Language requirements
The main teaching language during Bachelor’s degree studies is German.
For admission to the Bachelor’s studies, our language requirements must be met. This may mean that a German language certificate must be submitted by the application deadline (= 31 March).
Applications with invalid, insufficient or missing language certificate will be rejected after March, 31 on formal grounds.
ETH Zurich offers no German courses or language certification examinations. The preparation, timely organisation and sitting of the German certification examination is the applicant’s responsibility.
When should the language certificate be submitted?
The German C1 language certificate must be submitted by the application deadline (=31 March) at the latest.
If the language certificate has not been uploaded at the time of application, please ensure that you submit it in eApply (or by email) by 31 March at the latest.
The submission deadline for the German language certificate is fixed and non-negotiable.
Recognised language certificates
The following list contains all of the German language certificates which qualify the holder for admission to Bachelor’s degree studies, and potential grounds for a waiver. Any certificates not listed, or those showing insufficient grades/points, are not accepted.
Waivers
Applicants who meet one of the under mentioned requirements do not need to submit a German language certificate:
- Mother tongue [Native language] German: By ‘mother tongue’ we mean the main language which you acquired in childhood with no formal teaching. It is also the language in which you now write, speak and understand written and oral communication with the least effort and with the greatest competence (level C2 and higher according to the external page Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). By ‘bilingual’ we mean that your knowledge of a second language fulfils the same criteria as those listed above for your mother tongue.
- German Zeugnis der allgemeinen Hochschulreife, provided the school is located in Germany or in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. School and matriculation certificates which document German language skills (even Level C 2) and supplementary examinations in German to obtain the German Abitur are not accepted in place of a language certificate.
- Austrian Reifeprüfungszeugnis, provided the school is located in Austria or in Liechtenstein. School and matriculation certificates which document German language skills (even Level C 2) and supplementary examinations in German to obtain the Austrian Reifeprüfungszeugnis are not accepted in place of a language certificate.
- Luxembourgian Certificat de fin d'études secondaires.
- Diplom über die bestandene staatliche Abschlussprüfung an der Oberschule at a school located in South Tyrol and where German is the main medium of instruction.
- Abschlusszeugnis der Oberstufe des Sekundarunterrichts of the 'Deutsche Gemeinschaft' in Belgium.
- A full-time, classroom-based Bachelor’s degree programme of at least three years’ duration with Bachelor qualification in German, at a university in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein or Switzerland.