Language Center

Welcome to the Language Center of the UniBE!

Would you like to integrate into the University of Bern by learning languages? Are you interested in improving your academic language skills? We are happy to help!

Changes at the Language Center as of spring semester 2025

  • New target group: From Spring Semester 2025, all employees, including mid-career faculty, administration, and professors, can take courses at the Language Center along with students.
  • Special courses for teachers: Free German and English courses will be available for prospective teachers (staff only).
  • Extended offer: More German courses will be available.
  • Course fees for students: With a few exceptions, students will now have to pay for the language courses.

We offer

  • language courses to help you improve your skills in UniBe’s languages of education and research: German and English,
  • a digital platform for arranging language tandems for many target languages, the University of Bern in collaboration with partner universities and the Forum for Bilingualism: https://edu.e-tandem.ch/.

General information about the language courses

Most of our language courses are semester courses that start one week after the semester begins and end at the end of the semester. They are aligned with the language levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. You can only start a language course at the beginning of the semester, and attendance is obligatory. You also have to complete assignments.
(Students at the UniBE may include course grades and ECTS points from language courses for Academic English from level B2 in their Diploma Supplement as optional courses. Mobility or exchange students who wish to use the ECTS credits for their studies at their home university should clarify in advance whether the ECTS credits will be recognized there.)

Registration and placement test

If you have not attended a course at the Language Center before, you must first provide some personal information and then take our online placement test. You can then register for a course that corresponds to your level. Each course has a maximum capacity of 20 participants.

If you have an international language certificate issued within the past 12 months, please contact the administration office (for English: info.aes@unibe.ch, for German: info.daf@unibe.ch). If so, you can be exempted from the placement test.

If you have completed a language course at the Language Center within a year, you will receive a registration link for a course at your target level.

Detailed information on the individual target groups can be found here: Registration, course fees, conditions of participation

Information and consultation

Management