Fact sheet for Swiss Mobility programme
For courses or a combination of a project with mandatory courses
Students can be nominated via the Swiss Mobility programme. Application deadline must be met and ETH's semester dates must also be met.
For projects only
Students doing a project only are not part of the Swiss Mobility programme. They have the status of project mobility students.
- No nomination is required.
- No tuition fees.
- Beginning and end-dates are flexible.
- Students receive a mobility student status at ETH.
- Minimum of 20 ECTS per semester for courses; or for courses and project. Credit points are granted in case students successfully pass their exams.
- Most courses (generally 2/3) must be attended within the range of courses offered by the department of enrolment.
- A workload of 30 ECTS and over may be overwhelming. Students are not always used to ETH’s highly demanding academic environment.
- The combination of a project and courses that together exceed a total of 30 ECTS is not recommended. A Master's thesis is regarded as full-time work.
- Students must have completed at least two years respectively 120 ECTS worth of studies at university level in a relevant field of study by the time they begin the exchange.
- The hosting department assesses all applications. The department decides on the admission of the exchange student according to academic criteria, mainly the ability to attend selected courses at ETH Zurich with success.
Within the exchange agreement in the form of project plus courses
- Students must find a supervising professor at ETH themselves.
- They must be nominated before applying.
- The combination of courses and a thesis or project must be discussed with the supervisor at ETH in advance.
- In the latter case the application must be evaluated by ETH department's exchange coordinator as well.
- The combination of a project and courses that together exceed 30 ECTS is highly discouraged. At ETH, a Master's thesis is regarded as full-time work.
For projects only (research project or thesis)
Students register as a project mobility student and are not Swiss Mobility students.
- Students must find a supervising professor at ETH on their own before applying.
- Project or thesis is expected to be full-time, i.e. a workload of 20 to 30 ECTS.
- Project duration must be between 91 days and 365 days.
- No study fees at ETH.
- Application is submitted two months before the start date. Short-notice applications might be taken into consideration after checking with the programme manager.
- All departments are open for incomings to choose according to their field of study at their home university.
- Note: Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (D-GESS) is closed to all students except for students of the Geneva Graduate Institute. Applications of incomings students who do not belong to the Geneva Graduate Institute will not be considered.
Language of instruction
- English: Master, partially Bachelor
- German: mostly Bachelor
Required language level
C1 recommended, at least B2
Language certificates
No requirement. We trust our partners to nominate students with language level B2 or higher in English and / or in German, depending on the courses chosen (learning agreement).
Language courses
Courses are offered prior to and during the semester by the Language Center of University of Zurich and ETH.
1. Deadline
- Autumn Semester: 1 April
- Spring Semester: 1 October
2. Form of nomination
(applies to course students and to students who combine courses and a project).
3. Content of nomination
- Student's full name
- Date of birth
- Email address
- Number of exchange semesters
- Field of studies at home and host university
- Purpose of exchange (courses, project, thesis)
Learning agreement (LA)
- ETH issues an electronically signed LA based on the study plan approved by the departmental exchange coordinators. We usually do not issue any other form of LA for courses.
- The LA can be revised two weeks into the semester. Students will be reminded. A final electronically signed LA will be issued again.
- ETH does not sign any study plans or agreements of other universities.
Transcript of records
- Grades are published at the latest six weeks after the end of the examination sessions.
- Transcript of Records must be requested by the student at the Study Administration Office of their ETH department.
- Students are entitled to order up to three transcripts of records free of charge.
Housing
Detailed information about housing will be sent to the students after their application has been processed.
Students with disabilities
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chevron_right Go to the partner siteDeadlines
For courses or a combination of a project with mandatory courses the following dates apply:
- Autumn Semester: 30 April
- Spring Semester: 31 October
Online applications
Application information for students is on the Swiss Mobility website: The document under «Application process» contains the relevant link to the application. Admission will be communicated to the students within approximately five weeks after the application deadline.