A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lectures started October 16, 1855.
ETH Zurich (English: ETH; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich; German: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) is a public research university in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. Founded by the Swiss Federal Government in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the school focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Like its sister institution EPFL, it is part of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain, part of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research.In the 2022 edition of QS World University Rankings, ETH Zurich was ranked 8th in the world, placing it as the fourth-best European university after the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. In the 2021 QS World University Rankings by subject, it ranked 4th in the world for engineering and technology (2nd in Europe) and 1st for earth and marine science. Also, ETH was rated 15th in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2021-22.
ETH Zurich has a world-class reputation in academia and industry. As of 2020 there are 22,200 students from over 120 countries, of which 4,180 are pursuing doctoral degrees.21 Nobel laureates, 2 Fields Medalists, 2 Pritzker Prize winners, and 1 Turing Award winner have been affiliated with the Institute, including Albert Einstein. Other notable alumni include John von Neumann and Santiago Calatrava. It is a founding member of the IDEA League and the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), and a member of the CESAER network.