The (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.
In 2024 USI was placed ninth worldwide in the Times Higher Education World's Best Small Universities ranking, dedicated to institutions with fewer than 5,000 students. In the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, the university was included in Economics & Econometrics, with indicators related to citation impact and academic reputation.
History Origins and early higher-education initiatives
The intellectual origins of higher education in the territory of present-day Ticino predate the creation of the modern Swiss federal state. Archival documentation preserved in the State Archives of Lucerne records that in 1588 a proposal was discussed for the establishment of a higher-education institution in Lugano. The initiative, initially associated with the Somaschi Fathers and later connected with the Society of Jesus, formed part of the wider Catholic educational expansion that followed the Council of Trent. Across the Alpine and pre-Alpine regions, the post-Tridentine Church promoted philosophical and theological education as an instrument of institutional renewal and clerical formation.
The proposed Lugano institution was conceived as a college devoted to advanced instruction in philosophy and theology, designed to serve both ecclesiastical education and the broader cultural consolidation of Catholic territories within the loosely structured Old Swiss Confederacy. Political fragmentation among the cantons, financial limitations, and the complex administrative status of the Italian bailiwicks prevented its realization.
No sustained university project emerged during the early modern period. Ticino's administrative dependence on sovereign cantons and the proximity of established academic centres such as the University of Pavia and institutions in Milan reduced both the urgency and the feasibility of founding an autonomous university.
The issue reappeared in the 19th century within the broader context of liberal reform and state-building. In 1844 the Grand Council of Ticino approved a project for the establishment of a cantonal academy, developed by the statesman and educational reformer Stefano Franscini, who later became a member of the Swiss Federal Council. Franscini's proposal sought to create an advanced educational centre capable of meeting the administrative, cultural and professional needs of the canton while integrating into the federal framework.
Financial constraints and political rivalries among Locarno, Bellinzona and Lugano prevented implementation. Nevertheless, the 1844 vote represented the first formally approved cantonal initiative toward higher education.
Throughout the 20th century, proposals periodically resurfaced, including projects for a Higher School of Italian Culture, a Higher School of Italian Switzerland with a technical orientation, and an Institute of Culture of Italian Switzerland devoted to historical and linguistic research. Although none progressed beyond the planning stage, these recurring debates gradually consolidated the idea that a university represented a strategic necessity for Italian-speaking Switzerland within the multilingual Swiss Confederation.
The CUSI project and the 1986 referendum
In the 1970s the debate took institutional form through the project known as the Centro Universitario della Svizzera Italiana (CUSI). Conceived primarily as a postgraduate and research-oriented centre, CUSI aimed to develop regional sciences, humanities, interdisciplinary programmes and continuing education for administrative and professional cadres, in line with the social, linguistic and economic profile of Ticino.
The project was approved by the Grand Council of Ticino on 11 December 1985. For the first time, the canton formally committed itself to establishing a higher-education institution, although the proposed structure was conceived as complementary to existing Swiss universities rather than as a complete university from the outset.
Opposition quickly emerged. A referendum committee led by Augusto Bolla and Giovanni Maria Staffieri collected the required signatures to submit the law to a popular vote. On 20 April 1986, with a turnout of 41.5 percent, voters rejected the proposal by 47,011 votes against 21,512 in favour.
Although the referendum halted the CUSI project, it clarified structural concerns regarding financial sustainability, institutional identity and the territorial balance of a future university. The episode became formative in shaping subsequent proposals for a full university in Italian-speaking Switzerland.
Federal and cantonal initiatives in the 1990s
In the early 1990s the university project re-emerged within national discussions concerning multilingualism and regional representation. In May 1990 a group of scholars and professionals published a manifesto in Libera Stampa advocating the creation of a university in Italian-speaking Switzerland.
On 27 October 1990 Federal Councillor Flavio Cotti publicly endorsed the initiative in a speech in Poschiavo, linking the proposal to Switzerland's constitutional multilingualism and to balanced linguistic representation in higher education.
In this context the Council of State of Ticino appointed the architect and planner Pier Giorgio Gerosa to draft strategic studies between 1991 and 1993. His reports outlined a multi-faculty university integrated into the Swiss academic system and oriented toward fields consistent with the cultural, economic and professional needs of the canton.
In parallel, the ETH Board commissioned architect Mario Botta to develop a proposal for a national academy of architecture. Although the project was not adopted at federal level, it gained support in Ticino and evolved into the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, promoted with the support of cantonal and municipal authorities, including State Councillor Giuseppe Buffi and the mayor of Mendrisio, Carlo Croci.
In 1993 the Municipality of Lugano, led by mayor Giorgio Giudici, commissioned Mauro Baranzini, Sergio Cigada and Lanfranco Senn to design two faculties in economics and communication sciences. Luigi Dadda and Remigio Ratti joined the group in 1995, strengthening the academic and institutional structure of the proposal.
The foundation of the Università della Svizzera italiana resulted from the convergence of two distinct initiatives: the Mendrisio project for an academy of architecture and the Lugano project for faculties in economics and communication sciences. This convergence allowed the canton to present a unified institutional model, distributed between Lugano and Mendrisio and integrated into the Swiss higher-education system.
Establishment and opening in 1996
In March 1995 the Municipal Council of Lugano approved the project for the creation of the faculties of Economics and Communication Sciences. In October 1995 the Grand Council of Ticino adopted the law establishing the Università della Svizzera italiana as a public cantonal university.
The institution was structured around three founding components: the Faculty of Economics, the Faculty of Communication Sciences and the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio. The Swiss Science Council expressed a favourable opinion in autumn 1996, enabling the university to commence teaching.
USI officially opened on 21 October 1996. Marco Baggiolini became its first president, while Mauro Dell'Ambrogio was appointed secretary general. The opening marked the effective beginning of university teaching in Italian-speaking Switzerland and the institutional integration of the new university into the national higher-education framework.
The first Lugano campus was established in the former Ospedale Civico area in Via Giuseppe Buffi, in the Molino Nuovo district. The hospital complex had been inaugurated in 1909 and served for much of the 20th century as the main civic hospital of Lugano. After the transfer of hospital activities to the new Civic Hospital on Ricordone Hill in 1980, the former hospital site became available for public reuse and was progressively adapted to academic functions during the establishment of USI.
The reuse of the former hospital gave the new university an immediate urban presence and provided the institutional core of what later became the West Campus. Existing buildings were adapted for teaching, administration and student services, while subsequent works completed the transformation of the former hospital area into a university complex integrated into the surrounding city fabric.
In 2000 USI awarded its first degrees, and the Swiss Federal Council recognized Ticino as a university canton, integrating the institution fully into the Swiss higher-education system. In 2001 USI became the first Swiss university to align its curricula with the principles of the Bologna Declaration, introducing the three-cycle structure ahead of most other Swiss institutions.
Academic and scientific consolidation In 1999 the Faculty of Economics established the Institute of Finance, strengthening USI's research profile in financial economics and connecting the university to the Swiss financial and academic environment. The institute later became part of the Swiss Finance Institute, the national network for research and advanced training in finance.
In 2004 USI created the Faculty of Informatics, expanding the university beyond its original fields of economics, communication and architecture. The new faculty established a centre for computer science in Italian-speaking Switzerland and reinforced the university's activity in information technology, software systems, computational science and artificial intelligence.
In 2010 the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona became affiliated with USI, adding a stable biomedical research component to the university. The affiliation connected the university with an international research institute active in immunology and prepared the development of university-level medical and biomedical education in Ticino.