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UNIVERSITY

‘Worst ad ever’: Swiss uni ETH under fire over promotional rap video

Switzerland’s ETH university is one of the world's top academic institutions but a new promotional video featuring rapping students is getting attention for all the wrong reasons.

Published: 29 November 2018 11:16 CET
'Worst ad ever': Swiss uni ETH under fire over promotional rap video
"Welcome to Zurich city of opportunities/We love freedom as much as we do cheese." Image: ETX Zurich

Recently, ETH, which boasts Albert Einstein amongst its alumni, took 11th spot in the prestigious recent Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

All the universities above it were in the UK and the US.

But a new ETH video designed to attract students to its Master’s programs does not appearing to be adding much shine to the university’s reputation.

The unusual video features three rapping students, plenty of real-life science projects and all sorts of positive messages about both Zurich and ETH.

Here’s how it begins: “Welcome to Zurich city of opportunities/We love freedom as much as we do cheese.”

It also includes the rhyme: “Dance on the Rector’s table like a particle in CERN/just two hours away if you make your tyres burn”.

If it all sounds a bit ridiculous, it’s supposed to be.

“We wanted a video that would stand out, entertain and yet convey plenty of content,” ETH’s head of corporate communications, Rainer Borer, said in a statement put out by the university.

The student union (VSETH) has backed the video with union president Lewin Könemann telling the Tages Anzeiger that while it was full of clichés it was also funny and ironic.

But elsewhere, the video’s reception has been decidedly mixed, especially given the university recently announcement it would be gradually increasing fees by 500 Swiss francs a year from the current level of 1160 francs a year.

“Thank you, ETH. For nothing. And for wasting our increased tuition fees,” user Sev 3000 commented on YouTube.

“Geez I pay semester bills for this bs? Thx for increasing the costs for students and wasting our money like this,” was the comment from Karl Haumichweg.

The university isn’t scoring any points for taste either. One student posted the video in the ‘Cringe’ section of the social news aggregation website Reddit with the tagline “My uni just made the worst ad imaginable.”

It remains to be seen, though, whether this video will fall into the “so bad it’s good” category and end up being a cunning ploy by the PR team at ETH.

As one YouTube viewer commented: “so cringe it actually could go viral ;)”

Meanwhile, Borer from ETH’s communications team has continued to defend the video, which had a total cost of 160,000 Swiss francs.

“There has been a lot of support alongside the negative comments,” he said.

He added the video wouldn’t be taken down but reactions would be analysed carefully. It has clocked up over 100,000 views on YouTube to date.

ISLAM

Police probe opened after poster campaign against ‘Islamophobic’ lecturers at French university

The French government condemned on Monday a student protest campaign targeting two university professors accused of Islamophobia, saying it could put the lecturers in danger.

Published: 8 March 2021 13:35 CET
Police probe opened after poster campaign against 'Islamophobic' lecturers at French university
Illustration photo: Justin Tallis/AFP

Student groups plastered posters last week on the walls of a leading political science faculty in Grenoble that likened the professors to “fascists” and named them both in a campaign backed by the UNEF student union.

Junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa said the posters and social media comments recalled the online harassment of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty last October, who was beheaded in public after being denounced online for offending Muslims.

“These are really odious acts after what happened with the decapitation of Samuel Paty who was smeared in the same way on social networks,” she said on the BFM news channel. “We can’t put up with this type of thing.”

“When something is viewed as racist or discriminatory, there’s a hierarchy where you can report these types of issues, which will speak to the professor and take action if anything is proven,” Schiappa said.

Sciences Po university, which runs the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Grenoble in eastern France, also condemned the campaign on Monday and has filed a criminal complaint.

An investigation has been opened into slander and property damage after the posters saying “Fascists in our lecture halls. Islamophobia kills” were found on the walls of the faculty.

One of the professors is in charge of a course called “Islam and Muslims in contemporary France” while the other is a lecturer in German who has taught at the faculty for 25 years.

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