1. Top-down initiatives not gaining traction at lower levels

2. Language requirements for staff

3. Lack of ambition in student population

Beyond finances, universities must also navigate the pressures of geopolitical tensions. Balancing freedom of speech with a duty of care while fostering a safe and inclusive learning environment for a diverse community remains a complex and ongoing challenge.

2. The second key challenge is navigating the pressures of geopolitical tensions for our students to ensure we are providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for a diverse community whilst respecting ‘freedom of speech’ rights. This is an ongoing and complex challenge that I believe will only get harder to navigate in the next 1-3 years.

Addressing these challenges requires a concerted effort from the university administration, faculty, and the wider community to foster an inclusive and supportive educational environment.

1. How to promote culture of innovation at undergraduate level

2. How to share resources of nearby and far-off institutes

3. How to handle possibilities of misuse of AI in HE

For example, climate governance. How universities are collaborating across research, teaching and operations to accelerate action on climate. This can be considered both internally and externally, optimising both knowledge exchange and cross border collaboration.

1. Reaching students before university/the pipeline from primary school to higher education: students from minority groups are more likely not to be advised by their teachers to pursue a secondary school path that is university-oriented.

2. The question of requirement: colleagues are willing to work on DEI, but when it comes to mandatory trainings and accountability, resistance suddenly appears.

1. Challenges of engaging research-track colleagues in T&L development matters.

2. Unsure of the effectiveness of summative peer review of teaching.

3. Belated admin support or prolonged reaction time.

4. Diverse views on integration of GenAI or advanced technologies in T&L.

5. Imbalanced funding resources/sources: Some faculties can only rely on gov funds, while others might have more funding sources (e.g., alumni, private foundation, etc.)

The other main one is resistance to change, fear of disruption, and lack of awareness: Not everyone understands why diversity matters or how it benefits the organization. So, to get everyone to CARE about it.

Although most admin staff are required to complete a master's degree, there are no opportunities for promotion. It causes much stress among admin staff.

On a local level:

1. Mandates to increase undergraduate student enrollment when faculty numbers are shrinking.

2. Additional mandates to increase the proportion of first-generation students with no additional resources to help them integrate.

3. Student entitlement at the graduate and undergraduate level.

4. High administrative burden on faculty leading to burnout.

1) Our study programs are very specific from early on and we would like to open up those programs for students to be able to acquire more inter- und transdisciplinary skills as well as digital skills and AI literacy. We face a lot of resistance from various disciplines who want to tightly keep "their" students in their discipline. There are various reasons for that behavior, but student-centered education and both, societal and labour market needs require this shift.

2) For a long time, our university was able to ignore issues of accessibility as the Swiss education system is highly selective with respect to the acquiring the university entrance exam which led to the fact that we experienced only recently a shift towards a more diverse student body. Now, political pressure is high to make all teaching and teaching materials more accessible to students with diverse visible and invisible disabilities as well as students with other obligations such as child care or care for older family members. The challenge now is to raise awareness and the change the culture of teaching and educate teaching staff how to make their materials and their teaching more accessible regarding both, technical requirements as well as didactics.

Sustainable research capacity building

Student fees

Government Level 7 apprenticeships

Safeguarding overseas students

Recruitment of overseas students

Financial resource and security

Whilst external collaboration is interwoven through the fabric of the University in all strands of activity, in my view there is more that could be done internally to galvanise and optimise internal collaboration and innovation to develop more joined up approaches to institutional and sector wide challenges.   Though there are many examples of effective cross institutional collaboration, greater alignment could help to achieve critical mass in priority initiatives and with ensuring focus of resource and effort to have the greatest impact amidst the challenging external climate.  In an institution which is set up with a Collegiate structure, there are issues around structural barriers and ways of working to optimise further in this space.

A follow-on challenge from this is that, in many UK humanities departments, we're becoming very dependent on overseas students to fund our normal operating activities. What happens if these students start changing where they go or what they study? And what are we doing to value and integrate these students within our intellectual communities?

One of the challenges that currently requires collaboration for us is the transformation of our campuses. New campus models were established with new characteristics, scopes and vocation, however, we continue to operate with the same resources, people, budgets and most importantly, our students continue to live the campuses at the moment.

(1)Improving student or staff mobility—whether for academic exchanges, Erasmus, internships

(2)International Partnerships & Agreements to promote global engagement

(3)Institutional strategy and implementation

(4)Mental health and well-being services for students and staff

1. limited funding for universities at a time when the costs of operating the university are rapidly increasing

2. Navigating the changing geopolitical situation to balance the benefits and risks of collaborating globally.

Through collaborations and partnership, I would like to know how other academic leaders tackle the challenges in their contexts so that I could develop a context-specific action plan for sustainable teaching improvement.