Dean's editorial

The next mandate of the Dean's Office

Unanimously re-elected by the Faculty Council for another three-year term as Dean of HEC Lausanne starting August 1st 2024, I am looking forward to working with my new dean's team - Christian Zehnder, Paul André, Valérie Chavez and Jeffrey Petty - to take the Faculty forward.

What have we achieved in the last three years? 

In addition to numerous projects to digitize and optimize internal procedures at both the Faculty and UNIL, the HEC Faculty has been re-accredited by EQUIS for five years. Although there is a lot of talk about rankings, such as the exit of the University of Zurich from the Financial Times Ranking, EQUIS accreditation remains important to us as a Business School. It guarantees the quality of our institution in the eyes of our stakeholders, and enables us to constantly improve thanks to the feedback we receive.

The flagship project of my first term as Dean, supported by Vice-Dean Paul André, is the reform of the Bachelor's degree, with a curriculum entirely in English and the possibility of a tailor-made bilingual pathway, as well as Onboarding Days with workshops dedicated to each of our values - RICE: Rigor, Integrity, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship. Want to know more? I presented the Bachelor's reform in my last editorial.

Another development during my first term was the creation of two interfaculty centers: one center on climate extremes, and the other on health economics and policy. This demonstrates HEC Lausanne's openness to interdisciplinarity. 

What are we going to achieve in the next three years? 

Together with my team, I'm going to work to embody our motto: to be pioneers. In a recent campaign, we invited all our stakeholders to “unleash the pioneer in you”, and at Faculty level, we are going to make this ambition a reality in three main ways.

Education - We are innovating a values-driven student experience across the entire educational lifecycle.

Research - We are strengthening our impact on the academic community through cutting-edge research.

Link with society - We are increasing our engagement with regional, national and international corporate partners, as well as with society at large.

We will be implementing the second and third years of the Bachelor's degree reform with a transformed third year including novelties such as courses focused on practical experience, enabling the application of what has been learned in the first two years. As part of this, we are exploring the possibility of consulting projects with NGOs and volunteer experiences.

We will also be developing lifelong learning at HEC Lausanne through our executive education program, becoming a key reference not only in the local ecosystem, but also nationally and internationally.

HEC Lausanne's International Advisory Board (IAB) is made up of a diverse group of eminent personalities representing international and Swiss companies and organizations, as well as NGOs and entrepreneurs, from sectors such as banking, auditing, finance, insurance, luxury goods, health, sport and technology, among others. The IAB helps us to develop a strategy in line with the needs of the economy and society in general.

We will also be enhancing our support for the transition from studies to the professional world by helping students find internships and further developing the mentoring program already in place through the HEC Alumni Association. These efforts will require even closer collaboration with you, the Alumni of HEC Lausanne. I look forward to working with you!