PAKETH teaching reform submitted for consultation

Rector Günther Dissertori has launched the PAKETH project with the aim of creating more scope for development and freedom in teaching. This is primarily to be facilitated by means of fewer and simpler rules for teaching staff, time for students to engage in extra-curricular activities and rest after exams, and simplified administration procedures.

This is necessary, says Dissertori, if ETH wishes to retain its leading position against the backdrop of growing student numbers and increasingly faster technological developments in the training of skilled professionals. “We’re doing a great deal of things very well. But if we continue as before, we will simply pay too high a price. An academic calendar practically without any rest periods places an unnecessary burden on our students, and we are crippling both the development of courses and individual lecturers’ teaching with complex regulations.”

The reform concept has now been drawn up and serves to substantiate the ideas initially discussed at the teaching retreat in the summer of 2023:

• Exams are to take place three or four weeks after the end of the semester. This will result in a lecture-free period in the summer of eight or nine weeks. A lecture-free week will be introduced in the autumn.
• The teaching and revision periods in the Autumn and Spring Semesters will be of equal length in net terms, meaning that the conditions for earning 30 credit points will be the same.
• No more two-semester courses and examination blocks. New “mandatory course units with partial compensation” will continue to permit compensation of unsatisfactory results between individual subjects.
• The types of examination (session examinations, end-of-semester examinations and semester performance) are to be standardised. Performance assessments can take place during the semester or consist of a final examination – or combine both forms.
• Student workload is to be incorporated more consistently than has so far been the case as a planning factor into curriculum development and the teaching structure in order to facilitate a manageable workload during all periods of the academic year.
• New programme regulations will be drawn up on the basis of templates, thereby making them clearer, more flexible for adjustment and more efficient to implement.

The project will not in any way affect the strengths of ETH, particularly its research-related teaching, the selective nature of the first year of studies and the sound expertise conveyed by ETH degree programmes. The first-rate scientists teaching at ETH are one of the key factors behind this.

Consultation until 14 June

The formal consultation in the university groups, departments and central administrative units will begin immediately. They will have time until 14 June to review the concept and give feedback.

Dissertori is expecting a lot of feedback in view of the reform’s scope. The question of how students and teaching staff should deal with the shortened revision period without any loss of specialist knowledge is something that has been repeatedly mentioned during preliminary discussions. He adds: “It will be crucial that in future we design courses and examinations in a manner that allows the learning contents to be processed on a continuous basis. This will make the semester more intensive in some cases, but students will also be able to successfully complete the examinations in the reduced time.” Experience with this has already been gained from degree programmes where the first year examinations are split and exams requiring intense revision already take place shortly after the Autumn Semester.

The changes are to be introduced as of the 2027 Autumn Semester and not as of the 2026 Autumn Semester as was originally planned. This will allow more time to prepare the implementation and specifically to adjust the curricula and programme regulations as well as the requisite IT systems.