By Lefei Chen, Junior Project Manager - Academic Relations
With last year’s memories still freshed in mind, on June 4th, 2021, Swissnex in China officially representing all Swiss Public Universities in China, hosted the annual grand SWISS ALUMNI CHINA soirée on the largest Merrystar Cruise Ship along Shanghai’s iconic Bund waterfront. With a network of about 3,000 Alumni from Swiss Public Universities, 375 Alumni from 25 Swiss Public Universities confirmed for this alumni extravaganza, traveling from all over China to Shanghai.
This year’s gathering was graced by the presence of the Swiss Ambassador to China Bernardino Regazzoni and Consuls General in Chengdu and Shanghai.
Welcoming the soirée, Ambassador Regazzoni highlighted that this year’s event was the largest in scale since the first alumni event organized in Beijing in 2008. With two newly created chapters of Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) and University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) joining, this year’s gathering also has the record-high number of alumni chapters attending. He was glad to see the awareness as well as the number of attendants growing over the years.
He acknowledged that the Sino-Swiss exchange on research and academic has entered a new level since the Sino-Swiss Science and Technology Cooperation program established in 2003: about 3000 alumni of Swiss public universities in China, over 250 agreements between Chinese and Swiss public universities signed, more than 2000 Chinese students choose to study in Switzerland every year. Despite the current pandemic, Sino-Swiss cooperation on higher education does not stop. Notable new cooperation was created, including the Institute of Risk Analysis, Prediction and Management (Risks-X), i.e. the first university-level collaborative research institute between ETH Zurich and Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China; the ground-breaking of the Shenzhen International School of Design, i.e. the first Sino-Swiss university in China; the creation of Swiss Innovation Centre by FHNW, BFH and Shenzhen Technology University; as well as other well-known cooperation projects such as the Geneva-Tsinghua-Initiative, which has gone through its third year and already cultivated hundreds of talents to tackle the SDG related problems.
Concluding the speech, Ambassador Regazzoni underlined that the relationship between nations is not just about interactions between governments or leaders; rather, it is more about relationships between people, especially alumni who shared the same experiences studying and living in both Switzerland and China, and act as informal ambassadors upon their return. This event is a wonderful platform to exchange, foster the connection among the growing Swiss alumni communication and he wished the event a great success with an inspiring experience.
Following the Ambassador’s address, the floor was given to 9 active Alumni Chapters in Shanghai to share the latest news and present their activities. This year, Alumni from EHL (Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne) formed the biggest group, counting 58 of the registrants, closely followed by ETH Zurich and the University of St. Gallen’s 50 alumni. Alumni from other universities also witnessed great increases: 45 from University of Zurich, 37 from EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne), 32 from The Graduate Institute Geneva (IHEID), 30 from University of Geneva, 17 from University of Lausanne, 12 from University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), 9 from University of Bern, 9 from University of Basel.
The rest of the night was a networking reception complemented with a job fair activity, offering a high-in-demand platform for exchanging job perspectives. At the same time, it was a great opportunity for Alumni to stay connected and share ideas while enjoying an evening cruise along Shanghai's iconic Bund waterfront. The event highlights Switzerland’s excellence in education, research, and innovation, with the goal of fostering a strong community in China.
Swissnex in China Team would like to give a special thank to the chapters and our generous sponsors, Merrystar, Shanghai Mingxin Cruise, Lindt, Weleda, swissmooh, Nespresso, Appenzeller Bier, Kambly, bottlesXO! We look forward to seeing everyone again in 2022!
