A warm welcome to the University of Lucerne. I would like to wish you all a successful and fulfilling semester.

Learning can be a tricky business! If we learn nothing, we stay as we are. If we learn, then we see, know and can do more. But learning is also risky because we leave the familiar behind and enter new territory.

Learning can be confusing because previous knowledge can be brought into question. Learning can uncover weaknesses as we try to improve our knowledge. Learning redistributes knowledge and in so doing redistributes authority.

Learning is therefore something stubborn, headstrong, worrying, offensive or even subversive. Conversely learning can also mean adaption, innovation and creative reorganisation. Learning signifies development and growth, learning involves curiosity, surprise and fascination, and – learning requires faith, confidence and courage.

I would like to wish all of us a rich semester of learning – in freedom, with confidence and faith.

Prof. Dr. Bruno Staffelbach, Rector