By Mianmian Fei, Junior Project Manager - Academic Relations
The academic landscape in Switzerland comprises twelve public universities awarding doctorate degrees and eight universities of applied science which offer a more practice-focused approach to studying. According to universitas21 ranking, Switzerland has the world’s second best education system. The country is also an excellent hub for top universities, with outstanding Swiss universities regularly ranking among the top universities globally, especially for science and technology. In addition, Switzerland also hosts the headquarters of international organizations such as the United Nations and public research institutions such as the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
Swiss universities.
On November 25, 2020, swissnex China held its second Einstein Day, which brought together vice presidents, provosts, deans and accomplished alumni of five top Swiss universities in a Zoom webinar to share with Chinese audience first-hand information about study programs and university choices. For EPFL, we invited the incoming Vice President for Academic Affairs Prof. Dr. Jan Hesthaven and alumnus Chuyao Peng, Founder and CEO of DeepMag. Vice President for Research and Corporate Relations Prof. Dr. Detlef Günther represented ETH Zurich, along with alumna Xueying Mao, Chief Representative of rqmicro AG China Rep Office. For University of Geneva, we had Vice-Rector Prof. Dr. Stéphane Berthet as well as Yi Zheng, Head of Office at the Institute for Sustainable Development Goals of Tsinghua University (TUSDG) who is pursuing a PhD degree at University of Geneva. For University of Basel there was Dean of Research Prof. Dr. Sebastian Hiller and alumnus Prof. Dr. Lichun He from the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Finally, Prof. Dr. Harald Gall, Dean of Faculty of Business, Economics and Information, represented University of Zurich, together with alumna Amy Weng working in Investment Sales Management at Credit Suisse.
The webinar started with an introduction to the Education, Research and Innovation (ERI) System of Switzerland by Dr. Felix Moesner, Science Consul and CEO of swissnex China. Then, each of the university representatives gave a short overview of their respective university, including aspects such as its history, host city, and focus in research. Afterwards, these five university representatives engaged in a panel discussion, in which they talked about questions regarding how their universities contribute to the innovation ecosystem in Switzerland and how they prepare their graduates for an ever-changing job market. In the next session, the five alumni who have pursued (or is currently pursuing) a Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD or Postdoctoral degree at these institutions shared their experience studying in Switzerland and gave advice to the audience regarding school choices and applications. The webinar was concluded with a Q&A session, where the university representatives addressed some of the frequently asked questions by the audience.
A view of all the speakers at the Einstein Day.
The webinar attracted a total number of 650 audience to register, with some additional audience watching through Bilibili livestreaming. Majority of them are current students, professors and administrative staff at top-tier Chinese universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and University of Sciences and Technology of China. In total, our audience represent 34 universities in Mainland China and Hong Kong as well as 14 overseas universities in Switzerland, USA, UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Netherland, Malaysia and Nepal. In addition, we had industry representatives from world-renown companies such as Prudential, Roche, Schindler, and China Mobile.
We want to express our appreciation for university representatives and alumni for their informative presentations and thoughtful answers during the Q&A session. We hope the Einstein Day has provided our audience with useful information about studying in Switzerland. If you are interested in learning more about higher education opportunities in Switzerland, you can read more here or email us for information at academicrelations@swissnexchina.org.
Please find a link to the webinar recording here.
