Summer Schools

The World Food System Center organizes yearly summer schools focused on the challenges, opportunities, and innovations in food systems across disciplines, sectors and scales. Each two-week, intensive program brings together 20 to 25 students who are selected in a competitive admissions process from a wide range of disciplines and nationalities. The summer school is open to to students from ETH Zurich and other higher education institutions around the world, as well as young professionals.

The curriculum is interdisciplinary and multicultural, allowing students to work in diverse groups and in collaborative ways. The courses incorporate various pedagogic methodologies including, but not limited to: lectures, workshops, field trips, student presentations, small group and plenary discussions, artistic and creative activities, and small-group case study and project work. This approach allows academic content and rigor to be blended within an immersive and experiential learning context to create a unique opportunity for the participants.

A comprehensive selection process helps the Center identify strong candidates who show potential to take initiative and bring innovative ideas to address the challenges of the world food system. An interdisciplinary faculty and core facilitation team guides the learning process throughout the entire program.

After the summer school, participants join the independent alumni network. This network allows the alumni to collaborate with one another and continue to learn about sustainable food systems, organize events, and implement projects that contribute to transforming food systems across the world.

The World Food System Summer School is generously supported by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland. Their contribution aims to explore the role and potential of agroecology and organic production systems to contribute to global food security and sustainable food systems.

In the coming years, the Center hopes to expand our educational offerings, together with external partners, to include special, advanced courses that go in-depth on related or other topics falling within the world food system framework.