century, as the birthplace of the Dada art movement at the beginning of the 20th century and later of Constructivism, or as the home city by birth or choice of many important artists and intellectuals.

Zurich's restaurant scene is just as diverse as the city itself. Its over 2,000 restaurants range from award-winning gourmet establishments to traditional guild houses with an eventful past, right through to out-of-the-ordinary venues in factory halls. 

Hardly has the sun set than the respectable City on the Limmat shows itself from a completely different side: here, in Switzerland’s melting pot, where different cultures, young energy, and visions converge, the night is celebrated and in the darkness the world is reinvented.