ETH Zurich president refutes Federal Council’s claim on financial reserves

"The Federal Council is of the opinion that we can absorb the cuts through reserves. But that is not possible," ETH Zurich President Joël Mesot said in an interview with the newspaper SonntagsBlick. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The federal government wants to save CHF50 million ($57 million) at federal technology institute ETH Zurich as part of the federal budget reorganisation - the university has sufficient reserves of CHF1.4 billion, so the argument goes. This is not true, ETH Zurich President Joël Mesot has now said.

“The Federal Council is of the opinion that we can absorb the cuts through reserves. But that is not possible,” Mesot said in an interview with the newspaper SonntagsBlick. “We need them for important infrastructure programmes. The Federal Council is also forgetting that we are struggling with inflation.” In addition, there are growing student numbers. “Cumulatively, we are probably missing around 10%.” estimated the ETH President.

Furthermore, with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), now is not the time to cut back on research, said Mesot. “Instead of making massive savings now, we should actually be investing in this technology, which is currently changing the world. We need a CERN for artificial intelligence – otherwise we will miss out on one of the most important developments of the 21st century.”

Long-term investment impact

According to Mesot, money invested in ETH Zurich also yields a return. “For every franc invested, Switzerland gets five francs back. Many patents and spin-offs are created at ETH Zurich,” He said. “If we make savings in education and research, we will pay the price in ten or 20 years’ time.” As an example, he cited the supercomputer in Lugano for simulations for weather forecasts or AI models, which also belongs to ETH Zurich. “In the future, we will no longer be able to afford this basic research.”

+ETH Zurich ranked top university in continental Europe

Raising tuition fees is not an option, says Mesot, as “American conditions” should not be created. “I am against young people having to go into debt in order to receive a good education.”

To ensure that domestic expertise does not flow abroad through espionage, ETH Zurich is currently working on a strategy, Mesot said. “We have to exclude students who have studied at military-related Chinese universities from certain research programmes.”

Translated from German by DeepL/amva

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