The University of Bern welcomed the Vice Presidents of The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities. They are decision-makers on the level of Vice Rectors from all 21 member universities of The Guild. Martina Hirayama, head of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), joined to discuss the relationship between Switzerland and the EU.
This semester we welcomed more exchange students than ever before. A record number of 219 attendees joined our introduction events, organised by UniBE International. They benefited from an improved welcome offer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the team at UniBE International turned the challenges of the pandemic into a project to improve the student experience by leveraging technology and introducing modular events.
The preparation year allows school leavers who had to flee the war in Ukraine to prepare them for their university studies. The year is packed with language courses and introductory classes to study methods, transferable skills and much more. Martina Carolus, head of exchange programmes, and Jana Müller, project manager of the preparation year, explain how the preparation year differs from other ways how the University of Bern is helping Ukrainian refugees.
Antonina and Kateryna Antonenko came to Bern fleeing the war in Ukraine. The two medical professionals received a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to work and research at the Inselspital for one year. In this interview, the two sisters talk about the differences between working as doctors in Bern and Kyiv.
Elena studies Sport Science and English at the University of Bern. As a mandatory part of her degree, she had to study or work in an English-speaking country. She decided to go on a work exchange to the Republic of Ireland. Because she is an accomplished football player, she transferred to the Galway Women’s Football Club, playing in the Women’s National League.
At the beginning of July, the executive board of the University of Bern welcomed a leadership delegation from several universities in Israel. The aim of their visit was to discuss topics at the interface between research and management.
Universities face common cross-border challenges, such as climate change and disruptive technologies. Read more “Israeli academic leadership delegation visits Bern”
At the time of writing, Russia’s war on Ukraine has been going on for three months. The blatant aggression on 24 February 2022 against a sovereign country was experienced as a shock, described by many as a turning point in history. Initially, the war was also expected to be short, and a Russian victory seemed a foregone conclusion: when President Zelensky gave his first stirring speeches, their poignancy was reinforced by the fact that a dead man was speaking to us on behalf of a doomed nation, or so we (in western Europe) thought.
Tetyana Fedorchuk prefers to be called Tania. She works as an intern at UniBE International. Her job is to advise students who fled to Switzerland and are interested in continuing their studies at the University of Bern. As Ukrainian, she can greet the newcomers in their mother tongue.
A group of dedicated volunteers established the Ukrainian Society at the University of Bern. What does it stand for, what are their plans and how can others join them? UniBE International spoke to two of its founding members: Oksana Iamshanova, postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, and Ruslan Hlushchuk, lecturer at the Institute of Anatomy.
Igor Tokarchuk was an MD-PhD student at the University of Bern. When he and his family returned home to Ukraine and Igor started a job at a biotech company, the future looked bright. Then the war changed everything. He talks to Lenka Fehrenbach, international program manager at UniBE International, about coping with the strains of war and how setting up the refugee camp led to reviving an old bread factory.