Presidents' Meeting 2023
The IARU Presidents met together on 14 & 15 January 2023 for their annual meeting, kindly hosted by the team at ETH Zürich. The group were delighted to welcome Professor Gong Qihuang (PKU), Professor Irene Tracey (Oxford) and Dr Anthony Freeling (Cambridge) to their first IARU meetings, with Dr Freeling also taking on the role of IARU Chair.
Discussing strategies for achieving net zero in universities, examining the rise in mental health challenges in student and staff communities, and exploring the complex issue of trust in higher education all provided excellent opportunities to compare approaches and share experience.
Future plans were made to encourage participation from IARU members in ETH’s CYBATHLON 2024 competition, an exciting project which brings together teams from all over the world to develop assistive technologies to help and support people with disabilities.
The Presidents were able to continue their conversations over dinner at Villa Hatt, which, due to its position high on the Zürichberg, afforded wonderful views over the city below.
Many of the attendees had planned a busy week of business travel and, following the Presidents’ Meeting, went on to join delegations at the World Economic Forum at Davos.
We are especially grateful to ETH Zürich for being such generous hosts and facilitating the meeting.
A summary of the meeting and its outcomes will be available to IARU members in due course via the website.