The University of Bern offers top quality across the board: it enjoys special recognition in leading-edge disciplines, is reputed for the excellent quality of its teaching, offers a delightful setting, and a campus environment intimately linked to the social, economic and political life of the city. The university’s comprehensive offering includes 8 faculties and some 160 institutes that date back to the XVIth century. Its academic and research organisation prides itself on its interdisciplinarity, exemplified by its five National Centres of Competence in Research: International Trade Regulation, TransCure (Membrane Transport Research), MUST (Molecular Ultrafast Science and Technology), PlanetS (how planet systems are formed and how they develop) and RNA and Disease. The university is actively involved in a wide range of European and worldwide research projects, notably in the field of space research. The city of Bern is listed among the cities that offer the best quality of life in the world: the people of Bern are welcoming and peaceable, and the old town of Bern, nestling in a breath-taking setting surrounded by the Swiss Alps, is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.