The world comes to Uppsala every day, and the university is always looking out into the world. Each year, we invite the most prominent scientists, scholars and personalities. At Uppsala, you are welcome to listen to and learn from Nobel laureates, writers, politicians and many other guests and friends.

New impulses and insights

The numerous invitations that Uppsala University sends out around the world each year can be said to represent our wish to constantly question and renew our own activities and research. Our many visiting lecturers provide us with new impulses and insights. Often these guests are active on the very cutting edge of research and inspire our own researchers and students to continue their own successful work.

Old tradition

The lecture is the traditional forum for academic communication at universities. The first lectures at Uppsala University were given immediately after its founding in 1477, when one Ericus Olai, doctor of theology from Rostock, addressed his students with the subject Regulæ sacræ theologiæ (roughly “Tenets of Theology”). Lectures in law and the arts were soon to follow.

Living encounter

Today most often the lecture is no longer an ex cathedra recitation of knowledge but rather a living encounter between teacher and students, between lecturer and audience. The best of these encounters lay the groundwork for new thinking and new discoveries.