2024-01-22 16:45:21
Student growth also affects all aspects of campus life: from catering to crowded subways, including the housing crisis. Finally, this reality is hardly compatible with projects and project-oriented courses, an integral part of EPFL’s DNA.
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Many French students
Since 2010, the number of EPFL students with a Swiss degree has increased by 28%, while the number with a diploma from a foreign country has increased by 233%. Among these, more than 90% of the workforce comes from France.
As the ETH law authorizes the restriction of admission of students with a foreign diploma if capacity problems require it, the School plans to request authorization from the Council of Federal Polytechnics (CEPF) to impose a limit on 3,000 students in the first year of a bachelor’s degree. To do this, it launched an internal consultation on Monday.
“With this temporary limitation measure, we want to return to the situation of 2020, and thus ensure the quality of training and the best possible study conditions,” explains Pierre Dillenbourg, associate vice-president for education, quoted in the press release.
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Unrestricted Swiss maturity
Concretely, all graduates of a Swiss maturity would be admitted without restriction, as required by law, as well as people repeating their first year. Then, the remaining places would be allocated to applications with foreign diplomas, ranked in descending order of their secondary school leaving marks. The reduction in people ultimately admitted would be around 20%.
The rental of a 200-seat auditorium in the future RTS building (from 2025) then the construction of 1,500 additional seats in auditoriums in the new Esplanade building (from 2029) should bring an improvement, which is particularly why the measure would be limited to 4 years, renewable if necessary. However, these future audience seats will not be enough to make up for the lack of space if no measures are taken to manage growth.
Ensure quality
This carefully considered proposal follows two years of analysis and discussions within working groups, including AGEPoly, the teaching staff association, section directors and vice-deans for education, specifies the EPFL.
At the end of the consultation, and depending on its results, the proposal will be brought before the CEPF. He is expected to make a decision during the second half of 2024.
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