Andrea Hungerbühler appointed new Secretary General of the University of Bern

Dr. Christoph Pappa has been Head of Legal Services at the University of Bern since 1 December 2004 and Secretary General since 1 April 2005. Virginia Richter, Rector of the University of Bern, says: "Christoph Pappa has played a major role in shaping the University of Bern over the past 21 years and has mastered major challenges together with the University management. He played a key role in the strategic management of the University of Bern and represented it with his great diplomatic skills in various commissions, foundations and committees. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his great commitment and tireless efforts. I will miss his level-headed, determined and forward-looking manner, as well as his sense of humor. I wish Christoph Pappa an inspiring retirement with time for family, travel and everything that was often neglected in everyday life." The University of Bern will officially bid farewell to Christoph Pappa in due course.

Successor with in-depth knowledge of the university landscape

In connection with the succession of the previous incumbent, the General Secretariat will be reorganized for the future: The functions of Head of the General Secretariat and Head of Legal Services will no longer be performed by the same person. Information on the Head of Legal Services function will be provided in due course.

Dr. Andrea Hungerbühler will take over as Secretary General on 1 April 2026 after an induction period of one month. Since 2017, she has been Managing Director of the Chamber of Universities of Teacher Education at swissuniversities, the conference of rectors of Swiss universities. In this role, she coordinates cooperation between the universities of teacher education in Switzerland at a national level and plays a key role in strategic education issues. "We are delighted to welcome Andrea Hungerbühler to the University of Bern as our new Secretary General, who is very familiar with the Swiss higher education landscape and has an extensive network," says Rector Virginia Richter. "She brings in-depth expertise in education policy, higher education and administration and is also a good fit for the University of Bern as a person," continues Richter.

Andrea Hungerbühler, who holds a doctorate in sociology, studied at the University of Bern and Columbia University in New York. She then worked as a research assistant on various research projects at the University of Bern and at the PHBern, headed the Master of Science in Vocational Education and Training course at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET) and gained important experience at the interface between politics and science as a scientific policy fellow at the Federal Parliamentary Services. Andrea Hungerbühler is 53 years old, lives with her family in the city of Bern and enjoys hiking in the mountains. Commenting on her new role as Secretary General of the University of Bern, she says: "I am looking forward to working with the team at the General Secretariat to support the work of the University Executive Board and, in collaboration with university members and other stakeholders, to help shape and further develop the University of Bern as a place of knowledge, learning and dialog."