Strategy 2023 - 2026 I BFH

Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH is moving forward. As an engaged, vibrant university, we broaden horizons and work collaboratively towards a responsible society.

The most important link at a glance

Our guiding principles
Our vision und mission
Our strategic objectives

BFH’s Guiding Principles

In the midst of society

We are a university with a social responsibility. In the midst of society, we address the issues it raises, develop blueprints for the future and generate sustainable impact with creative pioneering achievements. We are a driving force and a dynamic player in public discourse and social transformation processes.

Diverse and connective

We are a diverse, multidisciplinary university with shared objectives. We foster multi-perspectivity, diversity and inclusion in response to the complexity and ambiguity of our times. We connect people, languages, cultures and academic disciplines to develop practical approaches and professions jointly.

Shaping and moving

We are personalities with high scientific, design and action-oriented standards. With the people around us, we reflect and think ahead, we enter new territory, we question and develop. We are explorative, independent and committed. With our expertise, we take a stance and become visible. We set things in motion and we are on the move.

Responsible and entrepreneurial

We act today to increase individual and social opportunities for tomorrow. As an entrepreneurial university, we support those who take the initiative, lead the way responsibly, reflect ethically and act courageously. Together we stand for humanistic values.

Anchored and interlinked

As a multilingual and cross-cultural university with a distinctive profile, we radiate from the region into the world. Regionally, we are anchored in the political centre of Switzerland – socially, economically and culturally. On a national level, we take on a leading role in selected topics. Globally, we are engaged in international and intercultural communities of knowledge and education.

Open and enabling

We are a friendly and welcoming university. We promote a culture of possibilities and opportunities, of dialogue and sharing – always with a view to the bigger picture. We encounter each other in a constructive, appreciative and interested fashion, working together and standing up for each other.

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Vision and mission

Vision

We are an engaged university at the heart of political and social life in Switzerland. We take a practical and inquisitive approach to expanding horizons and to teaching, researching and shaping the future of a responsible society.

Mission

As a diverse university, we pool our resources and skills to carefully help shape the transformation towards a sustainable, digitally literate, health-conscious and intergenerationally just society.
Our students and employees generate a social impact with their actions. We make our mark regionally, nationally and internationally with our future-relevant topics and aspire to thematic leadership in specific fields.
We combine artistic, scientific and socio-scientific approaches, encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and thus develop new ways to tackle complex challenges in teaching and research.
We actively participate in national and international science networks and promote transnational and intercultural skills and collaboration.

Strategic objectives

Our university is a great place to study and work

We are a vibrant community of inquisitive and cosmopolitan personalities. We stand with each other, for each other and for the university as part of a dynamic academic system. We foster a culture of appreciation and opportunities for all. Our attractive environment and development opportunities make our university a healthy, inspiring and impactful place to learn and work. As a trilingual and diverse university, we promote equal opportunities as well as cultural and social diversity in an inclusive and non-discriminatory environment.

What we do for equal opportunities at BFH

We foster, live and breathe sustainability

In our teaching and research, as well as in our dialogue with the public, we are strong advocates of the Sustainable Development Goals . We pay particular attention to the development of healthy food systems, the circular economy and sustainable living environments. We conduct effective interdisciplinary, national and international research into this and empower students, employees and project partners to help shape the transformation with a view to creating a resource-conserving economy and society. As a university, we act with credibility and courage – we want to be climate-neutral by 2030.

Our commitment to a more sustainable development and to reaching the SDGs

We promote health and wellbeing for people of all ages

For us, people’s health is one of the criteria for a solidly united society and its sustainable development. We particularly focus on the correlations between way of life, social situation and health. Working with experts in the field and users of care services, we enable social, organisational and technological innovations that promote health and wellbeing. For this, we exploit the networking opportunities which Bern offers as a major medical hub. Our projects for a society with a sense of solidarity:

Our projects for a society with a sense of solidarity

We put people at the heart of the digital transformation

Together with civil society, we make a nationally and internationally respected contribution towards ensuring a humane digital transformation, by paying particular attention to a well-considered relationship between humans and technology, as well as to the impact of technology on human living environments. In our teaching, research and university activities, we empower and connect people, promote interaction and critical reflection, and support responsible digital design and transformation processes.

Our engagement for a humane digital transformation

We are an entrepreneurial university

Entrepreneurship is part of our identity. At our university and in our environment, we promote sustainable entrepreneurial thinking and actions as well as intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship initiatives.

Entrepreneurship in everyday life at BFH

We are part of the discussion

We are seen as an active participant at the heart of Swiss politics and society. Our strategic thematic fields and the future-relevant topics of the individual schools help shape ongoing public discourse and initiate new discourse. We actively and professionally communicate and publish specialist and science-backed content, for which BFH receives national and international acclaim.

Together with civil society, we advocate a strong self-image of Bern as a great centre for higher education. The BFH brand comes across as fresh, enthusiastic and likeable, and it elicits a strong identification with our university.

Strategic thematic fields

In line with our vision, our university is positioning itself in the most pressing issues of our time: “Sustainable Development”, “Humane Digital Transformation” and “Caring Society”. To do this, we pool the breadth of our different skills. Each area of BFH makes its own effective contribution to responsible social change.

Caring Society

In the thematic field ‘Caring Society’, we focus on the relationships between health, lifestyle and social circumstances. Promoting the quality of life and health of people of all ages is the goal of a...

Humane Digital Transformation

Only in collaboration with people can technology be deployed successfully and sustainably. That’s why BFH is focussing on the human aspect of the digital transformation in the strategic focus topic of Humane...

Sustainable development

With the strategic thematic field of Sustainable Development, we have set the course for the future. As a university, we want to assume responsibility as well as support and shape the transition into a...