Contest: What will the university of the future be like?
This is already the second time that ETH Zurich’s Strategic Foresight Hub is holding an essay contest. The topic for this year: Life at a hybrid university in the year 2040. The contest is open to anyone in the ETH community who is keen to flex their creative writing muscles and share their vision of the future.
The pandemic has turned much of what we take for granted in daily life on its head. For a good two years now, uncertainty and ambiguity have been part of everyday life, and demand for flexibility is higher than ever. Indeed, the way we teach, learn and work at ETH Zurich has changed: working from home and taking part in web conferences have become the norm. Thanks to online learning, among other things, the “hybrid university” has arrived.
There can be no doubt that many of these developments will remain to shape our everyday working lives for a long time to come. But we’d like to look a little farther, say to the year 2040: What might our day-to-day life be like at a “university of the future”?
Describe your “university of the future”
This is precisely the topic of this year’s essay contest organised by the Strategic Foresight Hub (SFH). In the future, whom will you exchange ideas with and how will you do it? Where will the university be located? Where will you be? How will the university bridge the gap between digital and analogue? Will artificial intelligence help you make everyday decisions? What will be the subject of research?
To take part in the contest, write an essay about what you imagine a typical day would be like at a university of the future. Tell your story from any point of view you like: student, employee, professor, support staff, president – or perhaps even a role that has yet to be created.
Requirements
To take part in the contest, you must fulfil the following requirements:
- You are a member of the ETH community (students, staff, professors, alumni).
- Your essay is no longer than 4,000 characters (including spaces) and is written in German or English.
- Please submit your essay to by no later than midnight on 1 May 2022.
What happens next?
The SFH team will shortlist up to five essays. These will then be published (anonymously) on the SFH web page, where they can be judged by the ETH community. There will be two prizes: a “community’s choice” award and an SFH team award.
The winning essays will be edited in consultation with their authors and published in a booklet.
Further information
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