Navigation auf uzh.ch
Navigation auf uzh.ch
UZH’s administrative and technical staff are a very heterogeneous group. They may work in facility services or libraries, manage the affairs of a department or perform general office work. Some act as assistants, care for animals or maintain electrical systems, while others crunch numbers in accounting, work in HR or don a lab coat. Read on to find out what seven of UZH’s employees are currently doing to make sure the semester gets off to a flying start.
Care Expert, Co-Head Learning Center, Dean’s Office, Faculty of Medicine, Simulated Patient Program
“My role gives me the privilege of diving deep into the world of simulated patients. These are people who play the roles of as patients in courses and during exams. This enables medical students to practice their examination and communication skills, for example how to deliver difficult diagnoses.
Choosing the right simulated patients is key. We have a pool of over 400 people, including professional actors, interested laypersons and healthcare specialists. I hold casting interviews with every simulated patient, and I also ask them personal questions, for example about a scar they may have, to find the right roles for them.
When casting is done, they are given detailed scripts, including their symptoms and medical history, and they receive intensive training for their specific roles. I’m currently preparing the fall courses, and I’m making sure that we have suitable simulated patients as well as the materials they need – from stethoscopes to bed covers.
My work gets particularly challenging in September, when the state board examination takes place. This is when we need around 150 simulated patients, which is quite challenging to organize. Luckily, I love planning things in great detail – the more complex, the better!
But my work isn’t only challenging in logistical terms, it’s also immensely satisfying. Contributing to the education of the next generation of physicians fills me with pride and joy.”
Administrative Officer, Customer Services on Irchel Campus
“Students in the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Science can rent their own lockers on Irchel Campus. There are over 2,000 lockers, some of which are re-allocated to new students in between semesters. During the semester break, I made sure the lockers are ready for use. We expect students to vacate the lockers when they no longer need them, or to confirm that they still need the lockers. This year, we sent out additional reminder e-mails in cooperation with the faculties. We then collected the keys from the students who no longer needed their locker. Every semester, a few students forget to hand in their keys, which is why we had to empty around 100 lockers and replace the locks. We always work in pairs for this.
The items we remove from the lockers are stored in a basement for six months. We sometimes also find amusing objects in the lockers, such as a coffee machine, underwear or a bikini, but unfortunately, every now and then we’ll come across an old, forgotten sandwich, and once we even found mice. I’ll soon return to my usual day-to-day work at the information desk, where I help students in different ways on a daily basis.”
Team Lead Semester Planning and Quality Assurance at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics
“It was fairly hectic up until the middle of last week, when the module-booking process started. Students have been able to choose their courses from 14 August. My task was to make sure in advance that all of the information about the courses of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics (WWF) in the course catalogue is correct. My colleague Konstantinos Kefos entered the information (room, time, description, ECTS details, assessments) into the SAP system.
Other than that, I work with a team of two to three to prepare the exams for the WWF assessment and compulsory Bachelor’s program. The exams take place at the end of the Fall Semester in Messe Oerlikon. Students can use their own computers for the exam, which means there’s a lot to consider, such as WiFi capacity, power sockets and seating arrangements. We have a trial run in October, and we need to be ready by then.”
Cleaning Service Irchel Campus
“I work as a floater in the cleaning service team on Irchel Campus. In other words, I help out wherever help is needed when someone is away on vacation or or off sick. There are 40 women in our team, and we make sure that Irchel Campus is clean, including the lecture halls, teaching rooms, toilets and offices.
During the semester break, we can give the lecture halls a particularly thorough clean, as they’re not being used all the time like in the semester. We make sure everything is ready when the new semester kicks off. My daily tasks also include bringing lost items to the information desk. We find things that somebody has left behind every day, including chargers, glasses, phones ...
My work starts at 6:30 in the morning and ends at 3:45 in the afternoon. I enjoy what I do very much. I used to work in a hotel, where I had to work most weekends. Since I joined the university, I can use the occasional long weekend to go visit my family in Italy.”
Head of Student Services
“For us in the Student Services team, preparations for the upcoming Fall Semester began way back in January 2024. That’s when we started evaluating around 10,000 applications from 150 countries. We got 30,000 semester enrollments ready in May and then issued 28,000 invoices in June. In May and June, the annual entrance examinations for people without an upper secondary school-leaving certificate took place. From July, once tuition and fees were paid, we sent out proof of matriculation vouchers in several batches, and printed UZH Cards for the new students. Allocating study places and matriculation for medical students is always particularly challenging, as we have to coordinate the process with swissuniversities and other Swiss higher education institutions that conduct aptitude tests. As the head of the office, I support my team, especially when it comes to IT issues, complex requests and complaints, or when we’re short-staffed. I enjoy the work, because we deal with a wide range of different people and offices and solve a variety of problems.”
Media/User Services, University Library Zurich, History, Culture and Theology
Liaison Librarian Latin, Greek Studies, Medieval Latin
Urs Müller: “It usually gets hectic for us about two weeks before the lecture period starts. That’s when teaching staff send me their lists for the course reserves, that is, the reading lists for their courses. I then check which media are already available in the University Library (UB) or Zentralbibliothek Zürich. When something’s missing, I order it, and this may also include obscure library media, such as a photo book published by a Czech publishing house I’ve never heard of before.”
Drazen Aulic-Baumgartner: “This is where come in. I prepare the books in the Greek Studies and Latin University Library so that they’re ready for the students. But the course reserves are more than a simple collection of printed literature: on Swisscovery, reading lists can be accessed and shared including electronic collections.”
Urs Müller: “We work hand in hand and help each other out when things get busy. I like that we librarians are working closer together ever since the UB was founded. It has created opportunities for new services – in the past, for example, members of the teaching staff had to find the books for the course reserves themselves. Now we do that.”
Drazen Aulic-Baumgartner: “It’s business as usual while we work on the course reserves. Urs expands the holdings of the UB Greek Studies and Latin, while I handle user requests.”
