The Freshers’ Week offers new students the opportunity to engage with the complex, interdisciplinary and highly topical subject of digital change, based on the specific situation in Switzerland.
The digital transformation has long been affecting people’s everyday lives. Our society is facing massive socio-technical change. The power and speed of change implies more of a revolution than an evolution. Digitalisation permeates all areas of life, raising new issues for governments, businesses and individuals alike. The state, as Switzerland's supreme power, must harness the changes resulting from digitalisation effectively for the population and companies and implement protective guidelines.
Under the guidance of your tutors, the 60 Freshers’ Week groups deal with the subject of "Digitalisation - Switzerland in a time of change". The groups work as forward-thinking think tanks looking into our shared future. The task is to determine the positive and negative effects (areas of tension) of digitalisation on various areas of life and identify where action is needed, in order to derive recommendations for concrete measures. Keynote presentations and a panel discussion by experts, as well as background information from the Freshers’ Magazine support you in working on the tasks.
At the end of a challenging and exciting week, all 60 groups present their case study results before a preliminary committee. The 12 best groups will go through to the final and present their results at the Closing Event in front of all new students, the judging panel comprising of four experts, as well as numerous other guests and university staff. As every year, a great prize awaits the winning group.