In order to successfully complete your academic exchange, it is essential that you are able to follow courses in the language in which they will be taught. In addition, most partner universities require you to present a language certificate, in which case passing a language test is compulsory before you can go on exchange.
You will find specific information about language requirements on the partner universities’ exchange sites, which you can find on our website under Remarks. Please note that partner universities may change their language requirements for exchanges from one year to the next.
In any case, we strongly recommend that you take a language test to ensure that you have a sufficient level of language to follow the courses at your host university.
Language tests are taken after the selection.
Exchange to the USA, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom
The students selected for an exchange in the USA, Canada, Australia or the United Kingdom must pass a language test according to the requirement of the host university.
The test is refunded by EPFL for the first attempt only. In order to receive a refund, please send the invoice of the course, the attestation of participation in the course as well as your bank details (name, first name, and address of the bank holder, bank name, IBAN number) by email to the Student Exchange Office.
| Universities in the USA | Tests accepted and level required by the host university | Deadline to pass the test |
| Carnegie Mellon University | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| Johns Hopkins University | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | see fact sheet (PDF document) on the website of the partner universities | January 31 |
| University of California, San Diego | see the website of the partner | January 31 |
| University of Washington, Seattle | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| Universities in Australia | Tests accepted and level required by the host university | Deadline to pass the test |
| University of New South Wales | see the website of the partner. Accepts Swiss Matura no older than 10 years at the time of the exchange, with minimum grade 5 in English | February 15 |
| University of Sydney | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| Universities in Canada | Tests accepted and level required by the host university | Deadline to pass the test |
| McGill University | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| University of Toronto | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| University of British Columbia | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| University of Waterloo | see the website of the partner | February 15 |
| Polytechnique de Montréal | no English test required, courses in French | – |
| Université de Montréal | no English test required, courses in French | – |
| Université Laval, Québec | no English test required, courses in French | – |
Exchange to all other destinations
The language tests for English, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are organized by the Language Center.
The tests take place in person at the Language Center in March – April. The dates will be announced later on for exchanges in 2025-26.
The registration for the test is done in the student portal in IS-Academia (tab Language Center) during a specific period which will be announced later on for exchanges in 2025-26.
Certain universities do not require any language certificate. Please verify this information on the university’s webpage.
| Australia | See above table under paragraph Exchange to the USA, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom |
| Austria | German if courses in the study plan are in German only English if courses in the study plan are in English only German and English if courses in the study plan are in both languages |
| Belgium | English, if flemish host university and at UCL – Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain. KU Leuven – Faculty of Engineering Sciences: IELTS, TOEFL or CAE to provide for non-Europeans. No test for other universities |
| Brazil | Portuguese |
| Canada | See above table under paragraph Exchange to the USA, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom |
| Chile | Spanish |
| China | English |
| Czech Republic | English |
| Denmark | English |
| Finland | English |
| France | English if courses from the study plan are in English |
| Germany | German if courses in the study plan are in German only English if courses in the study plan are in English only German and English if courses in the study plan are in both languages For TU Berlin: German in any case + English if courses in English |
| India | English |
| Italy | Italian. Politecnico di Torino : Italian if courses in the study plan are in Italian only. English if courses in the study plan are in English only. Italian and English is courses in both languages. |
| Ireland | English |
| Israel | English |
| Japan | English test at EPFL + certificate of Japanese level (eg. course attestation) |
| Mexico | Spanish and English |
| Norway | English |
| Netherlands | English. TU Eindhoven: TOEFL, IELTS or CAE required for non-Europeans |
| Portugal | Portuguese. Except Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST) : English if courses at master level and/or Portuguese if courses at bachelor level |
| Singapore | English |
| South Korea | English |
| Spain | Spanish |
| Sweden | English |
| Switzerland | ETHZ: language of the majority of courses (German or English) Mendrisio: Italian |
| United Kingdom | See above table under paragraph Exchange to the USA, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom |
| United States of America | See above table under paragraph Exchange to the USA, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom |
| Turkey | English |