On a sunny Saturday afternoon during the UN Summit on the Future in New York City, I stepped out of a yellow taxi with a heavy bag of workshop materials and made my way to the 12th floor of NeueHouse. Together with Chris Luebkeman, Head of Strategic Foresight at ETH, we prepared the room to welcome ETH alumni, friends, staff and faculty to participate in the workshop that would identify the most pressing challenges facing higher education today.

Divided into five groups, the participants chose three topics in the areas of society, politics, environment and technology. With a master’s degree in international affairs, I was drawn to the group discussing politics, where we talked about extremism, multipolarity, public spending, and universities as places of knowledge, deep thinking, and a mission to foster public dialogue. Although we had participants from both Switzerland and the US, we swiftly identified polarization as a key driver of change for ETH. It will impact education, research, innovation, and even governance. Once again, I was struck by the complexity of the challenges facing a university as I listened to the presentations of the other groups.

More food for thought was offered by the subsequent panel discussion with Nicolas Dirks President and CEO, New York Academy of Sciences, Joann Halpern, Director, Hasso Platner Institute, New York, and Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich. In their remarks, Nicolas and Joël explained how these places of knowledge, deep thinking and innovation came to be, and the impact their creation has had on their respective societies. The wealth on which Switzerland thrives today is built on the excellence in engineering and other expertise that emerged from ETH Zurich more than a century ago.

The panellists agreed that while expertise is important, it cannot thrive in isolation. People must exchange ideas, learn from each other, and collaborate across disciplines and even sectors if we are to find innovative solutions. Joann shared her insights on how the methodology of design thinking can facilitate such collaborations, but also creating physical spaces that allow for serendipitous encounters can stimulate such collaborations. ETH is well on its way to moving away from traditional teaching to provide interdisciplinary experiences for its students, for example through competitions and project-based learning.

I was so excited to hear from these very experienced education leaders that interdisciplinary work and cross-collaboration is the secret sauce for the future of education, because I’ve spent the last few years building global initiatives that foster collaboration across sectors and disciplines, and I’ve seen with my own eyes the “magic” that happens when people bring their different perspectives and knowledge, and are open and willing to share and learn from each other. 

Watch the recording of the panel discussion:

https://www.tastelab.ch