View Annual Review - IAESTE

The Academic
Dr Fredy Sidler
Secretary General, Rectors Council of the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences
President of IAESTE Switzerland
Knowledge societies repeatedly analyse their
culture, knowledge and capabilities and
constantly further develop them. They engage
in a permanent exchange with other cultures in
order to learn from them, while, at the same
time, getting to know themselves better and
pursuing their own further development. The
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a key
role to play in paving the way for this process.
The Declaration of Bologna in 1999 set the
European Landscape of Higher Education in
motion to an extent never before experienced
in its history. Within a period of just a single
decade, nothing less than a European Higher
Education Area (EHEA) is to be developed on
the basis of harmonised criteria, and this EHEA
already has a membership of 45 countries
today. The EHEA is setting out to facilitate and
promote not only the international mobility of
those at the individual HEIs but also
international competition and international cooperation
between HEIs. This it is doing
through measures such as two-cycle studies at
all HEIs, readily comprehensible and
comparable HEI degrees, the mutual
recognition of degrees and study periods and
the phasing out of obstacles to the freedom of
movement.
Under no circumstances are the contents of the
learning outcomes or study programmes to be
standardised. Quite the contrary - the aim is to
exploit and reinforce cultural diversity within
Europe and for everyone to learn from other
cultures. In the Europe of knowledge, HEIs will
become learning-oriented rather than teachingoriented
institutions.
A globalised world requires people who think
and act on a global scale. Anyone taking refuge
behind national borders will soon have to come
to terms with the fact that they are lagging
behind in development terms. They will also,
however, have to realise that their own
national culture is becoming impoverished and
its competitiveness constantly declining. Only
through exchange processes can people
establish whether they match up to “state-ofthe-art”
in international terms or not. The same
holds true of companies (exports) and HEIs (cooperation
partnerships) and additionally
applies to each and every one of us (mobility).
Traineeships with IAESTE provide an ideal
opportunity for acquiring personal experience
with other cultures and dispelling fears about
these cultures. It is not so much professional
skills that are decisive here but rather the
opportunity to experience different work ethics,
a different way of life, different priorities in
everyday life, different attitudes to the state,
different types of social behaviour and different
leisure pursuits. This starts with trivial aspects,
such as the way the bus drivers behave, and
goes on to embrace the different public
holidays and unfamiliar traditions derived from
different historical experiences, before finally
leading on to comprehensive immersion in a
different culture.
IAESTE has a key role to play in this global
process en route to knowledge societies. And
IAESTE requires the support of Companies who
share these same convictions and are in a
position to offer interesting trainee posts for
our students each year. I am thus delighted to
be able to take this opportunity to extend my
sincere thanks to all those Companies who
repeatedly offer us their support. Special thanks
go to IAESTE Switzerland’s partner Companies,
who also provide us with substantial financial
resources: ABB, Credit Suisse/Winterthur
Group, Novartis and Philips.
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