Dear Jannik, dear all,

You are right, a lot of the topics discussed at ZaPF involve German Higher Education policy, since most of our participants are from Germany. However, despite these topics taking most of the time in our plenary meetings, there are different groups of topics being discussed which I try to summarize like so:

  1. General exchange between student council about the day-to-day „business“, e.g. first-year welcome events, onboarding of new council members, strategies for student representatives in faculty councils etc.

  2. Teaching methods and didactics in higher education, learning opportunities for TAs and faculty members, „future“ topics in physics education such as sustainability or digitization, readiness of alumni for the job market

  3. Formal requirements for physics programmes, student mobility, student support options, which are partially regulated at the EU level (and therefore in EHEA members such as Switzerland). Here, we try to involve perspectives from Switzerland and Austria if representatives of non-German councils are present in the working group.

Generally, the agenda of our meetings is set by all participants of the meeting — everybody is invited and welcome to contribute topics they consider important beyond their own council. Personally, I consider the main benefit of participating in ZaPF meetings to be the opportunities to learn from each other, to build networks (both related to specific topics or career-related), and therefore to become more effective in advocating student concerns, locally or in national/state/canton Higher Education policy.

As for your last point, we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to have a ZaPF meeting in Switzerland. The meetings are organized by local committees, with some support from ZaPF e.V., StaPF and other ZaPF representatives. I’m certain people would be thrilled if you decided to host a meeting in Zurich some time. The next available one would be in the summer term 2024.

Please feel free to contact me with any further concerns or questions.

Best wishes,
  Phil


PS: Answers are welcome in English, German or French.


---
Philipp Jaeger
2. Vorstand




ZaPF e.V.
Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Raum __.208
Max-von-Laue-Str. 1
60438 Frankfurt / Main
Internet: http://www.zapfev.de
E-Mail: vorstand@zapfev.de

Eingetragen beim AG Frankfurt/Main
Registernummer: VR 14547



Am 02.10.2022 um 20:10 schrieb Niklas Jamborek <niklas.jamborek.zapf@posteo.de>:

Und Dunstkreis



-------- Weitergeleitete Nachricht --------
Betreff: [StAPF] Re: Switzerland at ZaPF
Datum: Fri, 30 Sep 2022 19:14:19 +0200
Von: Jannik Kochert (VMP) <jannik.kochert@vmp.ethz.ch>
Antwort an: Ständiger Ausschuss der Physik-Fachschaften <stapf@zapf.in>
An: Niklas Jamborek <niklas.jamborek.zapf@posteo.de>, aep@unige.ch, lea.dreyfus@epfl.ch, fs-math@unifr.ch, fg-physik@unibas.ch, lisa.buechi@uzh.ch, praesidium@vmp.ethz.ch
Kopie (CC): stapf@zapf.in, fpa@sub.unibe.ch


Dear Niklas, dear everyone

I think the regional language difference in Switzerland is not so much the problem. One of the former VMP (ETH's math/phys association) presidents attended one of the ZaPF meetings in 2019, but concluded that the meeting is very German-sided (also with many politics and law issues that are quite different in Switzerland) and hence not very useful for us. Another problem is the distance: If the meeting is further north than München or Stuttgart we will have to travel for >4 hours one way, which is far too long for a conference that is of only mediocre use for us.

If there was an opportunity for ZaPF to take place in Switzerland, I think many other Swiss physics associations will consider joining it. But as it is currently, I doubt that there will be many Swiss associations joining ZaPF anytime soon.

Best wishes, Jannik


<vmp-logo-small-res.png> 
Jannik Kochert
VMP Präsidium
jannik@vmp.ethz.ch
VMP - Verein der Mathematik-, Physik und RW-Studierenden an der ETH Zürich
Universitätsstrasse 6, CH-8092 Zürich
CAB E33
Tel: +41 44 632 4998
http://vmp.ethz.ch
Am 30.09.2022 um 09:24 schrieb Niklas Jamborek:
Hey there,

I met Aaron from the university of Bern (co-president of the physics and astronomy student council) yesterday and we spoke about your participaion at the ZaPF meetings. ZaPF stands for Zusammenkunft aller (deutschsprachigen) Physikfachschaften [Meeting of all (German speaking) physics student associations]. There are many student representitives from all over Germany and Austria that meet once each semester. Swiss universities are invited as well but havn't shown up for the past years. We want to change that.

I know that there is a regional language difference in Switzerland. That does not change the point that you should all feel welcome at ZaPF meetings eventhough the main language there is indeed German.

Typically, I send all informations regarding the ZaPF to a Mailing List. I will add the Email-Adresses provided by Aaron to that list. You will recieve a Mail from that list that you need to confirm to recieve the Mails. If you wish not to recieve them, just ignore that mail.

Yours

Niklas


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