ETH Zurich and EPFL strengthen international positioning
Berne/Zurich, 25.04.2016 - ETH Zurich and EPFL are among the world’s best universities. In 2015, they were able to further improve their positions in the relevant rankings. In parallel, they registered a new record level with 29,357 students and doctoral students.The research institutes PSI, WSL, Empa and Eawag, too, provided evidence of their international cutting-edge level in research and innovation. With their knowledge and their excellent research infrastructures, they are valuable partners of many Swiss enterprises and public administration. The institutions of the ETH Domain are of great significance for the innovative power of Switzerland as a centre of industry, education and research. This was confirmed by an international group of experts, who in 2015 evaluated the ETH Domain at the behest of Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann.
ETH Zurich and EPFL reinforced their strong positions in 2015. Their success is reflected in a new record number of students and doctoral students. EPFL exceeded the 10,000-mark for the first time. At both Federal Institutes of Technology taken together, 29,357 students and doctoral students were enrolled. This amounts to 2.9% more than in the preceding year, as is revealed by the 2015 Annual Report of the ETH Board, which has just appeared. Since 2006, the number of students and doctoral students at ETH Zurich and EPFL has increased by just under 60%. The Federal financial contribution did not keep up with this development and increased by a mere 30% in that period of time. This has an adverse effect of the staff-student-ratio, among other things. In 2015, one professor supervised an average of about 37 students and doctoral students, which was 15.5% more than ten years before.
It is a reflection of the high quality of research and teaching in the ETH Domain that ETH Zurich and EPFL were able to move up further in prominent international rankings in 2015 in spite of tighter financial and political conditions. In the worldwide Times Higher Education Ranking (THE), ETH Zurich moved up into the top ten for the first time – from 13th to 9th place. EPFL improved its position from 34th to 31st place. In the European THE ranking, the two Federal Institutes of Technology occupy 4th and 11th place, respectively.
A spin-off almost every week
The two Federal Institutes of Technology and the four research institutes applied for 219 patents in the past year. With 48 spin-offs, researchers from institutions of the ETH Domain set up a firm almost every week. The two key figures, which remained at the level of the preceding year, are important indicators of a knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) that is in good working order. In order to promote this further, the ETH Domain is also heavily involved in the Swiss Innovation Park: at four out of five locations, institutions of the ETH Domain are currently engaged to a substantial degree. The intermediate evaluation conducted by an international group of experts in 2015 also confirmed the ETH Domain’s outstanding role in knowledge and technology transfer. In addition, the experts' report highlighted its central success factors: autonomy, internationality, as well as long-term-oriented, adequate funding by the Confederation.
Crucial decisions will have to be made in no fewer than three political areas. The Federal Council’s 2017–2019 stabilisation programme has scheduled above-average cuts for the field of education, research and innovation (ERI). Instead of the requested increase of 3.5%, the ERI Dispatch 2017–2020 earmarked only 1.5% for the ETH Domain. This is tantamount to the lowest growth of all ERI actors and would lead to resources amounting to 830m CHF less than stipulated in the ETH Board’s financial plans. The ETH Board has therefore set in motion a comprehensive cost-cutting and relinquishment programme to the tune of approx. 200m CHF. Research infrastructure projects of nationwide significance such as the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre CSCS of ETH Zurich in Lugano and the X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL at PSI in Würenlingen will have to accept cuts in the same way as the institutions’ construction and renovation projects and operational budgets of the institutions. With regard to revenues, a socially compatible increase in tuition fees from Autumn Semester 2018 is currently under review.
The ETH Domain depends on foreign specialists
Another important item on the political agenda is the implementation of the Mass Immigration Initiative. The four research institutes and the two Federal Institutes of Technology depend on highly specialised experts from abroad in order to be able to retain their top positions and to fulfil their innovative missions. Thus PSI employs people from 64 countries. The ETH Domain therefore demands that researchers and their families are exempted from any quotas or that universities and research institutes be allocated separate quotas. Another decision that is of great significance for the ETH Domain and for Switzerland as a centre of industry, education and research is the speedy ratification of the protocol for the free movement of persons to Croatia by Parliament. If this protocol is not ratified, Switzerland will be excluded from the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020, as from the end of 2016.
Address for enquiries
Christoph Leuenberger
Head of Communication of the ETH Board ad interim
CH-8092 Zürich
christoph.leuenberger@ethrat.ch
+41 44 632 75 77
Publisher
Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology
https://www.ethrat.ch/en
