The new campus of UniDistance Switzerland and the HESD brings together the 180 employees of both institutions and can welcome up to 2’300 students.
Federally recognized in 2019, UniDistance has been Switzerland’s leader in distance learning for nearly 30 years. The institution employs more than 400 people, of which nearly 350 work in teaching.
In Brig (canton of Valais), where the University has its headquarters, UniDistance now shares a new building with the Haute école spécialisée à distance Suisse (HESD, or distant learning University of Applied Sciences in English). The new building will provide nearly 180 workplaces for academic and administrative staff and will be able to accommodate up to 2,300 students.
The building includes a fully modular auditorium that can accommodate up to 100 people, a cafeteria and three classrooms. It is also the seat of the UNESCO Chair in Personalized and Adaptive Distance Education of the HESD. In addition, it houses the research laboratories of the two institutions.
The new campus is characterized by its transparency and openness. It offers a flexible space for innovation and collaboration in research and teaching. The classrooms are equipped with the latest digital technologies and can be used for hybrid courses or meetings, which participants can attend both online and in person.
Additionally, both institutions offer a wide range of services to schools, universities and companies, not only in their respective fields of education, but also in the field of e-learning.
Forty research projects
Today, several researchers are active on the Brig campus, working on forty projects across the five faculties (psychology, law, economics, history, mathematics and computer science). For example, one project studies how memory evolves throughout life and what cognitive strategies can be adopted to improve memory performance. Another is studying the psychological and brain mechanisms involved in food choice. A third project studies the understanding of learning mechanisms.
The Brig campus has now become a place of research that is an integral part of the Valais, national and international networks of research-based higher education.