Open, international, feminine – the story of Sarah Springman and ETH Zurich

At the end of 2021, your achievements at ETH Zurich over the last 25 years were recognised with a standing ovation. What has your time at ETH been like and what has had the biggest impact on you?

Initially, ETH Zurich was very much a “man’s place”. I was the ninth ordinary female professor at ETH Zurich and the first in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. I found working with my colleagues to be extremely polite and formal. Coming from Cambridge, I was not used to addressing people as “Herr or Frau Professor Doktor”. This was a totally new experience for me.

For me, the word “togETHer” best describes the development and essence of ETH. My colleagues are a body of diverse and motivated individuals, bound by their passion for their own subject area. It is easy to see how this collective commitment is what distinguishes ETH from other universities both in Switzerland and around the world. As rector of the university, it has become increasingly clear to me that the way in which goals are pursued and attained is critical. The involvement of all university groups enables diverging efforts to be concentrated, focused on the same goal and reforms to be rapidly implemented. One example of this would be the bachelor’s course in human medicine. Within just six months, the plan for this course was developed and agreement obtained from our partner universities in Basel, Zurich and Ticino (USI). Today, just five years later, two cohorts of students have graduated and we can see the result of such focussed collaboration.

Finally, the coronavirus crisis has been and remains a stress test for our university. So far, we have managed it well and have been able to take several positives from it, for example, how we will be able to deal with extraordinary situations in the future. My successor, Günther Dissertori, therefore stands to benefit from a huge wealth of experience and will be able to slot in seamlessly just like a new conductor of an orchestra of diverse players.

What has been your biggest impact?

I have certainly changed the university by giving greater influence to women. What’s more, my mantra of “students first” has always guided me in my work. It has always been very important to me that students are able to gain multidisciplinary skills and therefore further develop their entire personality. I have therefore been interested in and felt responsible for ensuring that the courses offered reflected and helped to shape the spirit of the time. For example, we have seen projects such as ETH Talent, Student Project House, the “ETH Centre for Students and Entrepreneurs” (HIC), ETH week and Prisma. And with the new Master's in "Mechatronics", we have also launched an international project incorporating research and teaching in Ghana, giving young students in Africa access to first-class teaching and vice versa enabling our students to attend a summer school. This project is also inspiring because Swiss industry has invested in it both financially and in the form of placements and potential permanent appointments.

It is also important to me that lecturers teach with enthusiasm and transfer this positive attitude to their students so that they understand the opportunities that studying at ETH affords them. Time at university shouldn't just be challenging and encouraging but fun too. To maintain this passion, I have also been committed to handing out more significant awards for the wonderful teaching work undertaken. The KITE Award of the Lecturers’ Conference (KdL) and the Golden Owl of the ETH Zurich’s Students Association (VSETH) are examples of this. Innovedum or the Refresh Teaching events are other innovative ways of keeping teaching and research up-to-date.

What direction should ETH Zurich now take?

In the future, ETH is going to have to deal with admissions to master’s courses and generally speaking with lecturer and room capacity issues. When I became rector, ETH had 16 000 students; a figure that has grown to 24 000. And 30 000 students are expected in 2030. If it is our goal to increase the number of students, then we need to provide the necessary space and corresponding support mechanisms for this and the focus must remain on the quality of teaching and research. We also need to ensure student motivation and mental health. We should enable them to have more freedom of choice and interpersonal interaction. Of course, it is hard to achieve all our goals at once and compromise is therefore unavoidable. This can be seen, for example, in putting the requirement for more freedom of choice into action where some courses have increased from 90 ECTS to 120 ECTS.

What do you believe are the particular characteristics of ETH students – our future alumnae and alumni?

ETH has always been renowned for providing a rock-solid education, which also very much has a focus on the future. The current range of courses offered, including extracurricular activities, provides students with the breadth required to acquire and train multidisciplinary skills. Above and beyond this, we imbue in our students values for their professional and private lives, which are typical of ETH: shouldering responsibility for the environment and society, knowing how to appreciate diverse opinions and always striving for excellence. We therefore aim to positively shape students’ multidisciplinary skills and individual personal development, which is what makes ETH stand out from other universities. We want to educate the person as a whole.

Let us move onto networks. What features make a network attractive to you?

Attractive networks can be recognised by openness and trust between their members as well as their diversity. A network helps an individual to remain current, gain new impetus and establish new contacts. At the same time, networks need to be fun and useful. It should also go without saying that the members of a network actively shape and enrich it with engagement. Personally speaking, I have met lots of new people over the years. A network is not, however, always defined by its size.