Bernadette Alig, Katharina Fierz, ZHAW, on occasion of their China visit

Published by Bernadette Alig & Katharina Fierz, Nursing Institute of Zurich University of Applied Sciences

As the institute of nursing, school of health professions, Zürich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), we offer continuing education courses not only in Switzerland but also in China. More specifically, within the scope of an accredited Diploma of Advanced Studies in Gerontological Care (DAS – GC) and close cooperation with Chinese universities, expert lecturers provide classes in diverse topics related to gerontological care.  Being very curious about getting to know the Chinese culture, health care system, nursing education system and gerontological care and how our program fits the needs of the Chinese population, we decided to apply to swissnex intercultural exchange program. Finally, after several organizational forths-and-backs, last August, Bernadette Alig, MSc, Head of continuing education and Katharina Fierz, PhD, RN, Professor and Director (both Institute of Nursing at ZHAW), had the opportunity to travel to China, which was an awesome experience. We were able to introduce and reflect on our continuing education program in gerontological care with many Chinese healthcare experts and to enlarge our network.

Jonas Thürler and Chenchen Liu of the Swiss Embassy cared for us in an outstanding manner and were our most wonderful hosts, translators and guides who made possible the impossible. The meetings and visits that were organized were tremendously inspiring, impressive, and extremely informative.  

During our time in Beijing, we were able to meet many knowledgeable people introducing us to Chinese health care system, health care education, health care policy and providing insight into examples of excellent care for the elderly.

At the China Association of Social Welfare and Senior Service (CASWSS), we learned from Hua Han, Secretary General, and colleagues about the Association’s engagement in establishing national standards for gerontological care in terms of self-management, assessment, staff training and educational offerings. Furthermore, CASWSS organizes a yearly expo on progress in senior care comprising above topics. ZHAW was cordially invited to participate in 2020.

Swiss Delegation with CASWSS representatives

It was a great honor to meet Dr. Zhang Tuohong, National Professional Officer Health System and Health Security Team of the WHO China Office. Dr Zhang is internationally connected and provided an excellent international perspective on developments in health care for the elderly in China. She also was very open to discuss potentially sensitive topics such as the need to focus on palliative care, communication and psychosocial care within the scope of caring for the aging population in China and the political agenda for healthcare. She provided valuable information on levels and system of nursing education.

Dr. Zhang Tuohong, National Professional Officer Health System and Health Security Team of the WHO China Office and Prof. Katharina Fierz, Director of the Institute for Nursing at ZHAW

The meeting with representatives from the Health Human Resources Development Center (HHRDC), National Health Commission, provided a very interesting and fruitful discussion on the current situation of nurses and the nursing profession in China including the need for curriculum development on a high and future-oriented, academic level. Ms Zhang Yun, Head of Department of International Cooperation, HHRDC, Ms Nancy Fan, Program Supervisor, Department of International Cooperation, HHRDC, Ms Li Ke, Program Supervisor, Beijing Weirenweiye International Medicine Research Center, HHRDC, Ms Liu Huaping, Professor, School of Nursing Beijing Union Medical College; Director of WHOOC for Nursing Policy Making and Leadership and Ms Zhao Hong, Professor, School of Nursing Beijing Union Medical College; Deputy Director of WHOOC for Nursing Policy Making and Leadership were genuinely interested in further and ideally formalized cooperation in view of curriculum development and research.

ZHAW Delegation (third and fourth from left) and representatives of HHRDC

We also had – as intended – the chance to visit examples of excellent care. Ms. Li, Marketing and Operation Manager at the Cuncao Chunhui Home for the Aged (Ya Yun Can) dedicated her time to us. We were cordially invited on a tour around the house and introduced to the facility, various activity offerings (e.g., gardening) and devices to alleviate living at home as an elderly person and being able to participate in social and family life (e.g., a kind of a moveable rest to lean on while cooking). We had the excellent opportunity to ask and clarify questions regarding the institution’s principles, guidelines and nursing / caring processes. Biography work is an integral part of caring for clients suffering from dementia, including a ‘biography room’ furnished with objects from the past (e.g., very old TV / radio, furniture, wallpaper).

‘room of memories’ at Cuncao Chunhui Home for the Aged

Another most impressive place with the clear vision to care for the elderly and their families in a comprehensive way was one of the facilities of DaAi City Aged Care Service Co, which is an independent division of DaAi City Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. Fan Congiun and Wu Danxing, Vice President DaAi City Aged Care Service Co, Ltd, CEO, welcomed the delegation from ZHAW cordially and we immersed ourselves in most stimulating discussions before we enjoyed an astonishing tour around the house.

Wu Danxing, Vice President DaAi City Aged Care Service Co

The DaAi City home for the elderly is situated 1.5 hrs outside Beijing and with its spacious public area, single-bed rooms, an in-house shop and many activation offerings, indeed, an impressive place. Activation and rehabilitation is a credo, which is followed rigorously and can be traced wherever you go: we observed clients singing, playing cards or other games, shopping, rehearsing the last piano lesson, a.s.f. during the entire tour. Existing activation offerings can be expanded if clients wish to do so. A swimming pool, state-of-the-art rehab devices, yoga room, floral arts, calligraphy and painting, music, and so forth are only some of the further opportunities offered to clients.

Furthermore, the organisation’s vision is comprehensive care and social participation, including the family living nearby, the option to move from one center to another within China according to one’s preferences and growing one’s own vegetable and fruit.

After these days filled with new impressions, questions, answers, we enjoyed a day off, reveled in touristic activities and visited the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

 Thanks to swissnex China we were able to gain valuable and inspiring insights into the Chinese healthcare system – we would like to thank all of you who made this experience possible!

Forbidden City – impression

The Great Wall with visitor from Switzerland

China’s Green Revolution – an ESG round trip: Guest Blog by Dr. Jan-Alexander Posth

By Dr. Jan-Alexander Posth, Senior Lecturer at the ZHAW School of Management and Law

“Environmental, Social and Governance” (ESG) compliant investment has a long-standing history, dating back to the 1960-ties in the US.

With developments like climate change now being a certainty and global pollution not only endangering health but also negatively affecting productivity, ESG has experienced an even greater renaissance: It is now increasingly recognized that ESG-compliant investing and policy design has the potential to creatively reshape whole industries and to positively influence the development of economies as well as societies.

China, too, has realized this and embarked on an epic undertaking to transform its economy. After rushing through its industrial revolution and now in the final stage of its 12th Five-Year-Plan, China today faces an economic slowdown as well as natural resources scarcity, industrial pollution and corruption, all hampering further economic growth and social development. In order to countermand this trend, the Chinese government has initiated a set of reforms, aiming to, again, rapidly transform its economy – this time along ESG criteria.

ZHAW SML is consistently exploring the opportunities associated with ESG, impact investing, and green finance. With the ongoing shift of focus towards this new research field, it is essential to understand the implications on a broader, international and global scale – climate change and pollution being a global problem. China being a major and still emerging driver, plays an important role in global economic development as well as in green finance and it is thus of immense importance to understand the implications of China’s development and its action taken with regard to ESG policy, green finance, and the overall transformation of its economy.

Therefore, for me it was a great opportunity and an honour to be invited to China by swissnex China and ZHAW Resort Internationales this summer. My ESG investigation round trip to China started in Shanghai with a tight agenda consisting of valuable on-site visits and two talks given, one at the office of swissnex China and one at ShanghaiTech University. I then transferred to Beijing by high-speed train where the program continued with high-ranking visits and highly interesting meetings and discussions, covering a wide variety of ESG related topics. Again, swissnex China did an incredible job at linking me up with important ESG stakeholders and at facilitating meetings. Being able to talk to researchers and practitioners alike, I gained an in-depth insight where China focuses when thinking ESG and how this needs to be integrated in China’s overall objectives.

I am thus positive, that this broader understanding, alongside a wider scope of research and the established contacts during my visit, will help to enable a deeper bilateral understanding of ESG and related matters from a Chinese and Swiss point of view, resulting in long-lasting cooperation, bilateral research activity and new insights on both sides.

Finally, I would like to express my profound thanks to swissnex China, and especially to Ms. Libing Gu, for their excellent coordination of my visit and their continuing help during my stay as well as to ZHAW Resort Internationales for supporting the trip.

ESG – starting at the airport

Visit at De Tao Group

Visit at swissnex China & team

High-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing

Sustainability on a smaller scale

Dr. Jan-Alexander Posth is a senior lecturer at the Institute for Wealth and Asset Management at the ZHAW School of Management and Law. He has more than 12 years of professional track record in the financial industry, where he gained extensive expertise as a risk manager, quant and portfolio manager. Starting at Deutsche Postbank as a credit risk manager, Jan-Alexander moved on to Landesbank Baden-Württemberg where he built up the quant infrastructure for the structured credit trading division and led the fund derivatives trading desk. Joining STOXX Ltd. in 2012, he was responsible for the development of smart-beta equity indices and multi-factor models before becoming Head of Research and Portfolio Management at Tom Capital AG in 2015. Jan-Alexander holds a PhD in theoretical physics.

ZHAW Engages AACSB-accredited Peer Institutions in China: Guest Blog by Fabienne Javet

By Fabienne Javet, Research Associate, School of Management and Law (Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning)

Founded in 1916, AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) is the largest and most widely recognized accreditation for business schools worldwide. Once a school earns the initial AACSB Accreditation, it is reviewed by a peer team every five years to ensure the school is not only maintaining accreditation, but finding ways to continuously innovate and improve the quality of its programs. The ZHAW School of Management and Law (SML) achieved its initial accreditation in 2015. Out of the 15 business-standards defined by AACSB, the standard “Assurance of Learning” (AoL), is considered as one of the most challenging to organize and implement. AACSB provides a basic framework for the AoL standard, but allows schools flexibility in the definition of their AoL system for alignment to their respective missions. As I design and coordinate the AoL-process for the BSc and MSc study programs at SML, the main goal for my stay in China was to identify different approaches to an Assurance of Learning process, share insights and discuss innovative perspectives on how to improve the process. Thanks to Swissnex China, I had the opportunity to visit AACSB accredited schools in Shanghai and Beijing in June 2019.

China is increasingly becoming a global player in higher education, and the government is encouraging boosting internationalization for their universities. China already ranks 3rd behind the USA and UK when it comes to international student enrollment. Thus, US accreditations are coming increasingly into focus. At the moment, 32 business schools in China are AACSB accredited. Two of the schools I visited have even already reached Triple Crown status, meaning they are AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS accredited. The ZHAW School of Management and Law is also aspiring to obtain those other two accreditations in the near future.

I was cordially received by all of the representatives of the AoL-teams at the different universities. Everyone seemed glad about the opportunity for an exchange about AoL. It was very interesting to dive into the different AoL-systems presented to me by my contact partners, and receive thoughts and feedback on the SML’s AoL system. This allowed me to gain deeper insight into different approaches and possibilities on how to carry out the process, and how to detect best practice. I had interesting and fruitful discussions with all participants about how to interpret different elements of AoL, and the challenges the AoL teams face. Everyone agreed that involving faculty is probably the most challenging part of the whole AoL-process. It is reassuring to see that even in the best developed AoL-systems, all schools seem to be dealing with the same issues and are working hard to find solutions.

All participants emphasized the importance of engaging in a continuous exchange about AoL with other universities and how, unfortunately, this is not being done enough at the moment. My meetings in China allowed me to build valuable international connections, as well as gain ideas for our system and the upcoming peer visit during the continuous improvement review in 2020. 

swissnex China receives delegation of ZHAW School of Engineering

By Libing Gu, Project Leader Academic Relations

On October 15th, swissnex China had the pleasure of welcoming 19 students from School of Engineering of ZHAW (Zurich University of Applied Sciences).

Dr. Felix Moesner, CEO swissnex China opened the session with his presentation on the mission and activities of swissnex China over the past ten years and introduced the settings of higher education, research and innovation in China.

Guest speaker Dr. Annette Metz, Chief Representative China and Southeast Asia of Conben Consulting, gave a lecture on “How to reach organizational health in Chinese VUCA environment”, during which she presented to the group her HR experience in intercultural co-working and team-building in China.

Quentin Gigon, Junior Project Manager Innovation & Entrepreneurship swissnex China gave a presentation on the innovation landscape in China with interesting case studies and challenging insights.

In the Q&A sessions, the audience posed numerous questions regarding the opportunities and challenges of Chinese market entry for Swiss enterprises. 

swissnex China wishes them a fruitful trip in China and looks forward to welcoming them again in the near future!

Swiss Alumni Gathering 2018 in Shanghai

By Priska Furrer, Junior Project Leader

On May 18, we had the pleasure of organizing a gathering for the alumni and current students of all Swiss universities living in China. We welcomed participants from Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland (SUPSI), Zurich University of the Arts, University of Applied Sciences of Northwest Switzerland (FHNW), University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, University of Lucerne, University of Lugano, University of Neuchâtel, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), École Cantonale D'art De Lausanne (ECAL), The Graduate Institute, Geneva, University of Fribourg, University of Bern, University of Basel, École hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), University of Lausanne, University of Zurich, University of Geneva, University of St. Gallen, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Les Roches & IFM and International Hotel and Tourism Training Institute Neuchâtel.

At 6 pm the first guests arrived, and our team started with the registration. Soon the venue started to fill up with people.

Around 7 pm our CEO, Felix Moesner, held a short speech in which he introduced the mission of swissnex China to everyone and he also briefly talked about the Swiss education system.

The event also sparked interest in people passing by the venue, Rose Garden, located in the heart of Shanghai.

We prepared goodie bags for all the attendees at the end of the evening, thanks to the support of our sponsors Lindt, Orange Garden, 17Hi, Switzerland Tourism and Cheers Wines.

We would like to thank everyone for coming to the gathering and we hope to see you again next year!