The field of humanities encompasses broad academic disciplines and subjects. Students who are interested in humanities-related undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral programs should build the skills and competencies needed for these fields. One way to do this is to study humanities abroad.
One country with a well-established higher education system is Switzerland. Located in Central Europe, Switzerland offers a wide and varied range of higher education programs and research opportunities across disciplines. It has long been a popular choice for international students, and Swiss higher education is known for its quality in teaching and research. Because of this, many students consider higher education in Switzerland an excellent option, especially for developing the skills needed in the humanities field.
If you are interested in studying humanities in Switzerland, we have listed some of the Swiss universities that offer strong humanities programs in this article!
Top Schools Offering Humanities Programs in Switzerland
1. University of Zurich
Founded in 1833 with 161 students, the University of Zurich is now Switzerland’s largest comprehensive university, with around 28,000 enrolled students. It has built a strong reputation for research and education, and no fewer than 12 Nobel Prize winners have taught and conducted research at UZH.
The University of Zurich is a strong choice for humanities in Switzerland, with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offering a wide range of academic programs and degrees in humanities, cultural studies, social sciences, and psychology. The faculty includes disciplines such as history, languages, cultural studies, and digital humanities. At the bachelor’s level, students usually combine a 120-credit major with a 60-credit minor, allowing them to build a degree around their interests.
Today, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is UZH’s largest faculty, with over 10,000 students and more than 120 bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD programs. It also supports learning and research through its departments, institutes, and centers.
2. University of Geneva
Founded in 1559 by Jean Calvin and Théodore de Bèze, the University of Geneva has a long history as a Swiss educational institution. Today, it welcomes more than 19,000 students across nine faculties and 13 interfaculty centers, and it ranked 58th worldwide in the 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities.
The University of Geneva is a leading humanities school in Switzerland that covers many academic disciplines open to local and international students. The Faculty of Humanities delivers educational programs and degrees relating to human studies, such as history, philosophy, languages, literature, linguistics, and more. In this faculty, you have various options when choosing your subjects. It also offers Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Japanese, and Romansh, which helps distinguish its curriculum in Western Switzerland.
As the faculty opens its doors to incoming local and international students, it fosters education that helps humanities majors develop their skills. It takes a modern approach to teaching while studying human societies, languages, texts, and cultures. Today, the faculty is one of the University of Geneva’s large faculties, with a community of about 2,000 students, 400 doctoral students, and 300 teaching staff.
3. University of Bern
The University of Bern opened in 1834 and has grown into one of Switzerland’s major comprehensive universities. It comprises eight faculties, approximately 150 institutes, and more than 19,000 enrolled students. Since its establishment, it has developed a strong reputation in teaching and research across multiple disciplines.
The Faculty of Humanities offers a broad humanities curriculum in Switzerland and provides many disciplinary paths. It offers 42 single-discipline and 16 interdisciplinary study programs at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, while doctoral students can choose from seven doctoral degree programs. Its subjects include classics such as history, languages, and literatures, as well as cultural sciences such as art history and musicology. The faculty also includes philosophy, Middle Eastern and Muslim societies, religious studies, archaeology, social anthropology, and theater and dance studies.
In addition, the faculty brings together instructors, professors, and researchers across a wide range of humanities fields. Through its graduate school and research structures, it continues to support teaching, training, and research within the university.
4. University of Basel
Known as Switzerland’s oldest university, the University of Basel was founded in 1460 and has more than 560 years of history in teaching and research. In the fall semester of 2025, it enrolled 13,707 students and doctoral candidates, and its student community includes people from many countries.
The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Basel offers strong humanities programs in Switzerland and has a broad reputation for research and education. In terms of education, the faculty offers various degree programs and subjects at both the bachelor’s and master’s levels. Its broad range of subjects extends from African Studies, Ancient Civilizations, History, Philosophy, Art and Media Studies, and Social Sciences to Linguistics, Literature, and Urban Studies.
On the research side, this faculty continues to contribute to the humanities and social sciences through its departments, doctoral programs, and graduate school. Doctorates are available in 44 subjects, ranging from classical disciplines such as philosophy, philology, history, sociology, and anthropology to areas such as digital humanities and urban studies.
5. University of Neuchâtel
One of Switzerland’s notable universities for humanities, the University of Neuchâtel has four faculties: Arts and Humanities, Science, Law, and Economics and Business. It takes pride in the academic programs it offers to local and international students.
The university’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities provides education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It is the largest of UniNE’s faculties, with over 2,000 students and about 100 teaching staff members, and it covers disciplines from literature and language sciences to historical and social sciences. The Bachelor of Arts in Letters and Human Sciences comprises 180 ECTS credits over six semesters, while master’s options in areas such as linguistics and literature typically range from 90 to 120 ECTS credits over three to four semesters.
For research, the university’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities supports students through institutes, academic events, and doctoral pathways. Doctoral candidates follow the university’s PhD process, which includes meeting general and faculty-specific requirements and finding a professor authorized to supervise the thesis project.
We hope that you find this article on the best universities to study humanities in Switzerland informative and helpful. For more information about universities in Switzerland, make sure to also visit our Switzerland Page and check out the available courses in Europe!
