Uppsala University

Overview

Uppsala University, or Uppsala universitet, is a highly ranked research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477 through the initiative of Archbishop Jakob Ulvsson of Uppsala, the Primate of the Catholic Church of Sweden, it was the first university in the whole Scandinavia and remains the oldest university still in operation in Nordic countries. It is a part of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities and the Coimbra Group of European universities.

Uppsala universitet grew larger during the latter half of the 18th century because of Carl Linnaeus. The renowned zoologist, botanist, and physician was responsible for the binomial nomenclature system that is still in use today. Linnaeus sent his students to conduct research in different parts of the world including Japan, Australia, and South Africa, leading to the flourishing of the natural sciences at Uppsala.

The university expanded in the 20th century from four faculties to nine. These are Arts, Social Sciences, Languages, Law, Theology, Educational Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Science and Technology. It offers four international bachelor’s programs in English on its Visby campus on the island of Gotland. As well, the institution has 120 international master programs offered in both Uppsala and Visby. There are also more than 50 master’s programs taught in English.

Uppsala University has three research areas: humanities and social sciences, science and technology, and medicine and pharmacy. Under each area are several focal subjects, such as archaeology and ancient history, racism, antibiotic resistance, neuroscience, earth sciences, and mathematics.

The institution also has seven research centers focus on strategic research areas that are funded by the Swedish government. A few of these are U-CAN (cancer), Science for Life Laboratory (molecular bioscience), U-CARE (health care), and Centre for Natural Disaster Science (disaster and crisis management). Other than these, Uppsala universitet is home to three Vinnova Competence Centers where educational institutions, public agencies, and public companies collaborate on key competitiveness areas. These are the Centre for Swedish Batteries, the Swedish Drug Delivery Centre, and AddLife.

Uppsala University also has four Linnaeus Environments that receive long-term government funding. These conduct research into RNA, religion and society, multicore architectures, and evolution and genomics. The university is part of the European KIC InnoEnergy consortium with three focus areas: energy, health, and raw materials.

The university’s promotion of scientific inquiry has allowed it to produce notable scientific figures like Anders Celsius, whose name is now used as a unit of temperature. There have also been eight alumni who received the Nobel Prize such as Dag Hammarskjöld, who earned the award for his efforts in peace.