Universities

A response to the Avenir Suisse report: Two more points to consider

The Avenir Suisse report on Swiss universities with its reform agenda to increase their efficiency and effectiveness is most interesting and opens up numerous opportunities for discussion. As it’s not possible to comment on all of it, I’ll concentrate on two points: firstly, the problems, extensively discussed in the report, of duplication, waste and scattering of resources, linked with a tendency towards a certain uniformisation of institutions especially via the “academisation” of universities of applied sciences (UASs). And secondly, the problems of innovation to renew this old industry of higher education, which the report, rather strangely, barely mentions. Read more