Zurich – The University of Zurich and Charles University in Prague are entering into a strategic partnership. The aims are to promote cooperation in research and teaching and to strengthen student exchanges.

University of Zurich (UZH) President Michael Hengartner and Tomas Zima, rector of Charles University, signed a corresponding contract this week in Prague. The two universities are the biggest in Switzerland and the Czech Republic respectively, according to a statement.

Charles University was founded in 1348 and currently has 50,000 students (UZH: 26,000) and 675 professors (UZH: 661).

The cooperation is designed to promote research partnerships, the development of innovative teaching formats, institutional development, academic career development and student mobility.

According to the statement, student exchanges between Zurich and Prague have been ongoing for 20 years. The two universities have also been partnering for a long time – in particular, in the fields of medicine, the humanities and natural sciences. Together they have jointly published around 400 scientific papers.  

The aim of the university is to cooperate more with Eastern Europe. Charles University “has developed strongly since the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and today ranks among the best universities in Eastern Europe”, according to Hengartner. He added that it is similar to UZH in many regards.   

This is UZH’s third partnership. In the spring, it announced a partnership with the Free University of Berlin. More recently, it closed a partnership with the University of Geneva

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