The calendar year 2022 is drawing to a close. Running crosswise to this is the academic year, in which we are in the midst of. These general time calculations are overlaid by your personal time periods, which are shaped by your individual goals, projects and life circumstances. Some of you are about to complete your studies and are already looking ahead to the professional world, others have just immersed themselves in the first months of their studies and have their first exams in front of them.

We tend to summarise and evaluate periods of time into a story. 2022 could be told as a year of major crises and disruptions – the Ukraine war, inflation, energy shortages, climate change failure and global political upheaval. Such grand narratives influence the way we make up our own life stories. But don't let them influence you too much! Create your own chronology, write your own personal history! I hope and wish that you have a wealth of reasons for stories that can fill you with satisfaction or even happiness.

As diverse as your stories will be, so diverse are the subjects and perspectives you will deal with in your studies. They are different perspectives on people and human activity, on what makes people tick, what they create and what emerges from their coexistence - religions, social structures, cultural achievements, legal systems, markets and companies, healing methods and health systems. What the sciences we deal with have in common is the human being as the object of research. All the sciences taught at the University of Lucerne are in some way human sciences – 'Humanwissenschaften'. In a sense, this is our grand narrative: we are a human sciences university.

I wish you wonderful festive days and much joy and success in your further studies!
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Rütsche, Vice Rector for University Development