Initiative Future of Teaching at UZH

UZH offers students an excellent environment full of opportunities and a level of diversity that is unprecedented in Switzerland. When it comes to educational development, we rely on the expertise, creativity and commitment of our teaching staff and study program coordinators.

This strengthens the sense of belonging among UZH’s teaching community. By joining forces, we can leverage strong networks to keep up with the demands of a society undergoing rapid transformation. 

The Future of Teaching initiative was launched to vigorously and strategically coordinate and promote these developments. The initiative encompasses five strategic directions.

Enthusiastic, resourceful and gifted instructors create positive learning experiences and directly improve students’ prospects for the future.

Effective teaching is not just a solo endeavor, however – it results from collaboration between multiple stakeholders. For teaching to thrive amid digital, social and academic change, it requires room for innovation as well as a shared understanding of what good teaching entails.

This is why UZH promotes innovative teaching ideas and seeks to create a lively teaching community with room for exchange and cooperation – across faculties and disciplines and with real-world relevance.

Key measures

• UZH promotes interdisciplinary, topic-focused teaching communities with opportunities for regular exchange and interaction. These communities offer direct benefits for instructors’ teaching activities, ranging from peer consultation to collaborative development of new teaching concepts.

• Study program coordinators play a key role in quality assurance and teaching development. They receive tailored support – resources, training opportunities and structured peer exchange – so that they can carry out their role effectively.

• The UZH Teaching Fund is an internal instrument designed to help anyone involved in teaching at UZH with implementing innovative teaching projects at the module and study program level. This support can take the form of funding and/or advising.

• UZH is strengthening professional development in teaching. We reinforce our shared understanding of teaching at UZH through needs-based training and collaborative reflection.

Good teaching is open to outside ideas and offers students a variety of opportunities for broadening their intellectual horizons.

UZH allows students to choose an individual focus and to enrich their studies with international and cross-disciplinary experiences.

Our teaching staff and faculties, as well as the university as a whole, create varied opportunities for students to tap into the wealth of resources available at our comprehensive university and its strategic networks.

Key measures

• UZH is removing barriers to cross-disciplinary and cross-faculty study at all levels to the greatest extent possible. This allows students to pursue their individual intellectual interests even more freely and to focus on areas beyond their major.

• Since joining the Una Europa alliance, UZH has participated in a wide range of joint programs, including two joint Bachelor’s programs plus summer schools and a structured module exchange. In order to enable as many students as possible to gain international experience, UZH is working to expand low-threshold offerings that can be easily integrated into the curriculum.

• The UZH School for Transdisciplinary Studies acts as a central platform to provide students with a curated selection of transdisciplinary modules, minor programs and future skills courses. This offering is being developed strategically – aiming to give students from all faculties fresh insights into complex societal challenges and to build their inter- and transdisciplinary skills with a view to the long term.

Universities share their knowledge with society. Researchers disseminate their findings, tackle current issues and inspire others to do their own thinking.

With society and technology undergoing rapid transformation, the need for lifelong learning is growing, as is the demand for shorter, more flexible and more open formats for acquiring knowledge on the university level.

As a leader in lifelong learning, UZH is developing continuing education offerings based on student needs while also broadening access and ensuring quality through various approaches.

Key measures

• The first microcredentials are already being awarded as part of UZH’s continuing education programs. To pave the way for issuing more credentials for short learning units in the future, UZH has formulated a position paper with seven guiding principles (in German). This allows providers of continuing education programs and degree-level teaching to learn about UZH’s stance as an institution as well as current practices regarding microcredentials.

• UZH Master’s and PhD students can also earn microcredentials within the Una Europa alliance. We are currently reviewing the prerequisites for being able to create flexible offerings of this kind together with our alliance partners.

The world is becoming increasingly digital, and expectations for digital teaching and learning continue to evolve.

Students expect to have access to digital tools with intuitive interfaces that enable them maximum flexibility and access in their studies. Instructors and administrative units would like to acquire digital skills and have seamless digital services that make everyday teaching and work noticeably easier.

UZH is laying the groundwork for this. We are monitoring trends and developments concerning new technologies in education. In parallel, we are ensuring that we swiftly improve the quality of our digital infrastructure with a view to the long term and with our students, teaching staff and administration in mind.

Key measures

• UZH is driving digital transformation in teaching and learning by developing a university-wide strategy, allocating resources for its implementation and publishing clear guidelines and principles, e.g., regarding how to use generative artificial intelligence. This has kicked off a cultural shift and created a pro-innovation environment that offers incentives for developing new digital solutions.

• UZH is creating specific programs to train instructors on how to apply and integrate digital technologies and digital competencies in their curricula.

• To provide students and instructors with an optimal digital ecosystem, UZH is especially committed to making digital systems more inter-operable. This requires fully digitized business processes and high-quality datasets that operate across different systems.

For students, the campus is the social core of the university – a place to meet others inside and outside the classroom. It’s where the university community comes to life.

These encounters can only take place if the appropriate space is provided, whether it be in person, virtually or a hybrid between the two.

UZH is pursuing an experimental approach when it comes to designing spaces for teaching and learning. We are using construction projects to implement new spatial design concepts and launch appropriate pilot projects, thereby paving the way for the campus of the future.

Key measures

• In dialogue with the Canton and City of Zurich, the Stadtuniversität UZH project (in German) is developing a strategy for the campus of the future. The strategy connects teaching, research and society, creating space for transdisciplinary collaboration, events, exhibitions and additional kinds of knowledge transfer.

• With the EduSpaces spatial planning concept, UZH demonstrates what shape innovative teaching and learning infrastructure can take. The concept focuses on multi-use spaces that allow for the creation of innovative didactic settings. EduSpaces creates space for inspiration and is being gradually integrated into all new builds and renovation projects, thereby creating an important planning foundation for the campus of the future.

• In addition to long-term construction projects, UZH is pursuing an experimental approach to designing its teaching and learning spaces. Selected spaces are being transformed into living labs where pro-innovation students and instructors can test furniture concepts alongside digital tools and materials. Additionally, UZH is conducting occupancy measurements to identify potential for optimizing particularly busy teaching and learning locations. This allows the university to swiftly implement easy yet impactful measures based on data and user needs.  

At university, students do more than acquire technical skills. They discover their individual talents, develop strategies for overcoming challenges, make new friends and become part of the university community.

A personal commitment is crucial if all this is to succeed – but an environment that supports students’ individual development and well-being is just as important.

This is why UZH supports its students, even before they join the university, in making informed study choices that are right for them in the long term. The university creates an environment that strengthens students’ mental health, resilience and social support, all while fostering their independence and initiative.

Key measures

• The UZH Student Experience (PDF, 63 KB) outlines the positive experiences that students should have at UZH. A strong emphasis is placed on students’ personal responsibility. At the same time, UZH commits to supporting students throughout their academic journey.

• Whenever students seek support, they must be able to contact the right office quickly and reliably. To this end, UZH is developing a clear and interactive support landscape, centered on students’ needs and guiding them through a structured process to the right service. This support landscape is aligned with university-wide efforts to ensure a coherent approach to the handling of student support services and complaints management.

• To strengthen student empowerment, UZH consolidates and refines services that help students transition into university life and enable them to acquire resilience-building, career-oriented and other extracurricular skills. These services will be coordinated and promoted centrally and made easily accessible to students.