THE World Academic Summit 2019 heads to Switzerland

Register for the THE World Academic Summit 2019. There is a super early bird discount until 31 October 2018.

Times Higher Education’s World Academic Summit 2019 will be held in partnership with ETH Zurich in Switzerland next September.

The event, which brings together senior university, government and industry leaders in one of the most prestigious gatherings of its kind in the world, will focus on the theme “How talent thrives”. It will take place from 10 to 12 September 2019.

The summit will follow on from the success of this year’s flagship event, which took place at the National University of Singapore this week and was attended by more than 500 senior leaders from 51 countries.

Keynote sessions and panel debates at next year’s conference will explore a range of issues on the topic of nurturing talent, from lifelong learning and meeting the skills gap to industry partnerships, research consortia and talent recruitment.

The summit will include the official global launch of the THE World University Rankings 2020.

Lino Guzzella, president of ETH Zurich, said that it was “a unique opportunity for ETH Zurich to host the World Academic Summit in continental Europe for the first time”.

“While our university may be focused on cutting-edge technology and basic research, we are very much in the business of transferring scientific and research results to society. It is not only a key element of what we do, but also our mandate as a public university,” he said.

“I believe we achieve this by providing young talent not only with a fundamental knowledge of the basic sciences, but also the know-how to take it a step further. Honing critical thinking skills, creativity and a culturally sensitive mind is just as important. The theme of the 2019 World Academic Summit, ‘How talent thrives’, will enable us to highlight this, but also to dig deeper into issues such as inclusion, diversity and cross-border collaboration.”

Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at THE, said: “A university is nothing without talent: great academic talent, to push forward the boundaries of knowledge and pass on knowledge to the next generation; student talent, of course, to fuel a vibrant intellectual culture on campus; and leadership talent, to make the hard choices to navigate great institutions through challenging times and to ensure that they thrive.

“So the theme of the 2019 THE World Academic Summit is wonderfully diverse and inclusive. It is also very timely. As political populism raises serious challenges against the mobility of talent around the world, as early career scholars often struggle to make it in an increasingly competitive and insecure university environment, and as there is increasing attention being paid to graduate talent and emerging skills gaps for the fourth industrial revolution, the issues are all at the very heart of the agenda for all universities.”

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com

Register for the THE World Academic Summit 2019. There is a super early bird discount until 31 October 2018.