The ENHANCE Alliance is a network of ten leading European technical universities (Chalmers, TU Delft, Gdańsk Tech, NTNU, Polimi, RWTH Aachen, TU Berlin, UPV, WUT, and ETH Zurich), founded as part of the European Universities Initiative. ETH Zurich joined the Alliance in November 2022 (see ETH news).

My first assignment as the ENHANCE Core Officer at ETH Zurich took place in May 2022 at the Leadership Meeting in Warsaw, following the decision by ETH Zurich’s Executive Board to join the ENHANCE Alliance. The focus there was the proposal for the four-year ENHANCE+ project. Following intensive brainstorming and negotiations, my colleagues and I visited the botanical garden. Inspired by the exotic plants and the colourful flowers, we reflected: ETH’s engagement in ENHANCE will flourish if the institution, its students and staff all benefit from it. ENHANCE should become a garden of innovative education, where ideas can grow.

As the Core Officer, I had the privilege of being one of the gardeners. Among other things, my task was to prepare Rector Günther Dissertori, and Vice-Rector Jan Vermant, for the governance meetings and to accompany them. When ten universities sit down to negotiate, there will be twenty different opinions. Nevertheless, we always managed to reach compromises because we are all working towards the same goal: to prepare our students for their future challenges in business and society. I experienced that ETH’s commitment in the European Higher Education Area is highly valued. ETH is often looked upon as a role model. Of course, we can also learn from our partners, who are pursuing many initiatives, such as digitalisation, with just as much drive and innovation.

The seed of ENHANCE has been sown. It is growing and the first buds are beginning to bloom. Thanks to Julia Wussler and her colleagues, there are now more opportunities for short-term mobility, which enables students to learn and collaborate in an international context. Thanks to project funding from Movetia, the National Agency for Exchange and Mobility, students have access to scholarships. ETH faculty also contributes to attractive learning opportunities, such as the Summer School in Transdisciplinary or in Urban Planning.

The entire Swiss higher education sector benefits from the European Universities Initiative. We exploit synergies in the digitalisation of administrative processes. Florian Hilfinger from RWTH Aachen and David Sichau from ETH Zurich jointly lead the IT Infrastructure & Services work package. They have carried out a feasibility study on the use of verifiable credentials for digital data transfer between universities. We have shared these findings with swissuniversities and launched a national project for issuing digital credentials.

The benefits for ETH go beyond academic collaboration. It is the many personal connections between people that bring significant individual and institutional value – they are the “fertiliser” for trust, ongoing collaboration and development. I now hand over the “rake and hoe” to my successor, Anna-Katharina Lautenschütz. I would like to express my gratitude for all the wonderful encounters with the people who contribute to the garden of ENHANCE, ensuring that it continues to flourish and bear fruit.