A person can take EPFL classes as an auditor with the goal of rounding out his or her education, but not to further his or her education.
The CMS courses, the mise à niveau and the first year courses cannot be audited, except for members of specific associations (université de 3e age, for example) or for those who can justify the necessity of these courses in their professional domain.
Auditors are people who take courses provided by EPFL without being enrolled as students in the school.
External students who come to EPFL in the context of an inter-university exchange program (Erasmus, for example) are not considered auditors. They are enrolled in EPFL as exchange students.
Limitations and fees
Auditors are authorized to take a maximum of two different courses at the same time. This limitation doesn’t apply to university students and PhD students who have come to take courses required by and validated by their institution.
Auditors who want to take a course that requires significant involvement on the part of the teaching staff, such as laboratories, practical work, projects, seminars must obtain the prior consent of the teaching staff. For workshops and UE given by the department of architecture, auditors must obtains the prior consent of the secretary of architecture as well as the consent of the teaching staff.
Auditors can not take courses in our section of Management of Technology (MTE), in the human and social sciences program (Global issues and HSS), in the minor in Science, Technology and Area Studies (STAS) as well as courses with limited places. To be allowed to register to a course in Financial Engineering an authorization has to be given by the section ([email protected]).
At the time of registration, auditors must pay 60 CHF per ETCS credit, as indicated in the study plan (for example a course of 3 ETCS credits would cost 180 CHF for the entire semester). This applies to:
• External individuals (non-students) for continuing education*
• An exchange student coming from a university that doesn’t have an agreement with EPFL*
Courses are free for:
• Interns employed by EPFL * (upon receipt of proof from the supervisor)
• EPFL employees *
• Swiss Government scholarship holders
• A student from ETHZ or from another Swiss university
• HEP students who provide a letter from their school certifying that the credits are required
• A student from a university abroad which has an agreement with EPFL coming to do a project
• An alumnus who must fulfill a geometer complement
For categories marked with an *, a maximum of two courses can be taken per semester, provided sufficient space is available (article 13.2 of the directives for EPFL admission).
Services provided
Auditors are enrolled in our academic management system (IS-academia), which indicates the courses they are taking. A computer account is created and communicated by e-mail the day after their registration at the earliest.
This computer management system allows:
• Students to have access to potential computer resources used in courses (e-learning, workstations)
• Students to evaluate their courses electronically
• Students to obtain grade reports
• The class representative to sign students up for oral examinations
• The teaching staff to have complete lists of students in courses
• The teaching staff to have accurate statistics on their teaching load
Registration
Auditors must register at the student help desk within the registration deadlines which is the Friday of the second week of the semester. An administrative fee of 50 CHF will be charged for handling late registrations.
Individuals must present a piece of identification and a valid e-mail address. Students enrolled in a Swiss university must provide an “attestation” (proof) of studies from their university, valid for the semester during which they will audit an EPFL course.
University of Lausanne students who are required to take one or more courses provided by EPFL as part of their study program will be automatically announced by UNIL. See below for more details.
HEP students are allowed to follow courses in basic sciences as auditor only if they provide a letter from their school confirming that the credits done at EPFL are requested by the school.
An interface has been put in place between the UNIL course management system (SylviaAcad) and EPFL’s (IS-Academia). It automatically transfers to EPFL enrollments to courses given by EPFL included in UNIL study plans. These students thus don’t have to register as auditors at EPFL. The list of the courses given by EPFL included in UNIL study plans are mentioned under “Plans d’études UNIL” at the bottom of the next page: https://sac.epfl.ch/study-plans-regulations For the above mentioned students, the UNIL computer center will transfer the following information automatically to EPFL:
- Last name
- First name
- Gender (M/F)
- Birthdate
- Federal maturity number
- UNIL ID number
- UNIL e-mail address
- Academic year
- Semester (Fall / Spring)
- Department of study (college, faculty, school)
- Study program (see above)
- Study level (see above)
- Study level within the department (1st, 2nd, 3rd year Bachelor, Master, etc.)
UNIL students who take one or more course(s) given by EPFL but which are not included in UNIL study plans must come to the EPFL student help desk to enroll as auditor, since the interface between EPFL and UNIL will not automatically enroll them in these cases. UNIL students can access IS-Academia and moodle with their UNIL account (username and password).
Contact
The EPFL Student Services Desk is the main contact point for all academic queries
EPFL AVP SAO SAE
BP 1229 (BP Building)
Station 16
CH – 1015 Lausanne