“You need to be prepared in order to play”

Mr. Wilding ...
Benjamin Wilding: Please just call me Beni. I like to keep things approachable, especially when talking to students. They should feel comfortable asking me questions, even those that aren’t directly related to the curriculum.

So then, Beni. You won the UZH Teaching Award. What does that mean to you?
I was absolutely delighted. Winning this award had actually been my goal for quite some time. I put a lot of effort into my job as an instructor, and that’s why the award is such a wonderful acknowledgment for me. I was especially pleased that some of my students reached out and congratulated me.

Is it really possible to make the Teaching Award your goal?
Yes, of course. I had been shortlisted a few times before, and I always kept an eye on who won. That’s when I thought: I’d like to achieve that someday, too.

Why do you put so much energy into teaching?
Because it’s worth it. As a student, I had two or three professors whose lectures I really enjoyed attending because they were so passionate about their work.

What did these role models do particularly well?
They linked theory with practice. They didn’t just explain models, they showed us what was happening in the real world at the time. This works particularly well in the field of finance: you can immediately see how an interest rate hike affects stocks or bonds.

Can teaching also be entertaining?
Absolutely. As a student, I always appreciated a joke or a funny anecdote. Teaching doesn’t have to be dull. The human aspect is important to me. When I started university, I had tremendous respect for the professors. At some point, I realized: they’re people, and you can actually talk to them.

How much of your teaching is planned, and how much happens spontaneously?
The content and structure are planned with great precision. Even for lectures I’ve been giving for years, I still spend two to three hours preparing for each double session. However, what I actually say can differ significantly from the script. When I notice that the students are starting to get bored, I begin to improvise and, for example, incorporate anecdotes. I leave a lot of leeway for my own intuition. But I can only allow myself this freedom because I know exactly what I want to convey. You need to be prepared in order to play.

You also let your students play. Why?
Because you understand things differently when you experience them yourself. For example, the students play a board game in which they run a company. When there’s suddenly no money left in the cash register, they get a very direct sense of what that means. I can explain to them beforehand what liquidity is. But when they make a mistake themselves and experience the consequences, the lesson sticks with them better.

Does this work for all students?
No. Perhaps 10% think games like these are completely unnecessary and would rather study theory and derive formulas. Others don’t like the competitive aspect. That’s perfectly fine, too. Not everyone has to find everything fun.

Is AI fundamentally changing teaching?
Not yet. But AI makes certain things significantly easier. For example, I can have my slides analyzed and ask: what could be done better? Where else could we find another good example? This sparks a lot of new ideas.

In the long run, though, AI will change what students even need to learn. They’ve already started asking: why do I need to be able to do this? Can’t AI do it better?

What’s your response to that?
Foundational knowledge remains important. Otherwise, you won’t be able to evaluate the AI output. At the same time, being able to apply knowledge is becoming more important. That’s why I find simulations and game-based learning especially exciting right now: you try something out, test it, make mistakes and learn from them.

Your field, finance, is decidedly international. Is that relevant to your teaching?
Financial markets operate across borders. You therefore cannot meaningfully discuss the topic with a sole focus on Switzerland. Many concepts in my field apply worldwide, research is global, and the professors in the Department of Finance come from many different countries. As for the student body, the Bachelor’s degree is still largely composed of students from Switzerland, while the Master’s degree is already quite international.

What changes when students from different countries come together?
You notice that people judge things differently. The students learn that our European perspective is just one of many. Our Finance for the Future summer school, for example, has a decidedly international makeup. This leads to exciting – sometimes even heated – discussions every year.

How do you promote international exchange?
When it comes to group work, I make sure there’s a good mix of people from different backgrounds. It would be a shame if, for example, only Asian students worked together, while French students worked separately. You don’t learn much from each other in this case. I also always encourage students to do an exchange semester. It may not always help directly with your studies, but it does help in life.

What role do guest speakers play?
They bring a different perspective – especially when they come from the real world of practice. I might tell the students what the theory says about a financial market, and then someone from a bank or another company comes in and says, “We do things completely differently.”

You’re also currently preparing a module for the Una Europa Joint Bachelor’s Degree in Sustainability (BASUS). What attracted you to this project?
Several universities, including UZH, are jointly offering this interdisciplinary, cross-institutional study program. The Introduction to Sustainable Finance module will begin next semester. I think it’s exciting that it brings together students from the Una Europa program with students from our UZH study program in Finance.

The Joint Bachelor Degree in Sustainability (BASUS) is an international, interdisciplinary Bachelor’s degree program that brings together different academic perspectives on sustainability issues. It is offered as part of Una Europa, a European university alliance to which UZH also belongs. The development of the module Introduction to Sustainable Finance, which Benjamin Wilding helped create, received support from the UZH Teaching Fund. The module will be offered for the first time in Spring Semester 2027 and be open to BASUS students as well as students in the UZH Bachelor’s program in Finance. The topic will be how financial decisions can help address societal and environmental challenges.

What’s the biggest challenge?
Differences in prior education. Students from different subject areas bring different terminology, methods and tools with them. You might be using the same term, but suddenly realize that everyone understands something completely different by it.

Is interdisciplinarity even more demanding than internationality?
Yes. I can usually find common ground with a finance specialist in New York or Tokyo fairly quickly, because we share similar basic assumptions. When working across different disciplines, you often have to establish this common ground first.

And is that what interests you?
Very much so. When you only talk to people in the field of finance, you find yourself thinking, “I’ve got this under control.” And then someone from another discipline asks a perfectly valid question that you don’t have a good answer to. That pushes you out of your comfort zone.

What are you especially looking forward to when it comes to Una Europa?
Engaging with students from other universities and different fields of study. Not everything will work right away – but a lot can be learned in the process.