China Is Building the University of the Future – What About Switzerland?
China is systematically aligning its universities with AI, robotics and other technologies of the future. Switzerland should not try to copy this model, writes Florin Baeriswyl. Instead, its opportunity lies in redefining how people learn in the age of AI.
China is currently fundamentally reshaping its higher education landscape. Between 2021 and 2025, more than 12,000 bachelor’s degree programs were discontinued, while more than 10,000 new ones were introduced. The focus is clearly on the country’s strategic fields of the future: artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors, energy, security, raw materials and interdisciplinary engineering.
By contrast, the humanities, foreign languages and traditional management programs are losing importance.
This development is not a market-driven reform of higher education, but rather an expression of a long-term national strategy. Education is deliberately being used as an instrument to strengthen innovation, economic competitiveness and technological sovereignty. Universities are being systematically aligned with the future needs of the state, industry and society.
«Dialogue Between East and West Opens New Perspectives»
I have been teaching as a professor in Shanghai for the past 12 years. During this time, I have seen just how adaptive China is, how readily it copies and how quickly it learns from what it adopts. But what matters far more is understanding the underlying principles and intelligently adapting them to one’s own cultural and societal context.
That is where the real value lies. Dialogue between East and West opens up new perspectives and demonstrates that different ways of thinking can combine to produce better solutions.
What Does This Mean for Switzerland?
Switzerland has one of the world’s best higher education systems. Its strengths lie in academic freedom, excellence, research and international connectivity.
At the same time, the global environment is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence, new technologies, geopolitical shifts and demographic change require continuous strategic evolution.
The key takeaway is therefore clear: universities need to align their academic offerings more closely with the skills that will be required 10 or 20 years from now. The future will not be created by administering existing degree programs, but by designing new interdisciplinary models of education.
The Next Generation of the University Brand
The real disruption in higher education will not come from artificial intelligence itself, but from a new understanding of how people learn.
Neuroscience has shown for years that lasting learning does not result from delivering knowledge as flawlessly as possible, but from active experimentation, reflection, feedback and consciously learning from mistakes.
«The university of the future will therefore no longer be the institution that imparts the most knowledge, but the one that enables the most effective learning processes.»
Knowledge is not consumed; it is constructed.
The university of the future will therefore no longer be the institution that imparts the most knowledge, but the one that enables the most effective learning processes.
Mistakes as a Driver of Innovation
This presents a major opportunity for Swiss universities. Rather than defining their brands primarily through rankings, tradition or individual star researchers, they could position themselves as leading platforms for learning and innovation.
A future-oriented branding strategy could be built around the following principles:
- Neuro Learning Instead of Lectures: Teaching concepts should draw on insights from neuroscience. Active learning, repetition, application and reflection should replace the mere transmission of knowledge.
- Smart Instead of Clever: Success will not be determined by the ability to memorize information quickly, but by critical thinking, problem-solving skills, creativity and the ability to deal with uncertainty. Knowledge is available at any time today; what matters is the ability to use it effectively.
- Mistakes as a Driver of Innovation: The most successful innovation ecosystems create psychological safety. People who are free to experiment develop new ideas. Universities should therefore establish a culture in which mistakes are understood as a necessary part of learning.
- Humans and AI as a Team: Artificial intelligence will replace neither professors nor students. It will change their roles. The university will become a place where people learn to use AI competently, responsibly and creatively.
- Learning Without an Expiration Date: A bachelor’s degree is no longer the end of an education, but the beginning of a lifelong learning process. Universities will evolve into partners that accompany people throughout their professional and personal lives.
This is precisely where a major opportunity lies for Switzerland as a center of higher education. With its tradition of excellence, innovative strength and close ties to business, the country could take on an international pioneering role – not only in research, but also in determining how people can learn most effectively in the age of artificial intelligence.
«China is optimizing what is taught. Switzerland can optimize how we learn.»
A university that consistently positions itself as a «University of Future Learning» – with learning based on neuroscience, AI support, a culture that embraces mistakes, project-based work, entrepreneurship and lifelong development – will be able to clearly differentiate itself internationally.
China is optimizing what is taught. Switzerland can optimize how we learn.
Florin Baeriswyl is an entrepreneur and consultant specializing in international brand management, brand strategy and design. In 1987, he founded «dai Zürich», a design agency providing corporate design services in Zurich and, today, also in London and Shanghai.
He also founded the Institute for Swiss International Branding (ISIB). In addition, he established «Studio Baeriswyl» in Shanghai, which provides consulting and educational services for branded products.
