Uppsala University
Uppsala universitet
File:Uppsala University logo.svg
Latin: Universitas Regia Upsaliensis, also Academia Regia Upsaliensis
Motto	Gratiae veritas naturae (Latin)
Motto in English	Truth through mercy and nature
Established	1477
Type	public
Endowment	3.224 billion SEK (2011)[1]
Rectrix magnifica and Vice Chancellor	Prof. Eva Åkesson[2]
Admin. staff	6,000 (4,000 teaching)
Students	21,861 (FTE, 2011)[3]
Doctoral students	1,774 [4]
Location	Uppsala, Sweden
Colours	maroon, white
Affiliations	Coimbra Group EUA Matariki Network of Universities
Website	www.uu.se

Uppsala University (Swedish: Uppsala universitet) is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Sweden, founded in 1477.^[5] It ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe^[6] in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in Europe.^[7]

The university rose to pronounced significance during the rise of Sweden as a great power at the end of the 16th century and was then given a relative financial stability with the large donation of King Gustavus Adolphus in the early 17th century. Uppsala also has an important historical place in Swedish national culture, identity and for the Swedish establishment: in historiography, literature, politics, and music. Many aspects of Swedish academic culture in general, such as the white student cap, originated in Uppsala. It shares some peculiarities, such as the student nation system, with Lund University and the University of Helsinki.

Uppsala belongs to the Coimbra Group of European universities. The university has nine faculties distributed over three 'disciplinary domains'. It has about 20 000 full-time students, and about 2,000 doctoral students. It has a teaching staff of 4,000 (part-time and full-time) out of a total of 6,000 employees. Of its annual turnover of around 4.3 billion SEK (approx. 715 million USD), approximately 60% goes to graduate studies and research.

Architecturally, Uppsala University has traditionally had a strong presence in the area around the cathedral on the western side of the River Fyris. Despite some more contemporary building developments further away from the centre, Uppsala's historic centre continues to be dominated by the presence of the university.

History[link]

15th century: origins[link]

As with most medieval universities, Uppsala University initially grew out of an ecclesiastical center. The archbishopric of Uppsala had been one of the most important sees in Sweden proper since Christianity first spread to this region in the ninth century. Uppsala had also long been a hub for regional trade, and had contained settlements dating back into the deep Middle Ages. As was also the case with most medieval universities, Uppsala had initially been chartered through a papal bull. Uppsala's bull, which granted the university its corporate rights, was issued by Pope Sixtus IV in 1477, and established a number of provisions. Among the most important of these was that the university was officially given the same freedoms and privileges as the University of Bologna. This included the right to establish the four traditional faculties of theology, law (Canon Law and Roman law), medicine, and philosophy, and to award the bachelors, masters, licentiate, and doctorate degrees. The archbishop of Uppsala was also named as the university's Chancellor, and was charged with maintaining the rights and privileges of the university and its members.

16th century: turbulent times[link]

Gustavianum, built 1622–1625 and now a museum.

The turbulent period of the reformation of King Gustavus Vasa resulted in a drop in the already relatively insignificant number of students in Uppsala, which was seen as a center of Catholicism and of potential disloyalty to the Crown. Swedish students generally travelled to one of the Protestant universities in Germany, especially Wittenberg. There is some evidence of academic studies in Uppsala during the 16th century; the Faculty of Theology is mentioned in a document from 1526, King Eric XIV appointed Laurentius Petri Gothus (later archbishop) rector of the university in 1566, and his successor and brother John III appointed a number of professors in the period 1569–1574. At the end of the century the situation had changed, and Uppsala became a bastion of Lutheranism, which Duke Charles, the third of the sons of Gustavus Vasa to eventually become king (as Charles IX) used to consolidate his power and eventually oust his nephew Sigismund from the throne. The Meeting of Uppsala in 1593 established Lutheran orthodoxy in Sweden, and Charles and the Council of state gave new privileges to the university on August 1 of the same year.

Theology still had precedence, but in the privileges of 1593, the importance of a university to educate secular servants of the state was also emphasized. Three of the seven professorial chairs which were established were in Theology; of the other four, three were in Astronomy, Physics (or general natural sciences) and Latin eloquence. A fourth chair was given to Ericus Jacobi Skinnerus, who was also appointed rector, but whose discipline was not mentioned in the charter. Of the professors, several were taken over from the Collegium Regium in Stockholm, which had been functioning for a few years but closed in 1593. An eighth chair, in Medicine, was established in 1595 but received no appointee for several years. In 1599 the number of students was approximately 150. In 1600 the first post-reformation conferment of degrees took place. In the same year, the antiquarian and mystic Johannes Bureus designed and engraved the seal of the university, which is today used as part of the logotype.

17th century: time of expansion[link]

The medieval university had mainly been a school for theology. The aspirations of the emergent new great power of Sweden demanded a different kind of learning. Sweden both grew through conquests and went through a complete overhaul of its administrative structure. It required a much larger class of civil servants and educators than before. Preparatory schools, gymnasiums, were also founded during this period in various cathedral towns, notably Västerås (the first one) in 1623. Beside Uppsala, new universities were founded in more distant parts of the Swedish Realm, the University of Dorpat (present-day Tartu) in Estonia (1632) and the University of Åbo in Finland (1640). After the Scanian provinces were taken from Denmark, Lund University was founded in 1666.

Instrumental in the reforms of the early 17th century Swedish state was the long-dominant Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, who had spent his own student days in German universities and who for the last years before his death was also chancellor of the university. King Gustavus Adolphus showed the university a keen interest and increased the professorial chairs from eight to thirteen in 1620, and again to seventeen in 1621. In 1624 the king donated "for all eternity" all his own inherited personal property in the provinces of Uppland and Västmanland, some 300 farms, mills and other sources of income. The king's former private tutor, Johan Skytte, who was made chancellor of the university in 1622, donated the Skyttean chair in Eloquence and Government which still exists. The university received a stable structure with its constitution of 1626. The head of the university was to be the chancellor, his deputy was the "pro-chancellor" (always the archbishop ex officio). The immediate rule was the responsibility of the consistory, to which belonged all the professors of the university, and the rector magnificus, who was elected for a semester at the time; the latter position circulated among the professors, each of whom sometimes held it several times.

During the late 16th and early 17th centuries (and perhaps even earlier), the university was located to the old chapter house parallel to the south side of the cathedral, later renamed the Academia Carolina. In 1622-1625 a new university building was built east of the cathedral, the so-called Gustavianum, named after the reigning king. In the 1630s, the total number of students were about one thousand.

Anders Celsius, astronomer and physicist.

Queen Christina was generous to the university, gave scholarships to Swedish students to study abroad and recruited foreign scholars to Uppsala chairs, among them several from the University of Strassburg, notably the philologist Johannes Schefferus (professor skytteanus), whose little library and museum building at S:t Eriks torg now belongs to the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala. The Queen, who would eventually declare her abdication in the great hall of Uppsala Castle, visited the university on many occasions; in 1652 she was present at an anatomical demonstration arranged at the castle for the young physician Olaus Rudbeck. Rudbeck, one of several sons of Johannes Rudbeckius, a former Uppsala professor who became Bishop of Västerås, was sent for a year to the progressive University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Returning in 1654, he received an assistantship in Medicine in 1655, and had already gone to work on a program of improving aspects of the university. He planted the first botanical garden, the one which would eventually be tended by Carl Linnaeus and is kept today as a museum of 18th century botany under the name Linnaeus' Garden. With the patronage of the university chancellor Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, Rudbeck was made full professor in 1660, was elected rector for two terms, despite his youth, and started a revision of the work of the other professors and a building spree with himself as architect. His most significant remaining architectural work is the anatomical theatre, which was added to Gustavianum in the 1660s and crowned with the characteristic cupola for which the building is today known.

A gifted scientist, architect and engineer, Rudbeck was the dominant personality of the university in the late 17th century who laid some of the groundwork for Linnaeus and others, but he is perhaps more known today for the pseudohistorical speculations of his Atlantica, which consumed much of his later life. When large parts of Uppsala burned down in 1702, Gustavianum, which contained the university library and its many valuable manuscripts, escaped the fire; local lore has it that the aging Rudbeck stood on the roof directing the work of fighting the fire.

18th century: enlightenment and mercantilism[link]

The early part of the 18th century was still characterized by the combination of Lutheran orthodoxy and classical philology of the previous century, but eventually a larger emphasis on sciences and practically useful knowledge developed. The innovative mathematician and physicist Samuel Klingenstierna (1698–1765) was made a professor in 1728, the physicist and astronomer Anders Celsius in 1729, and Carl Linnaeus was made professor of Medicine with Botany in 1741. The university was not immune to the parliamentary struggle between the parties known as the "Hats" and the "Caps", with the former having a preference for hard sciences and practical knowledge. The Hat government then in power established a chair in economics (Œconomia publica) in 1741 and called Anders Berch as its first incumbent. This was the first professorship in economics outside Germany, and possibly the third in Europe (the first chairs having been established in Halle and Frankfurt (Oder) in 1727). In 1759, following a donation, another chair in economy was established, the Borgströmian professorship in "practical economy", by which was meant the practical application of the natural sciences for economic purposes (it eventually developed into a chair for physiological botany).

There were very radical attempts at reforms which were never implemented, but important changes took place. University studies had until this time been very informal in their overall organization, with the all-purpose philosophiæ magister-degree being the only one frequently conferred and many never graduating, as there were no degree applicable to their intended area of work (and well-connected aristocratic students often not graduating as they did not need to). A few professional degrees for various purposes were introduced in 1749–1750, but the radical suggestion of binding students to a single program of study adapted to a particular profession was never implemented. The reforms of this era have been compared to those of the 1960s and 1970s (Sten Lindroth).

Although it took some time after the fire of 1702, Uppsala Cathedral and Uppsala Castle were both eventually restored, both by Carl Hårleman, perhaps the most important Swedish architect of the era. He also modified Gustavianum, designed a new conservatory for Linnaeus' botanical garden and built the new Consistory house, which was to be the administrative core of the university.

Another magnificent royal donation was that of the large baroque garden of the castle, given by Gustavus III to the university when it was obvious that the old botanical garden was insufficient. A large new conservatory was built by the architect Louis Jean Desprez. Additional grounds adjacent to the baroque garden has since been added. The old garden of Rudbeck and Linnaeus was largely left to decay, but was reconstructed in the years between 1918 and 1923 according to the specifications of Linnaeus in his work Hortus Upsaliensis from 1745.

King Gustav III of Sweden visits the university in 1786

Women at the university[link]

The issue of women's right to study at universities was raised during the very last session of the estate parliament in 1865 in a motion from Carl Johan Svensén, a member of the farmers' estate. The reception was mixed, with the most negative views coming from the clergy. In the following years the issue continued to be debated at the universities. In 1870, it was decided to let women take the secondary school examination ("studentexamen") that gave the right to entry at universities and the right to study and complete degrees at the faculties of Medicine in Uppsala and Lund and at the Caroline Institute of Medicine and Surgery in Stockholm. A common view was that the female sensitivity and compassion would make women capable of working as physicians, but her right to work was still restricted to private practice. Women's rights to higher education was extended in 1873, when all degrees except those in the faculties of theology and the licentiate degree in Law were made accessible for women.

The first female student in Sweden was Betty Pettersson (1838–1885), who had already worked as a private tutor for several years when she took the "studentexamen" in 1871. With a royal dispensation, she was allowed to enter university in Uppsala in 1872, the year before studies at the Philosophical faculty would actually be made generally available to women. She studied modern European languages and was the first woman in Sweden to complete an academic degree when she finished a fil. kand. in 1875. She became the first woman to be employed as a teacher in a public school for boys. The first woman in Sweden to complete a doctoral degree was Ellen Fries (1855–1900), who entered Uppsala university in 1877 and became a Ph.D. in history in 1883. Other female students of this period includes Lydia Wahlström (1869–1954) who later became a noted educator, activist and writer on women's emancipation and suffrage. Defending a dissertation in history in 1900, she became the second woman to finish a doctorate at a Swedish university. In 1892, she founded the Uppsala Women's Student Association, who set up spex performances and other things enjoyed by male students but from which the women were excluded at the time. The members of the Association were the first woman to wear the student caps in public, an important sign of their status. Elsa Eschelsson (1861–1911) was the first Swedish woman to finish a law degree, and the first to become a "docent", but was not permitted to even hold the position of acting professor despite being formally qualified for this in everything but her sex. After years of conflicts with the professor of civil law A. O. Winroth and with the university board, she died in 1911 from an overdose of sleeping-powder.

According to the constitution of 1809, only "native Swedish men" could be appointed to higher civil servant positions, including professorships. This was changed in 1925, and the first woman to hold a professorial chair at Uppsala University was Gerd Enequist, appointed professor of human geography in 1949.

Administration and organisation[link]

Central administration[link]

The governing board of the university is the consistory, with representatives of the faculties as well as members representing the students and non-academic employees (3 professors and 3 students), and a number of university outsiders appointed by the Swedish government (10 people). All these members in the consistory have the right to vote.

The unions active at the university also have three representatives in the consistory; these members have the right to speak but not any right to vote.

Since the last reorganization in 1999 the university has a separate body called the academic senate, which is a wider, but mostly advisory group representing teaching staff / researchers and students. The executive head of the university is the rector magnificus (that also have the title "vice-chancellor"), whose deputy is the prorector. In addition, there are (also since 1999) three vice rectors, each heading one of the three "disciplinary domains" (Arts and Social Sciences, Medicine and Pharmacy, and Science and Technology), into which the nine faculties are divided. Each faculty has a faculty board and is headed by a dean (dekanus). The position of dean is held part-time by a professor of the faculty.

Faculties[link]

Through division of faculties and the addition of a previously independent school of Pharmacy as a new faculty, the traditional four-faculty organization of European universities has evolved into the present nine faculties:

• The disciplinary domain of Arts and Social Sciences includes the Faculty of Arts*, the Faculty of Social Sciences*, the Faculty of Languages*, the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Educational Sciences (formerly the Department of Education, that was raised to the status of a faculty in its own right in 2002).
• The disciplinary domain of Medicine and Pharmacy includes the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Pharmacy. The Faculty of Pharmacy was originally an independent "royal institute" in Stockholm, which was moved to Uppsala and incorporated with the university between 1968-1972.
• The disciplinary domain of Science and Technology includes only the Faculty of Science and Technology.* The engineering programs have from 1982 been marketed as the Uppsala School of Engineering (Uppsala Tekniska Högskola). This has however never been a separate institution, but only a unit within the Faculty of Science and Technology and use of the term has been phased out after the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences was renamed the Faculty of Sciences and Technology in the 1990s.

*These four are derived from the original Philosophical Faculty.

Organizational chart

University Library[link]

The university library holds about 5.25 million volumes of books and periodicals (131,293 shelf meters), 61,959 manuscripts, 7,133 music prints, and 345,734 maps and other graphic documents. The holdings of the collection of manuscripts and music includes, among other things, the Gothic Bible manuscript Codex Argenteus.

The Carolina Rediviva, the main building of the university library, designed by Carl Fredrik Sundvall and completed in 1841.

The most widely recognized building of the university library is Carolina Rediviva, the "revived Carolina", thus named in reference to Academia Carolina (see illustration), which held the university library from the earliest times until 1691, when it was moved to the upper floor of Gustavianum, where it miraculously survived the great city fire of 1702. In the mid-18th century, there were plans to move it back to the Academia Carolina or a new building on the same spot. The building was demolished in 1778 to make place for a new library, but this was never built and the area next to the cathedral where it stood is today a lawn. The present Carolina Rediviva was built in a different place and completed in 1841.

The present university library system comprises 19 branches, including the one in the Carolina building.

Uppsala University Hospital[link]

The Uppsala Academic Hospital or Akademiska sjukhuset, which functions as a teaching hospital for the Faculty of Medicine and the Nursing School, is run by the Uppsala County Council in cooperation with the university. As of 2003^[update], the hospital had 7,719 employees and as of 2004^[update] 1,079 places for patients.

The university hospital is actually older than the university, as it goes back to the earliest hospital, founded in Uppsala in 1302, much later merged with the university clinic. This was used for 400 years until the great fire of 1702 which destroyed large parts of central Uppsala. A new hospital, which later became the Uppsala county hospital, was built in its place, but was moved out of the town in 1811.

The old main building of the Uppsala University Hospital, photograph from c. 1920

The first clinic with the specific intention to facilitate the practical education of medical students was the Nosocomium Academicum, founded in 1708 and located to the Oxenstierna Palace at Riddartorget beside the cathedral (see illustration above). The building (the former residence of the President of the Royal Chancellery Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna) today houses the Faculty of Law.

The present Akademiska sjukhuset was founded in 1850 as an organizational merger of the county hospital and the university clinic, and a new building was inaugurated in 1867 on the hill below Uppsala Castle to the southeast. From this building, which is still in use, the present hospital complex has grown.

Housing Crisis[link]

The university has been having a housing^[8] crisis^[9] since at least late July 2010 to the current date. Both native Swedes and foreign students are finding it increasingly difficult to find accommodation while enrolled in the university.

There has never been a custom in Sweden for the universites to arrange dormrooms or apartments for students. Students are generally expected to arrange their own living accommodations on the private market. To make it easier for students to find moderately priced housing, special student dorms and student apartments have been built by the student nations and student unions. However, student housing has proven insufficient to accommodate all incoming students. About 40.000 student are eligible to live in the 11.000 available rooms and apartments^[10].

Campus[link]

Buildings and locations where the university has activities or which are significantly connected to its history. Asterisk marks buildings which are currently not used by the University. Some of the historic buildings in central Uppsala have had to be let to other activities, as their protected status has made it impossible to make modifications necessary to meet requirements to adjust to the needs for students with disabilities.

Uppsala University Botanical Garden

University Park and Cathedral area

• Gustavianum
• The Old Consistory building
• The University Hall
• The Ekerman House
• The Dean's House (or Julinsköld Palace)
• Skytteanum
• The Oxenstierna House (Juridicum - Faculty of Law)
• Regnellianum
• Carolina Rediviva

West of Central Uppsala

• English Park Campus - Centre for the Humanities (including the Centre for Language Studies)
• Centre for Evolutionary Biology (EBC)
• Uppsala University Botanical Garden

Other locations in wider Central Uppsala

• Theatrum Oeconomicum and Gamla Torget ("The Old Forum")
• The Observatory Park with the old observatory
• Centre for Economic Sciences (Ekonomikum)
• The Linnaeus Garden
• Anders Celsius's former house and observatory

Main building at Campus Pollax

South of central Uppsala

• Uppsala University Hospital
• The Rudbeck Laboratory
• Uppsala Biomedical Centre (BMC)
• Geo Centre
• Information Technology Centre (ITC) Pollax
• The Ångström Laboratory

North of Central Uppsala

• Teacher Training

Student life[link]

Nations and student union[link]

Gästrike-Hälsinge nation

Up until June 2010 students at Uppsala University were obliged to become members of one of the nations, corporations of students traditionally according to province of origin (not strictly upheld now, for practical reasons). The system of dividing students into nations according to origin can ultimately be traced back to the nations at the medieval University of Paris and other early medieval universities, but the Uppsala nations appear only about 1630–1640, most likely under influence of the Landsmannschaften which existed at some of the German universities visited by Swedish students. In Sweden, nations exist only in Uppsala and Lund. The nations were originally seen as subversive organisations promoting less virtuous aspects of student life, but in 1663 the consistory made membership in a nation legal, each nation being placed under the inspectorship of a professor.

The current thirteen nations all have a history stretching back to the early-to-mid 17th century, but some of them are the result of mergers of older, smaller nations that took place in the early 19th century to facilitate the financing of building projects.

Nations at Uppsala University:

Since the 1960s there is a fourteenth nation, the Skånelandens nation (referring to the Scanian lands) which has no membership fee and exists as a legal fiction to get around the compulsory membership for students who prefer not to become affiliated with the traditional nations.

The Uppsala Student Union was founded in 1849 as a corporation representing all students except those attending the faculty of Pharmacy, irrespective of nation. The student at the faculty of Pharmacy were also exempt from the compulsory membership in the nations, but most pharmacy-students belonged to one. However they were obliged to take up membership in the Pharmaceutical Association of Uppsala Students, an organisation having the same role as the nations and the student union at the rest of the university.

The compulsory membership in a student union was abolished July 1, 2010, but the unions will still be the representing organisations in the university boards and committees.

Music[link]

Student singers marching down the staircase in Carolina Rediviva, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the university in 1877. The "staircase march" (trappmarschen) when the singers led the audience in a march out of the hall where the concert was held, is an annual tradition that was later moved to the new main university building completed in 1887. (The monumental staircase of Carolina was later sacrificed to create more storage space for books.)

The University's Royal Academic Orchestra was founded in 1627. Its main purpose is to play at academic ceremonies, but holds concerts on other occasions as well. Its leader has the title of director musices. The position has been held by composers such as Wilhelm Stenhammar, Hugo Alfvén and Lars-Erik Larsson. Affiliated with the University are three choirs, the mixed Uppsala University Choir (Allmänna Sången), founded in 1830, the male choir Orphei Drängar, founded in 1853, and the Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala, founded in 1957. A number of other choirs and orchestras are affiliated with the nations.

An important name in the recent history of the choirs is Eric Ericson, who was conductor of both Orphei Drängar and the Chamber Choir. In honour of Ericson, the FöreningsSparbanken endowed the Eric Ericson Chair in Choral Directing, and the Uppsala University Choral Centre was inaugurated in 2000. The centre arranges courses in choral directing.[1]

Athletics[link]

Sports play a very small role in the life of the university, compared to British and especially U.S. universities, but have existed in various forms since the early 17th century. The University is more noted for its musical and choral traditions. Both have partial roots in the 17th century institution of extracurricular exercises for students from the nobility.

[edit] The exercitiae

The Exercise Yard in ca 1770. Contemporary engraving

To ease the recruitment of students from the nobility, the university started in the 1630s to offer training in a number of exercitiae or "exercises" (Swedish: exercitier) deemed necessary for the well-rounded education of a young nobleman: riding, fencing, dance, drawing and modern languages such as French and Italian. The initiative came from Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, who saw the value in a well-educated class of civil servants and the danger to his own class if its members would fall behind in academic education compared to those students who came from the lower estates. An "exercise yard", built for the riding and fencing exercises, was demolished in the late 19th century to give place to the new University Hall. The modern languages were made part of the regular academic curriculum in the 19th century; the surviving "exercises"[2] are:

• Fencing. Arranged in collaboration with Upsala Fäktning, a private fencing club. Fencing master as of 2005 is Igor Tsikinjov, captain of the Swedish Fencing Federation
• Gymnastics and sports, located to the Art Nouveau University Gymastics Hall, colloquially known as Svettis (from the Swedish word for sweat)
• Riding, arranged by the Equestrian department of the University, which has its own stables. Leaders of the activities are the Academy Stable Master and the Inspector Equitandi (currently Marianne Andersson, Head of the university's Legal Affairs Office). Instruction is offered on various levels.
• Music. Leader of the musical activities is the director musices, who is the conductor of the Royal Academic Orchestra The current Director Musices is Professor Stefan Karpe. See more below.
• Drawing. The university appoints an established artist as Drawing Master. As of 2005, the position is held by graphic artist Ulla Fries. Weekly Croquis lessons and other exercises, free for students and other university members, are offered in the southern tower of Uppsala Castle.

Other sports[link]

Besides the exercitiae, other sports have had a presence in Uppsala student life. The Upsala Simsällskap, "Uppsala Swimming Society", which is the oldest swimming club in the world, was founded in 1796 by the mathematician Jöns Svanberg. It had no formal connection to the university, but all its earliest members came from academic life. Svanberg even arranged a mock graduation ceremony, a simpromotion, in parody of the university ceremonies, where those who had graduated from its swimming training were awarded "degrees" of master (magister) and bachelor (kandidat). These degrees stuck, and Swedish swimming schools still use these degrees for different levels of swimming skills.

An attempt was made in the 1870s to introduce academic rowing after the Oxbridge model. The Stockholm Nation acquired a rowing boat in 1877, soon followed by the Gothenburg Nation, and for a number of years rowing competitions were held between teams from the two nations. Although rowing never got the strong position it has at the English universities, an annual Uppsala-Lund regatta has been arranged since 1992, between rowing teams from Uppsala and Lund University. The race is held on the Fyris River in Uppsala on even years, and on a river in the vicinity of Lund on odd years. Each year there is at least one full eight crew with cox competing, with both men's and women's teams present. With the recent victory for Uppsala in 2005, the score stands 24 - 23 in Uppsala's favor.

International cooperation[link]

Uppsala University has signed student exchange agreements with about 500 universities across all parts of the world.^[11] It takes part in the Erasmus programme and the Nordplus programme. Uppsala University has signed university-wide student exchange programmes with the following universities (selection)^[12]:

• University of Sydney, Australia
• University of Melbourne, Australia
• University of British Columbia, Canada
• McGill University, Canada
• Queen's University, Canada
• University of Toronto, Canada
• University of Victoria, Canada
• York University, Canada
• University of Alberta, Canada
• Fudan University, China
• Peking University, China
• University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• University of Tartu, Estonia
• University of Helsinki, Helsinki
• University of Poitiers, France
• Paris-Sorbonne University, France
• Grenoble Ecole de Management, France
• University of Freiburg, Germany
• University of Heidelberg, Germany
• Technical University Munich, Germany
• National University of Ireland, Ireland
• University of Siena, Italy
• Kyoto University, Japan
• Waseda University, Japan
• University of Groningen, Netherlands
• Leiden University, Netherlands
• University of Auckland, New Zealand
• University of Oslo, Norway
• Jagiellonian University, Poland
• Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
• University of Granada, Spain
• Keele University, England, United Kingdom
• University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
• University College London, England, United Kingdom
• Cornell University, United States
• Harvard University, United States
• University of Cape Town, South Africa
• University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Uppsala University is a member of the Coimbra Group of universities.

In May 2010 Uppsala joined the Matariki Network of Universities (MNU) together with Dartmouth College (USA), Durham University (UK), Queen’s University (Canada), University of Otago (New Zealand), University of Tübingen (Germany) and University of Western Australia (Australia).^[13]

Rankings[link]

Uppsala University places well in many rankings.^[14]

Notable people[link]

Botanist, physician and zoologist Carl Linnaeus

Niklas Zennström, co-founder of KaZaA and Skype

Uppsala University is associated with 8 Nobel Prize laureates,^[18] and numerous royalty, academics and public figures.

As the dominant academic institution in Sweden for several centuries, Uppsala University has ever since its first period of expansion in the early part of the 17th century educated a large proportion of Swedish politicians and civil servants, from 17th century Chancellor of the Realm (rikskansler) Johan Oxenstierna (1611–1657) and Lord Chief Justice (riksdrots) Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1622–1686) to the first Social Democratic Prime Minister of Sweden, Hjalmar Branting (1860–1925) and many later politicians. Other alumni are Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961), UN Secretary General who was (posthumously) awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961, and the Swedish diplomat Hans Blix (b. 1928), who was Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency 1981-1997, of the UNMOVIC 2000-2003, and previously Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs 1978–1979. Hammarskjöld and Blix both graduated from the Uppsala Faculty of Law, as did the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anna Lindh, who was assassinated in 2003.

Most Swedish clergymen, including most bishops and archbishops, have been educated at the university, including, in more recent times, Nathan Söderblom (1866–1931), Professor of the History of Religions in the Faculty of Theology, later Archbishop of Uppsala, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930 for his work as leader of the ecumenical movement.

The university became prominent in the sciences in the 18th century with names such as the physician and botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778), the father of taxonomy, and his numerous important pupils, the physicist and astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), inventor of the centigrade scale the predecessor of the Celsius scale, and the chemist Torbern Bergman (1735–1784). Another scientist from this era is Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), better remembered today as a religious mystic. Several of the elements were discovered by Uppsala scientists during this period or later. Jöns Jakob Berzelius, considered one of the fathers of modern chemistry, received his doctorate in medicine in Uppsala in 1804, but later moved to Stockholm. Uppsala scientists of the 19th century include the physicist Anders Jonas Ångström (1814–1874). During the 20th century several Nobel laureates in the sciences have been Uppsala alumni or professors at the university.

Many well-known Swedish writers have studied in Uppsala: Georg Stiernhielm (1698–1672) is often called the father of Swedish poetry. The poet and song composer Carl Michael Bellman (1740–1795), without doubt the best-loved and best-remembered of Swedish 18th century poets, matriculated but left the university after less than a year. The writer, historian and composer Erik Gustaf Geijer (1783–1847), professor of history, and the poet Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom (1790–1855), professor of poetry, were principal figures of early 19th century Swedish romanticism. The less than happy experiences of the Uppsala student life of novelist and playwright August Strindberg (1849–1912), resulted in his Från Fjärdingen och Svartbäcken (1877), a collection of short stories set in Uppsala ("From Fjärdingen and Svartbäcken", the title refers to two districts in Uppsala). Other Uppsala alumni are the poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1864–1931), who refused the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1918, but received it posthumously in 1931, the novelist and playwright Pär Lagerkvist (1891–1974), Nobel laureate in 1951, and the poet and novelist Karin Boye (1900–1941), for whom one branch of the university library has been named. The Communist leader Ture Nerman (1886–1969) wrote a novel called Olympen, based on his experience as a student in Uppsala. Niklas Zennström, co-founder of KaZaA and Skype is also a former student at Uppsala University. On August 15, 2008 Zennström donated 15 million SEK to Uppsala University for climate research.^[19] The late Jan Stenbeck, a Nordic media mogul who controlled Modern Times Group, was also an alumnus of Uppsala University.

Uppsala University in fiction and popular culture[link]

Together with Lund, Uppsala is the historic and traditional centre of Swedish academic life, making it a popular object of reference in Swedish literature, art, and film. Specifically, Uppsala University has appeared notably in Män som hatar kvinnor or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

The Norwegian pop singer Kirsti Sparboe dedicated one of her biggest successes to Uppsala University, publishing in 1969 the song "Ein Student aus Uppsala".^[20] The song, originally written in German, lasted 14 weeks in the German charts.

See also[link]

• List of medieval universities
• List of universities in Sweden
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala
• Johannelunds Teologiska Högskola in Uppsala
• Flogsta - student residential area in Uppsala.
• Category:Uppsala University alumni

Further reading[link]

• Lindroth, Sten. A History of Uppsala University 1477-1977 (Almqvist & Wiksell 1976). ISBN 978-91-506-0081-0.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Uppsala University

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Uppsala

• Uppsala University
• Uppsala University Student page
• THE Rankings - Uppsala University(2008)
• Study Abroad Uppsala - A guide for international students attending Uppsala University
• American Friends of Uppsala University
• Ein Student aus Uppsala- Kirsti Sparboe (1969)

v t e Universities in Sweden Public Uppsala · Lund · Gothenburg · Stockholm · Umeå · Linköping · Karolinska Institutet · Royal Institute of Technology · Luleå · Karlstad · Linnaeus University · Örebro · Mid Sweden · Swedish National Defence College  · Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Private Chalmers · Stockholm School of Economics  · Jönköping

Coordinates: 59°51′27″N 17°37′44″E / 59.8575°N 17.62889°E / 59.8575; 17.62889

Uppsala
Uppsala with its cathedral Uppsala with its cathedral
Uppsala
Coordinates: 59°51′N 17°38′E / 59.85°N 17.633°E / 59.85; 17.633Coordinates: 59°51′N 17°38′E / 59.85°N 17.633°E / 59.85; 17.633
Country	Sweden
Province	Uppland
County	Uppsala County
Municipality	Uppsala Municipality
Area[1]
• Total	48.77 km2 (18.83 sq mi)
Population (31 December 2010)[1]
• Total	140,454
• Density	2,880/km2 (7,500/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Uppsala (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɵpːˈsɑːla]; older spelling Upsala) is the capital of Uppsala County and the fourth largest city of Sweden. It had 140,454 inhabitants in 2010.^[1]

Located 67 km north of the capital, Stockholm, it is also the seat of the Uppsala Municipality. Since 1164, Uppsala has been the ecclesiastical centre of Sweden, being the seat of the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden. Founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest centre of higher education in Scandinavia.

History[link]

Uppsala was originally located a few kilometres to the north, at a location now known as Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala). Today's Uppsala was then called Östra Aros. (Old) Uppsala was, according to medieval writer Adam of Bremen, the main pagan centre of Sweden, and the Temple at Uppsala contained magnificent idols of the Æsir gods.^[2][3]

As a replacement for the Scandinavian gods, Uppsala was made into a strong Christian centre. A bishop was soon consecrated, and in 1164 Uppsala was made into an archdiocese, with Stefan, a monk from Alvastra Abbey, being consecrated the first Archbishop of Uppsala and primate of Sweden.

The present-day Uppsala was at that time known as Östra Aros and was a port town of Gamla Uppsala. In 1274, Östra Aros overtook Gamla Uppsala as the main regional centre, and when the cathedral of Gamla Uppsala burnt down, the archbishopric was moved to Östra Aros, where the impressive Uppsala Cathedral was erected; it was inaugurated in 1435. The cathedral is built in the Gothic style and is one of the largest in northern Europe, with towers reaching 118.70 metres.

Uppsala in the 18th century

Uppsala is the site of the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. Carolus Linnaeus, one of the renowned scholars of Uppsala University, lived in the city for many years, and both his house and garden can still be visited. Uppsala is also the site of the 16th century Uppsala Castle.^[4] The city was severely damaged by a fire in 1702. Historical and cultural treasures were also lost, as in many Swedish cities, from demolitions during the 1960s and 1970s, but many historic buildings remain, especially in the western part of the city. The arms with the lion can be traced from 1737. It has been modernized several times since, most recently in 1986. The meaning of the lion is not certain but is likely connected to the royal lion, also depicted on the Coat of Arms of Sweden.

Geography[link]

Stora Torget

Situated on the fertile Uppsala flatlands of muddy soil, the city features the small Fyris River (Fyrisån) flowing through the landscape surrounded by lush vegetation. Parallel to the river runs the glacial ridge of Uppsalaåsen at an elevation of circa 30 metres, the site of Uppsala's castle, from which large parts of the town can be seen. The central park Stadsskogen (literally "Town Forest") stretches from the south far into town, with opportunities for recreation for many residential areas within walking distance.

Only some 70 km (43 mi) or 40 minutes by train from the capital, many Uppsala residents work in Stockholm. The train to Stockholm-Arlanda Airport takes only 17 minutes, rendering the city easily accessible by air.

The commercial centre of Uppsala is quite compact. The city has a distinct town and gown divide with clergy, royalty and academia historically residing on the river's western shore, somewhat separated from the rest of the city, and the ensemble of cathedral, castle and university buildings has remained mostly undisturbed until today. While some beautiful buildings remain on the periphery of the central core, retail commercial activity is geographically focused on a small number of blocks around the pedestrianized streets and main square on the eastern side of the river, an area that was subject to a large-scale metamorphosis during the economically booming years in the 1960s in particular. During recent decades, a significant part of retail commercial activity has shifted to shopping malls and stores situated in the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile, the built-up areas have expanded greatly, and some suburbanization has taken place.

Climate[link]

Uppsala has a humid continental climate, with cold winters and mild summers.

The climate table below presents weather data from the years 1961 - 1990. According to ongoing measurements, the temperature has increased during the years 1991 - 2011 as compared with the last series. This increase is on annual basis around 1.4 °C. Warming is most pronounced during the winter months, with an increase of more than 2.0 °C (around a 3.6 °F - 4 °F increase) in January.

Economy[link]

Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.

• Abbott Medical Optics (AMO)
• GE Healthcare
• Pfizer (see Pharmacia)
• Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia, now a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Fresenius
• Q-Med (bioscience)
• Biotage

Higher education[link]

Universities[link]

• Uppsala University. Founded in 1477, under bishop Jakob Ulvsson. Closed in 1515. Officially reopened in 1595, following the Uppsala Synod in 1593. The university has a famous anatomical theatre, constructed by the scientist and polymath Olof Rudbeck (1630–1702), in the old university building Gustavianum. The building is now a museum. The university has 13 student fraternities, known as "nations", each traditionally representing a geographical region of Sweden.
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, main campus).

Other higher education[link]

• Johannelunds Teologiska Högskola. A Lutheran theological seminary established in 1862, located in Uppsala since 1970.

• The Newman Institute. A Catholic institution founded in 2001.
• Pingströrelsens teologiska seminarium. A Pentecostal theological seminary.

Livets Ord Theological Seminary and Pingströrelsens teologiska seminarium do not have accreditation from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education and thus cannot confer Swedish academic degrees.

Main sights[link]

The Botanical Garden founded by Carl Linnaeus.

The Fyris river (Fyrisån) neatly divides the city into two different parts: the historic quarter to the west of the river and the administrative, residential and commercial area to the east. Most of the features of interest are in the western part, dominated by the cathedral, and with its old streets, river views and parks.

The most outstanding building in Uppsala is the Domkyrka (Uppsala Cathedral), Scandinavia's largest church (118.70 m (389.44 ft) high), which is visible from most parts of town and from the motorway.

Facing the west end of the cathedral is the Gustavianum, built in 1625 to be the main building of the University, and served as such through most of the 19th century. It contains the Museum of Nordic Antiquities, the Victoria Museum (of Egyptian antiquities) and the University's cultural history collections.

It also houses a perfectly preserved 17th-century anatomical theatre (used in its time for public dissections). Across the street from the Gustavianum stands the new main building of the university, erected in 1879–86 in Italian renaissance style. The Uppsala University Coin Cabinet is located in the university main building.

Not far from the University stands the Uppsala University Library (Carolina Rediviva), the largest library in Sweden, with over 5 million volumes and some 60,000 manuscripts. The building was built in 1820–1841.

On a circa 35-metre high hill to the southwest of the University Library stands Uppsala Castle. Its construction was initiated in 1549 by King Gustav Vasa, founder of the Vasa royal dynasty. Today the castle holds several museums, and is the residence of the Governor (landshövding).

5 km north of Uppsala city lies Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), the location of the pre Christian town Uppsala. There are few remains, with the exception of several huge burial mounds of pre-Christian monarchs and the previous cathedral from 1164 A.D., traditionally said to be built over the old heathen temple (and recent archaeological investigations seems to support this notion). After the church burned down around 1240 only parts of it were restored.^[6][7]

Sports[link]

The largest arena in Uppsala is Fyrishov and is Sweden's fourth most visited, specialized in swimming, sports events, meetings and recreation. The facility includes areas for indoor sports, summer sport and a generous waterpark with waterslides, 50-meter pool, training pool, relaxation area and a large outdoor swimming pool. Accommodation is offered at Fyrishov cabin area and at the resort restaurants, a good lunch or dinner can be enjoyed. Fyrishov AB's business also includes the operation of Gottsundabadet in which there is a 25-metre pool, a 10-metre children's pool and gym. The entire facility is open all year round and a large number of meetings and various events are held here annually.

Uppsala Castle

In addition to activities within the arena Fyrishov AB runs Tävlingsstdaden Uppsala in a collaboration between the sports organizers, Fyrishov AB, Uppsala, Uppsala Tourism and hotel business. Co-founded in 2006 by Fyrishov AB under the name SM-town Uppsala in 2007 but was expanded to include international events and competitions at high national level. The project aims to develop Uppsala, a leading sports town in Sweden. Year 2009 there were 24 SM-competitions and major national and international competitions in Uppsala.

At Fyrishov the city's basketball team Uppsala Basket also plays, former KFUM Uppsala, their home games in the Swedish basketball league. There are also athletic club Uppsala, Uppsala, fencing club, Uppsala Judo Club, Sweden's oldest judo club, Uppsala volleyball companion, Upsala weightlifting club and Upsala Simsällskap, one of the world's oldest swimmingclubs. The sport that draws the most audience is floorball. Uppsala's two teams in the Swedish Super League, Storvreta IBK and IK Sirius IBK, have Fyrishov as there home.

One of the most classical sports events, the Swedish bandy champions final, has taken place at Studenternas IP since 1991. It usually attracts a spectator crowd of more than 20,000.^[8]

Once every year, the Uppsala Union of Science and Engineering Students arrange a river rafting in the Fyris river with rafts built from styrofoam.

Other sports clubs located in Uppsala include:

• Almtuna IS
• Gamla Upsala SK
• IF Vindhemspojkarna
• IK Sirius
• IK Sirius Fotboll
• Unik FK
• Upsala IF
• Uppsala Judoklubb

Notable natives[link]

Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Carolus Linnaeus, scientist

• Anders Jonas Ångström
• Svante Arrhenius
• Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007), film director
• Jöns Jakob Berzelius
• Hans Blix
• Arvid Carlsson
• Anders Celsius (1701–1744)
• Adiam Dymott
• Ulf Ekman, pastor
• Stefan Eriksson
• Martin Eriksson (E-Type)
• Malena Ernman
• Torsten Hallman, former motocross world champion
• Lars Hollmer
• Dag Hammarskjöld
• Mattias Klum
• Carl-Bertil Laurell
• Dave Lepard (1980–2006), musician
• Ruben Liljefors
• Viveca Lindfors (1920–1995), actress
• Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778)
• Veronica Maggio
• Håkan Nesser
• Stefan Parkman
• Emma Rendel (1976-), artist
• Hans Rosling
• Olaus Rudbeckius
• Dina Schneidermann
• Roine Stolt
• Owe Thörnqvist
• Rebecka Törnqvist

Of these, Arrhenius, Bergman, Blix, Carlsson, Celsius, Dymott, both Erikssons, Hallman, Klum, Laurell, Liljefors, Parkman, Rosling, Stolt, Dave Lepard, Thörnqvist and Törnqvist were born in Uppsala.

See also[link]

• Uppsala Municipality - Uppsala "kommun"
• Upsala-Lenna Jernväg
• Gamla Uppsala - Old Uppsala in Norse mythology
• Temple at Uppsala - The Temple of Old Uppsala in Norse Mythology
• UppCon - One of Scandinavia's biggest youth events
• Fyrishov - Fyrishov Water Park
• Upsala Nya Tidning - Newspaper for Uppsala city and county
• Uppsalatidningen - Free local newspaper
• Upplands Lokaltrafik - operator of local public transport
• Ärna - Uppsala airport
• Area code 018
• Disting
• Upsala College - Former private college in East Orange, New Jersey, USA, founded in 1893
• Battle of Fýrisvellir
• Uppsala Central Station
• ALPHA 60, alternative rock band based in Uppsala
• Uppsala Konsert & Kongress
• Lund

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Uppsala

Wikisource has the text of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.) article Upsala.

• Uppsala - Official site
• Destination Uppsala - Visit Uppsala. Official tourism site
• Uppsala cityguide - Cityguide
• Upsala Nya Tidning - Newspaper
• Ancient See of Upsala - Article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Uppsala travel guide from Wikitravel

v t e Municipalities and seats of Uppsala County Municipalities Älvkarleby Enköping Håbo Heby Knivsta Östhammar Tierp Uppsala Municipal seats Bålsta Enköping Heby Knivsta Östhammar Skutskär Tierp Uppsala Counties of Sweden Sweden

v t e Administrative seats of Swedish counties (län) Falun (Dalarna) Gävle (Gävleborg) Gothenburg (Västra Götaland) Halmstad (Halland) Härnösand (Västernorrland) Jönköping (Jönköping) Kalmar (Kalmar) Karlskrona (Blekinge) Karlstad (Värmland) Linköping (Östergötland) Luleå (Norrbotten) Malmö (Skåne) Nyköping (Södermanland) Örebro (Örebro) Östersund (Jämtland) Stockholm (Stockholm) Sundsvall (Västernorrland) Umeå (Västerbotten) Uppsala (Uppsala) Västerås (Västmanland) Växjö (Kronoberg) Visby (Gotland)

v t e 50 most populous urban areas in the Nordic countries  Denmark  Finland  Iceland  Norway  Sweden 1.  Stockholm 1,372,565 2.  Copenhagen 1,199,224 3.  Helsinki 1,061,798 4.  Oslo 907,288 5.  Gothenburg 549,839 6.  Malmö 280,415 7.  Turku 253,332 8.  Aarhus 252,107 9.  Bergen 234,800 10.  Stavanger 221,616 11.  Tampere 215,337 12.  Reykjavik 195,000 13.  Odense 167,615 14.  Trondheim 160,072 15.  Oulu 144,114 16.  Uppsala 140,454 17.  Jyväskylä 132,115 18.  Fredrikstad 126,971 19.  Aalborg 124,921 20.  Västerås 110,877 21.  Örebro 107,038 22.  Linköping 104,232 23.  Lahti 102,383 24.  Drammen 100,023 25.  Kuopio 97,610 26.  Helsingborg 97,122 27.  Jönköping 89,396 28.  Kouvola 87,548 29.  Norrköping 87,247 30.  Skien 86,923 31.  Pori 83,156 32.  Lund 82,800 33.  Umeå 79,594 34.  Joensuu 73,807 35.  Lappeenranta 72,156 36.  Esbjerg 71,576 37.  Gävle 71,033 38.  Kristiansand 67,547 39.  Hämeenlinna 67,293 40.  Tromsø 66,669 41.  Borås 66,273 42.  Eskilstuna 64,679 43.  Södertälje 64,619 44.  Karlstad 61,685 45.  Täby 61,272 46.  Rovaniemi 60,699 47.  Randers 60,656 48.  Vaasa 60,491 49.  Seinäjoki 58,836 50.  Halmstad 58,577