Students remain registered at EPFL during the exchange and continue to pay EPFL tuition fees but are exempted from the host university’s tuition fees. However, some small taxes at certain host institutions can be requested (public transportation, access to labs, associations, access to sports’ facilities, etc). Students who receive a cantonal or social scholarship will continue to receive their grant during the period of the exchange.
All EPFL students who are doing an academic exchange at a partner university will receive an exchange scholarship (not based on socio-economic criteria). The amount depends on the destination:
CHF 2’000 for the full academic year
Exchange at Carnegie Mellon University
Students selected for the exchange at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will receive in addition to the financial support of CHF 2’000 from EPFL, the Severin B. Hacker Fellowship amounting to CHF 2’500 for the year. This fellowship will be granted to students studying at CMU during the academic years 2024-25 and 2025-26 only.
The Student Exchange Office will send the instructions regarding the payment of the scholarship to the students who are concerned.
Exchange at ETHZ and at the Università della Svizzera italiana: CHF 1’500 for the full academic year
Following the vote of 9th February 2014, the European Commission has excluded Switzerland from the Erasmus+ programme. This programme has been replaced by the Swiss-European Mobility Programme (SEMP) until further notice.
The National Agency Movetia provides liaison between the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SSERI) and Swiss universities.
The SEMP scholarships are financially supported by Movetia. Movetia promotes exchange, mobility and cooperation within the fields of education, training and youth work – in Switzerland, Europe and worldwide.
Official communications from SSERI are available on the SSERI‘s website.
Scholarship amount
CHF 380 per month (maximum 10 months).
The student need to be physically in the county of the host university throughout the mobility in order to receive this scholarship.
Language courses
A refund of the language course is possible and subject to funding availability of the Student Exchange Office as far as your exchange is taking place.
For information, the costs of language courses at our partner universities are usually amounting to 100-400 Euro.
The amount of the refund will be determined according to the effectif costs of the course and the available funds. Furthermore, the language course must take place either in Switzerland or in the country of the host university.
In order to receive a refund, please provide the invoice of the course, the attestation of participation to the course as well as your bank details to the Student Exchange Office.