News from the Executive Board 2022 / 4

Split first-year exams were trialled in a pilot project in four departments in 2016. In February 2020, the Executive Board decided to definitively introduce this model, making it possible for all departments to offer first-year exams in two separate blocks.

As a result, it was necessary to revise the Ordinance on Course Units and Performance Assessments at ETH Zurich (ETH Zurich Ordinance on Performance Assessments), for which the original timeline foresaw a completion date of autumn 2021.

The revision of this ordinance has now been delayed due to the enormous extra workload the coronavirus pandemic created for the Education Legislation team over the past two years. On top of this, it is becoming apparent that the revision will likely be more extensive than originally planned.

To ensure a seamless transition from the pilot phase to the definitive introduction, the Executive Board decided to extend the pilot phase for split first-year exams up to and including the 2025 Autumn Semester. In line with the new schedule, the revised Ordinance on Performance Assessments is set to go into effect on 1 August 2024.

Digitalisation and split first-year examinations in civil engineering

Civil engineering studies teach the fundamentals of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering; they enable future construction experts to develop sustainable solutions to challenges in such fields as residential, industrial, road and hydraulic construction. Now the Executive Board has issued new course regulations for the Bachelor’s programme in civil engineering and put them into effect as from the start of the 2022 Autumn Semester. The Bachelor’s programme in civil engineering has been offered in its current form since 2003 and was last updated in 2014. In particular, the updated curriculum reflects the greater importance of digitalisation. This Bachelor’s programme now includes four courses on digitalisation. In addition, the fifth semester will teach digital elements as part of the “Design” project work. The curriculum was also optimised and structured more clearly – and last but not least, split first-year exams were introduced to give students feedback on their performance soon after their transition from high school.

Data science and split first-year examinations in environmental engineering

Split first-year exams will also be introduced in the Bachelor’s programme in environmental engineering going into the next Autumn Semester to ease students’ transition from high school to degree-level studies. Since 2003 (when ETH Zurich switched to the Bachelor’s/Master’s system), the Bachelor’s programme in environmental engineering (last updated in 2010) has been teaching the fundamentals of science and engineering that enable environmental engineers to contribute to innovative solutions to environmental problems. Now the Executive Board has issued new programme regulations for the Bachelor’s programme in environmental engineering and put them into effect as from the start of the 2022 Autumn Semester. The updated curriculum slightly reduces the number of compulsory introductory courses to create more room for integrative and interdisciplinary classes and elective courses. In the first semester, the newly designed “Introduction to environmental engineering” offers a first glimpse at the topics and projects environmental engineers deal with. This degree programme will now also include courses that teach, right from the first semester on, the methods of data science, multivariate statistics and machine learning.