“A delegation put together by the governments of the two Basel cantons is intensively negotiating how much money should be contributed and by whom for the planned expansion of the university.” This quote from the Basler Zeitung is still highly relevant – it was published on 16 October 2004, and Ueli Vischer, director of finance for Basel-Stadt at the time, also hinted that the negotiations with Baselland would be taking a positive turn with a new university mandate: “An agreement is in sight,” Vischer said in the BaZ.

Several months prior, Ueli Vischer had announced he would be stepping down during the government council elections in the fall of 2004, after 12 years heading the Department of Finance. Following those elections, the Left/Green parties held the majority in parliament and government, and the new executive branch nominated Ueli Vischer, of the Liberal Democrats (LDP), as president of the University Council in March 2005. Fresh from his election to the post, he outlined his goals to the Basler Zeitung, saying: “The top priority is for the University of Basel to remain, in the future, a leading university that lives up to its designation as such and that offers a stimulating environment for its teaching staff.” He added that this would also require “forging prudent and suitable alliances with other universities and allocating the various services.”

Joint sponsorship negotiated

The top priority for the new university president was the joint sponsorship with the Canton of Baselland – the successful negotiation of which was announced at the end of September 2005 by Eva Herzog, who took over from Vischer at the Basel Department of Finance. The achievement, however, was mostly down to Ueli Vischer. “The importance of the joint sponsorship cannot be overstated,” he told the BaZ. “The cantons of Basel-Stadt and Baselland are now both backing the university,” explained Vischer, adding that this would be massively helpful well beyond the financial aspect and would also mean more influence at the federal level. On 11 March 2007, the Basel region electorate voted overwhelmingly in support of the University Agreement, which provides for equal financing by both cantons. “The State Agreement, which came into force retroactively as of early 2007, is a revolutionary step,” Ueli Vischer wrote in the annual report.

The joint sponsorship has proven to be a recipe for success: in the face of increasing competition in Switzerland and internationally, the University of Basel is in an excellent position. The additional resources are being used to improve facilities and invest heavily in infrastructure. The president of the University Council attaches particular importance to the spatial strategy. Following a comprehensive analysis, big decisions were made: to cluster the Life Sciences departments together on the site of the former Schällemätteli prison; to relocate the faculties of Law and Business and Economics near the railway station; and to combine the Humanities and Social Sciences faculties at a location near Petersplatz. In October 2017, the governments finally decided that a new university campus should be built at the Dreispitz site on property belonging to the supporting canton of Baselland.

Dedication to a solid basic funding

In addition to the development and implementation of the real estate strategy, Ueli Vischer advocated strongly for solid basic funding for the university from the supporting cantons. “The fact that the University of Basel is able to obtain the most external funding per professorship in all of Switzerland doesn’t necessarily mean that this external funding reduces the need for basic funding,” the University Council president warned. During the years he spent governing our alma mater, he found the opposite to be the case: where the university is able to secure external funding, this must always be complemented by internal funds – or “matching funds,” in university parlance.

This also applies to the University of Basel’s most recent research success, which the retiring president was proud to be part of: the securing of two National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCR) focusing on antibiotic resistance and quantum computing. In the next few years, Basel will receive CHF 34 million in federal funding, “but, again, another several million francs need to come from the University of Basel,” warned Vischer, looking ahead. But above all, he was delighted, and few have ever seen the man, who is usually rather reserved when it comes to the university, looking so proud and happy: at the end of his 15-year tenure as university president, the University of Basel is home to one third of all National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCR).

Ueli Vischer’s strategy, as outlined in the BaZ in 2005, has paid off: “Our relatively small university’s biggest opportunity is its ability to offer quality.” He went on to say that we must strive to “offer a good education to as many young people as possible.” This evening marks the end of an era, and the University of Basel is very grateful and highly indebted to the retiring president.