Education Office Newsletter - April 2014

Contents
• Human Ressources
• Educational Affairs Annual Report
• 9 February 2014 & Erasmus
• Revision of the Ordinance on the Evaluation of Studies
• Bachelor’s Degree Certificates
• IS-Academia
• Statistics Observatory
• EPFL Open Days

Human Ressources
Housing Office
We are pleased to inform you that Mr Paolo Andrea Musarò joined the Housing Office team on 1 April 2014 as the head of housing services.
The Housing Office is upgrading its resources to meet the strong demand for housing in the EPFL population, excluding students and PhD students: students, postdocs and guests may henceforth also seek advice from the housing team. Additional solutions are being considered to increase the supply of accommodation.

Daniel Chuard, Director of Educational Affairs

Registrar’s Office Deputy
This is no April fool... After 9 years as the Deputy to the Head of the Registrar’s Office, Cédric Junillon has decided on a change of professional environment and left EPFL on 1 April. Besides his invaluable help in the management of the department, he has greatly contributed to developing IS-Academia and implementing EDM. His successor, Antoine Bianchi, started on 1 February. Two months with Cédric allowed him to become better acquainted with his new tasks. We wish every success to Cédric in his new activity and to Antoine Bianchi as part of the DAF team.

Jean-Paul Festeau, Head of the Registrar’s Office

Educational Affairs 2013 Annual Report

The 2013 Annual Report is available on our website http://formation.epfl.ch/. It was developed collectively by all Educational Affairs staff members who have successfully carried out the Office’s many missions and tasks in the past year.

For further information: [email protected]

9 February 2014 & Erasmus
Following the vote on 9 February 2014 which resulted in the temporary exclusion of Switzerland from the Erasmus+ programme, Parliament gave its approval for the financing of exchange scholarships. The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) has been commissioned to draw up an action plan. We find ourselves in the same situation as experienced from 1996 to 2011, when Switzerland was not recognised as a full member of the Erasmus programme.
Our 164 partners have been contacted and informed of our new situation and we have asserted their willingness to pursue dooperation. The latter will be in the form of bilateral agreements, as the name Erasmus+ may no longer be used by Switzerland. The reaction of our partners has been positive and warm, as most of them wish to pursue exchange arrangements. This has already allowed us to place 250 of our students since 1 March.

For further information: [email protected]

Revision of the Ordinance on the Evaluation of Studies
A revision of the Ordinance on the evaluation of studies is out for consultation. In addition to an update to formalise the rules applied in practice for several years, the version submitted for consultation proposes marking down to quarter-points, the abolition of bonus tests in favour of intermediate tests that count in the final result and an evolution of the foundation year. The latter introduces failure at the end of the first semester for students who have an average grade under 3.5, together with an obligation to attend and pass a refresher course during the spring semester.
A more complete description of the changes and draft of the new ordinance are available on the website of the EPFL Assembly, which is in charge of the consultation: http://ae.epfl.ch/reforme-formation.

For further information: [email protected]; [email protected]

Bachelor’s Degree Certificates
The Direction has agreed to issue a Bachelor's degree certificate to all students who pass this level of study. Until now, this applied only to those students pursuing their Master in another curriculum or outside EPFL or who failed to obtain a Master’s degree. Printing and awarding the Bachelor's degree will enhance this important and selective step. The Sections will be free to either arrange a meeting with their graduate students or send these documents by mail.
It should be noted that the flagship professional qualification remains the Master’s degree and that this change will be put out for consultation, as it requires an amendment of the Ordinance on Bachelor and Master studies.

For further information: [email protected]

IS-Academia
The IS- Academia Steering Committee met on 15 January to take stock of 2013 and approve the schedule of activities planned for 2014. As a reminder, the Steering Committee is made up of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Information Systems and Deans of the Bachelor & Master School and Doctoral School. The Head of the Registrar’s Office, Director of Educational Affairs, Coordinator of Information Systems and Deputy Secretary General for Academic Affairs provide additional input.
The Steering Committee meets at least once a year and decides on projects and priorities, in particular to set the annual budget dedicated to maintenance, developments and new projects. The main projects for 2014 are:

• Management of tutoring by the Sections, in particular to facilitate the selection, recruitment and hiring of tutor assistants (over 500 hired each year)
• Redesign of the portal available to companies offering internships to our students (over 1,600 internships posted in 2013)
• New module for billing tuition fees
• Introduction of new course books for the Doctoral School
• Implementation of a portal for applications related to summer schools and research internships

A number of changes to already implemented projects are also planned in 2014:

• Integration of a plagiarism detection tool in the thesis completion process
• Improved portal for the assessments required for in-depth bachelor/master course evaluations
• Developments in management screens for the doctoral programmes
• Improved process for internship registration and evaluation

Regarding ongoing projects, three projects are currently in the pilot phase:

• Entering of grades by the lecturers
• Systematic submission of non-confidential Master projects to a plagiarism detection platform
• Management of the thesis completion process

The final deployment of these three projects is expected during 2014, based on experience gathered and the decisions by the respective stakeholders.

For further information: [email protected]

Statistics Observatory
Documenting and measuring the international outreach of EPFL is a priority for the EPFL Direction. The international dimensions of scientific influence or attractiveness to researchers and students are becoming increasingly important in inter-institutional positioning and benchmarking. For example, the Times Higher Education has identified EPFL as the most international university out of 25 top prestigious institutions. OGIF has therefore been commissioned to produce a range of international and cross-cutting indicators.
A steering committee was formed to lead the project and a first version of the International Indicators dashboard is expected in early 2015. Close to 40 indicators have already been identified, defined, and collected for the most part. OGIF will be in charge of coordinating analyses and reviews with the various stakeholders and enhancing the data in the form of a revised edition of the dashboard.
Regarding the educational dashboards, the spring version has just been issued. The themes are mostly the same as last year, namely:

• Comparison of EPFL student numbers with other similar institutions
• Teaching loads and course evaluation
• Performance surveys at bachelor, master and exchange levels
• Evaluation of doctoral studies by doctoral students

This year, a comprehensive analysis of cohorts of doctoral students is also included in the report. This shows that the average duration for a successful thesis is 4.3 years, and that the success rate is around 85%. It also highlights that the proportion of women among doctoral students is increasing, exceeding 30% for the latest 2013 cohort.
The spring edition also offers an analysis of internships for the first time. It is reported that 919 internships were conducted in the 2012-13 academic year. More than 1,600 internships were offered by companies on the IS-Academia internship exchange. As each internship is evaluated by both the students and the company, the review shows that overall, these internships are assessed as positive or extremely positive.
Finally, the first session of the Master Admissions Committee was held on 18 February. The results indicate that the number of applicants (1,217) and the number of students admitted (384) to a Master course are very similar to last year. Like last year, the two main areas of interest are computer science and electrical engineering.
For further information: [email protected]

Over 2500 high-school students at the open days
Organized by the study programs promotion service and the sections, the EPFL open days took place on March 6.-7 and 13.-14. Over 2500 high-school students got the chance to discover the campus and collect information about undergraduate study programs. They also participated in workshops and visited some of the many labs welcoming them on this occasion.
Students, researchers, staff members and professors all dedicated some of their time to share a passion for their scientific field with youngsters facing the choice of their future studies. The visitors developed a more precise idea about what to expect from studying at EPFL and sharpened their knowledge about the subjects that are taught and researched here, about the type of issues and challenges that are addressed.
Many went home filled with enthusiasm and a strong motivation to soon join EPFL and start an engaging academic adventure!

For further information: [email protected]