[10] It was founded in 1833[11] from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine which go back to 1525, and a new faculty of philosophy.

The university offers the widest range of subjects and courses of any Swiss higher education institution.

In the university's early years, the 1839 appointment of the German theologian David Friedrich Strauss to its Chair of Theology caused a major controversy, since Strauss argued that the miracles in the Christian New Testament were mythical retellings of normal events as supernatural happenings.

[19] The university admitted a Russian woman student, Maria Kniazhnina, to audit medicine classes in 1864, but she did not complete the course.

[28] In the fields of bioscience and finance, there is a close-knit collaboration between the University of Zurich and the ETH (Federal Institute for Technology).

[41] Bachelor courses are taught in Swiss Standard German ("Hochdeutsch"), but use of English is increasing in many faculties.

[43] Associated with the university are 12 Nobel Prize recipients, primarily in Physics and Chemistry.