Computer Science graduate Jennifer Miki Schürch achieved the class of 2020’s best average grade; her final grade was 5.83. She was closely followed by Electrical Engineering graduate Moritz Oppliger (5.81) and fellow Computer Science graduate Dano Roost (5.80). They are the best three of the total of 423 male graduates and 54 female graduates who completed their BSc degree programme at the ZHAW School of Engineering this year.

“At 11%, the proportion of women among our students remains very low despite the new-talent programmes for girls of all ages. I am therefore especially pleased that one of the few women this year achieved the best average grade,” said Dirk Wilhelm, Dean of the ZHAW School of Engineering, during the graduation ceremony held at the Casinotheater Winterthur.

The Computer Science degree programme not only provided two of the year's top three students, but also the most graduates, with 107 men and 11 women. It was followed by the classical engineering discipline of Mechanical Engineering, which has been taught in Winterthur since as far back as 1874. With 84 male graduates and 7 female graduates, Mechanical Engineering remains very popular. The Engineering and Management  (62 men / 8 women graduates) and Aviation (57 men / 11 women graduates) degree programmes followed. The remaining graduates were distributed across the Energy and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering  and Systems Engineering degree programmes, as well as the Transport Systems degree programme, which is the only one of its kind in Switzerland.

The graduates have completed between three and four years of study, depending on the model, and a practice-focussed BSc thesis. They finished their final semester this year using distance learning. Due to the situation, The traditional “Tailcoat Week” (Frackwoche) and “Tailcoat Parade” (Frackumzug) to mark the end of the study programme had to be cancelled.