The course codes at the Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD levels aim to:
1) specify the level of studies and affiliation of a course: since there exist courses with similar titles at various levels of studies and taught in different programs, it is important for students to have clear information, even in the case of mobility or transdisciplinary curricula
2) make EPFL courses easy to recognise internationally: from this perspective, course codes must be visible and readable for any potential employer or school
3) make it easy also for teachers and administrators to identify a course
Code structure
- Acronym specifying the field of study (see table below), regardless of the teachers’ and students’ affiliations
- Three-digit number, with the first digit specifying the level of study (see list hereafter) and the next two digits specifying the course itself:
1 = first-year course
2 = introductory Bachelor’s course
3 = advanced Bachelor’s course
4 = introductory Master’s course
5 = advanced Master’s course
6 = introductory PhD course
7 = advanced PhD course - Courses taught in parallel, with similar content but different teachers, may be identified with a small letter following the three-digit number, e.g.: MATH-101(b)
This numbering system was first used during academic year 2008–2009; it does not apply retroactively to courses in earlier years.
Acronym table
| AR | Architecture |
| BIO | Sciences de la vie / Life sciences |
| BIOENG | Bio-ingénierie / Bioengineering |
| CH | Chimie / Chemistry |
| ChE | Génie chimique / Chemical engineering |
| CIVIL | Génie civil / Civil engineering |
| COM | Systèmes de communication / Communication systems |
| CS | Informatique / Computer science |
| DH | Humanités digitales / Digital humanities |
| EE | Génie électrique / Electrical engineering |
| ENG | Ingénierie / Engineering |
| ENV | Sciences et génie de l’environnement / Environmental sciences and engineering |
| FIN | Finance |
| HUM | Sciences humaines et sociales / Social and human sciences |
| MATH | Mathématique / Mathematics |
| ME | Génie mécanique / Mechanical engineering |
| MGT | Management |
| MICRO | Microtechniqe et microsystèmes / Microengineering and microsystems |
| MSE | Science et génie des matériaux / Materials science and engineering |
| NX | Neuro-X |
| PHYS | Physique / Physics |
| QUANT | Sciences et ingénierie quantiques / Quantum sciences and engineering |
| ETH | ETH Zürich |
| HEC | HEC Lausanne (UNIL) |
| HEP | HEP Lausanne |
| PENS | Projeter ensemble |