UZH Student Numbers Remain High

Students at the University of Zurich will mostly go back to studying on site in the 2022 Fall Semester, with various digital and hybrid activities formats complementing classroom teaching. The digital boost brought about by the pandemic will therefore continue to infuse teaching at UZH.

According to provisional figures, around 27,800 students will be enrolled at the University of Zurich at the beginning of the new semester. This number is slightly below the 2021 level (28,121 students, not counting students in Master of Advanced Studies MAS programs).

More Master’s students and women

Around 14,300 of these students are studying toward a Bachelor’s degree, compared to 14,731 students in 2021. After the pandemic led to a sharp increase in new enrollments in 2020 and 2021, this number has once again seen a minor increase compared to pre-pandemic figures. The number of Master’s degree students has increased, with some 7,700 students currently enrolled at UZH (compared to 7,229 in 2021). In contrast, there has been a small drop in the number of PhD candidates, from 5,659 last year to around 5,300 this semester. Around 500 students are studying toward a Teaching Diploma.

The number of foreign students enrolled at UZH remains roughly the same as in 2021, at around 20.1 percent. Most are from Germany, followed by Italy, China, Austria and Liechtenstein. The proportion of female students has risen again slightly, with women making up 59.1 percent of total students (58.6% in 2021). The Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Science in particular have more female students this semester than last year.

Law and human medicine most popular

Law and human medicine are the most popular branches of study, followed by psychology, business administration, banking and finance, and biology. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences remains UZH’s largest faculty, with around 9,800 students, followed by the Faculty of Science (around 4,800 students), the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics (around 4,100 students) and the Faculty of Medicine (around 4,100 students). Approximately 4,000 students are enrolled at the Faculty of Law, 760 at the Vetsuisse Faculty, and 300 at the Faculty of Theology.