We—the staff of the University of Basel Language Center—stand for multilingualism and live and love linguistic diversity. Our courses foster language acquisition and communication skills for studying, teaching, research, and work. We are an active member of the Swiss (SSH/CHES) and European (CercleS) networks of university language centers.

You—students, researchers, staff, and alumni of the University of Basel as well as students from other Swiss or Eucor universities—are in and out of the Language Center all year round. Providing you with expert advice and level assessment is particularly important to us. Through course evaluations and ongoing discussions with faculties and departments, we do our best to determine your needs and further develop our entire program.

You are the focus of our courses. We encourage you to use the target language independently and to develop a deliberate, critical approach to artificial intelligence (in the sense of “mind over machine”).

We complement our general and discipline-specific language courses—such as Legal English or Español médico—with formats that target a specific skill, like writing or oral communication.

Domestic and cross-border mobility enlivens our Language Center at the Dreiländereck, where Switzerland, Germany, and France meet. We therefore especially emphasize the national languages German (and Swiss German), French, and Italian. As the languages of study and research at the University of Basel, German and English are central to the academic and social integration of international and Swiss students, researchers, and staff. We respond to their importance in research, teaching, and international mobility with courses tailored to the needs of faculties, departments, and associated institutions.

Are you looking for support in preparing yourself linguistically, socially, and culturally for an exchange semester, internship, research stay, or job in Switzerland or abroad? Our language courses will ready you for the challenges of everyday university life on all sides of the border.