Student review [#21970] for Business and Economics
at University of Basel - UNIBAS

Studying at the oldest University in Switzerland is a very mixed experience. So let’s begin with the positive side.

The University is located pretty much in the heart of the city and is easily reachable with Public transportations also things like the Bibliography are only 3 min away.
Basel itself is a lovely city with a lot of big global companies, especially for the size of this city. So finding a job after or during your studies isn’t that hard, and there are mostly well paid.
Concerning the studies themselves, I can only speak for the Bachelor of Arts in Business and Economics.
And it was not that great, to be honest, but it depends a lot on what you expect of this degree.
Principally the courses are very theoretical and extremely mathematical heavy even for Business studies. I would call it exaggeratedly a Bachelor in Mathematics with Business orientation.
You simply need to ask your honestly question how much mathematics are you willing to do? And if you are very good at it?
Because if you love maths, this University will fulfil your joy and you will love your time there and find these courses extremely interesting. Because objectively the Professors are good and the infrastructure is excellent and on top, you can personalize the second and third year of your Bachelor’s, with many minors from which you can choose. But ultimately if in the first place you wanted to do study Business, to understand is procedures and how to manage well or to do great Marketing you are probably at the wrong place and you should search a University which focuses more on that.
But if you want to study Business for the Financial side and love mathematics you will love it and it will be perfect for you.

Now on the Bad Side, like said before, the Business and Economics bachelor is more mathematically focused than normally.
Also if you want to do a semester abroad you don’t have too much choice because the University isn’t in the Erasmus program, so they only have their own partnerships with more than 100 Universities which is still solid.
Also during your studies, you don’t work a lot with companies together so the courses feels always strongly theoretical.
Basel is a great city and one of the richest cities on the planet per habitant, which makes it very expensive for students, the rents are very high and normal expenses like groceries are very high if you don’t come from Switzerland. Also in the city isn’t that much going on and apart from Thursday and Friday, you won’t find many students in the evening in Bars (probably because it’s too expensive mostly), so if you love hanging out after your courses this city isn’t for you on the other side if you love the calm city to fully focus on your courses, Basel is perfect.

To sum it up, if you have a good budget and search for a nice University with a nice calm city, and don’t mind a lot of mathematics this is probably your place. And after the studies, Switzerland is probably the best place to start a career and your Swiss diploma will be a big advantage in Switzerland over the foreign diplomas.

I on the other side was disappointed because the courses were not what I expected and for me, there wasn’t enough cooperation with companies in the courses, also I like to hang out with my fellow students after the courses which in Basel isn’t common. So I recommend these studies to you if you want classic theoretical courses with a lot of maths and don’t mind a calm city.