Blog posts on social issues

EPFL and ETH Zurich Presidents Martin Vetterli and Joël Mesot consider high tuition fees as in the English-speaking world to be the wrong approach to improving the financial situation of the two universities. Students should be seen as success factors for our country and not as cash cows.

The war in Ukraine is also a war for soil. Sebastian Dötterl, Professor for Soil Resources at ETH Zurich explains what makes Ukrainian soil so valuable and why it will become even more geopolitically significant.

Have you done any further professional training in the last five years? If not, then one reason is probably the education system and its rigid qualifications, says Lukas Sigrist.

Switzerland offers tremendous opportunities for technological and entrepreneurial innovation. Thomas Zurbuchen asks, “How can we generate the momentum needed to maintain an edge in the face of international competition – especially when times get tough?”

Hans Gersbach and Martin Wörter explain why Switzerland should not join the emerging international subsidy race. Sticking with the proven “Swiss way” is much more promising.

Sascha Quanz searches for traces of life on extrasolar planets orbiting alien stars. The astrophysicist believes that gaining an understanding of life and its origin on Earth is an important stepping stone.

How productive are we when we work from home? It’s an increasingly common question. But Gudela Grote believes it’s the wrong question, because it says more about our conceptions of human nature than about effective ways of working.

To mark Sexual Harassment Awareness Day at Swiss universities, Vice President Julia Dannath analyses the situation at ETH Zurich, explains what anonymous reports can and cannot achieve, and presents what she believes is most needed to effectively combat sexual harassment.

Focusing exclusively on new housing developments to counter the housing crisis is not sustainable, says David Kaufmann. His research group has been able to show that vulnerable persons are displaced to a much greater extent than previously thought in the Swiss canton of Zürich.

Stephen Herzog is researching how nuclear weapons could be better controlled and eventually eliminated. For him, Putin's threats are a reason to fundamentally question the nuclear “balance of terror."