20 years University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW

Milestones from 20 years FHNW

«The FHNW was the ideal first stage for me: The practical studies and indepth knowledge provided me with the tools for my future career. This allowed me to expand my university research in homogeneous rhodium catalysis and later develop management and leadership skills in industry that shape my work as Head of Site Development today.»

Dr. Adrian Pritzius, Head of Site Development BSF, Bachem AG, Alumnus FHNW School of Life Sciences

Anniversary publication

The brochure focuses on the interesting and at times eventful founding history of the FHNW. In interviews with the author, historian Dr Jacqueline Weber, those politically responsible for the foundation as well as the decision-makers responsible for operational matters at the time described their memories of the creation process.

That the four cantons of Aargau, Basel Landschaft, Basel Stadt and Solothurn agreed at the start of the third millennia on the founding of a joint university can only be understood in retrospect as a remarkable achievement. The brochure makes it clear – The FHNW project was a visionary undertaking that required a great deal of courage, energy and assertiveness from all those responsible – and was ultimately rewarded with success.

Anniversary publication (in german)

«The FHNW provided me with a strong technical foundation, networked thinking and analytical skills. These principles remain with me to this day and help me to constantly familiarise myself with new topics. The friendships from my time as a student and which continue to this day are particularly valuable.»

Markus Brun, CEO MEB Group, Alumnus FHNW School of Architecture, Construction and Geomatics

Facts about the FHNW

Number of employees (as at 15/10/2025)

Number of students (as at 15/10/2025)

Number of locations

Number of higher education institutions

Number of degree programmes

Total number of BA, CAS, DAS and MAS degrees since foundation

Research projects

«The FHNW taught me to question everything first, to find myself «correctly» and motivated me to go my own way. I learned to anchor my political and social interests and to express them through fashion. I look back at FHNW as a place to produce something commercially viable without pressure. Thanks to my beginnings at FHNW, I can now be part of the change I have so longed for in this industry.»

Yannik Zamboni, CEO / founder & creative director maison blanche AG, Alumnus Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW (Photo: Josefine Zürcher)

Highlights from the FHNW

Human-machine interaction

Renovation procedures and reuse of windows

MESH - Festival of Art and Technology

SKA radio telescope

WASH

Festival «Encounters»

The partner school model

re:connect - digital media in the everyday lives of young people

FHNW Rover Team

Swiss Innovation Challenge

«I owe a lot to the FHNW. The encounters with outstanding musicians and collaboration with both Swiss and international lecturers were formative. The master’s degree programme and the focus year, with their strong relevance on the practical, helped me advance both artistically and personally and ideally prepared me for my professional life. Without the FHNW, I would probably never be where I am today.»

Yumi Ito, singer, pianist, composer, band leader (Photo: Maria Jarzyna)

What you didn’t know about the FHNW

The FHNW is acclaimed and transports a wide range of people on an exciting journey. To date, the FHNW train has covered 1 521 739 kilometres, transporting 5 359 375 people.
Around 30 000 people study, teach, research and work at the FHNW in 2 858 rooms covering a total area of 148 980 square metres.
Around 56 000 people still proudly own a yellow FHNW bag made from recycled PET.
To quench students’ thirst for knowledge, the FHNW library offers 670 000 books and 100 000 journals.
The two LinkedIn posts by the FHNW with the greatest reach to date were the post about the AI pilot for ships by student Ramon Sieber with 56 108 views and the post about Nemo’s ESC cos-tume by student Selina Rotach with 54 773 views.
The FHNW has regional roots and international networks. Its image video promotes studies at the FHNW in Northwestern Switzerland and has won four international prizes.
The campus cat Chili is a star with its own Insta channel (661 followers) and media interest. To date, she has also enjoyed around 33 000 cuddles.

«The FHNW gave me a broad technical foundation that I was able to apply directly through practical projects. At the same time, I built up a valuable network that I still like to draw on to this day. The experience gained from the projects and the various tools provided and taught by the FHNW made it much easier for me to start my current position as a R&D hardware developer at ABB.»

Selina Przyjemski, Hardware Developer Research&Development, ABB, Alumna FHNW School of Engineering and Environment

Exploration Week FHNW

The Exploration Week FHNW is an interdisciplinary project week that will be launched as a pilot initiative in 2026 to mark the 20th anniversary of FHNW. Its aim is to test innovative teaching formats, strengthen future-oriented skills, and promote collaboration across the university. The focus is on networking students and staff from all Schools in a dynamic, practice-oriented environment: interdisciplinary, collaborative, and future-oriented.FHNW would like to express its sincere thanks to all donors for their generous support, which makes the implementation of Exploration Week FHNW possible.

FHNW would like to express its sincere thanks to all donors for their generous support, which makes the realisation of the Exploration Week FHNW possible:

Alumni FHNW
Josef und Margrit Killer-Schmidli Stiftung
Bundesamt für Umwelt (BAFU)
ChallengeEU

Schedule & Registration

«The FHNW enabled me to implement evidence-based and prac-tical solutions. Work and organisational psychology provides me with an indispensable basis for processing a wide range of topics from safety culture and risk management to leadership and transformation. What I took from my studies was systemic thinking, people-centred design and the conviction that combining people technology organisation makes healthy and effective work possible.»

Christina Brändli, Head of HR Mobility Services, Swiss Post, Alumna FHNW School of Applied Psychology

The strategic action fields of the FHNW

Within the topic areas of New Work, Future Health and Zero Emissions that are defined and strategically anchored in the FHNW’s Strategy 2035, people, knowledge and ideas are networked in order to find answers to the pressing questions of our time.

More information

20 years University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW,