ETH – on the right track
My colleague Harald Bugmann raises an important issue in his critique of university rankings. I believe we must approach these rankings pragmatically. But we must also ensure that ETH Zurich maintains its high profile.
The university rankings season has become a fixture in all of our calendars: the Shanghai Ranking appears with the latest figures at the end of August, followed by the QS Rankings in mid-September and the THE Rankings rounding things off at the beginning of October. And we know what that means for ETH: our position has not changed much over the past few years. In all of these rankings, ETH Zurich is regarded as the best university in continental Europe.
What do I think of the rankings? This may sound typically Swiss, but I approach them pragmatically – I neither glorify nor demonise them; I simply try to make the best of things. Whether we like it or not, comparisons of this type are a fact of life in the age of the globalised university marketplace. Grumbling on the sidelines is simply not an option. But we should always keep two things in mind when discussing the significance of rankings like this. Firstly, they can never reflect the full complexity and uniqueness of a university. Secondly, university administrations should never make the mistake of changing their strategies just to move up in the rankings.
Increased international visibility
Whatever you think of the rankings, they get a lot of attention in Asia. One of my tasks over the last seven years has been to position our school internationally. We have the privilege of enjoying a good deal of positive international media attention thanks to ETH's prominent position in these rankings. And we have managed this without having to spend vast sums of money on advertising, either. CNN visited us at ETH recently, and the BBC will come as well. This is not due entirely to the rankings, of course, but they certainly play a role, and they have increased our visibility beyond the boundaries of the scientific community – another salient fact to bear in mind.
Appointing professors requires careful deliberation
Professorial excellence encompasses far more than publications in scientific journals as proof of good performance. Here I share the view Bugmann expressed in his article. They are educators as much as they are researchers. They must also assume leadership roles, be open to collaboration with industry – and increasingly they must explain their endeavours to the media in response to a growing demand for transparency.
As far as appointing a candidate to a post is concerned, it is the privilege of the ETH president to nominate individuals for election by the ETH Board. But it would be misleading to suggest that the president carries out the highly important business of appointments entirely alone. Like my predecessors, I was able to call on the expertise of the appointment committees. Appointing professors is not a matter of tallying up how often their work has been cited – we need to consider their profiles in the broadest possible terms and evaluate their future potential. And no computer program will ever replace the input of other people in this process. Personally, I accepted the committee’s recommendations in 90–95% of cases. We make these appointments with the greatest possible care; they are too important to allow time pressure to force an ill-considered, hasty decision.
Commitment to theory and practice
Bugmann refers to the strong practical foundation that USYS graduates have, and we have every reason to be proud of that. It demonstrates how in-demand our graduates are, and it challenges the stereotype of the theory-laden ETH graduate who must first settle into the finer details of professional practice before becoming a fully fledged specialist. But it also shows me what a broad range of subjects we cover here at ETH and how, owing to the diversity of these situations, we should be wary of judging all courses of study by the same measuring stick.
There is one thing, however, that I would like to state very clearly: a solid theoretical foundation is absolutely indispensable in my view, and we are the only institution in Switzerland – together with EPFL – that can provide it. Much is done to incorporate practical experience into the course of study and to allow our students to work on real problems. But if I had to choose between more fundamentals or more practical experience in an extremely demanding and full ETH programme, I would not hesitate in my decision. There is no better time to learn the theoretical fundamentals than during your studies; you learn the practical aspects from the first day of your professional career, no matter what.
And it is primarily our profound knowledge in mathematics and the natural sciences which allows us to maintain such a high profile in the exceptionally specialised Swiss education system – and to keep pace with the best universities around the world.