Frequently asked questions

The exact timing of the summer exam period is still being discussed.

However, there are several arguments in favor of scheduling the exams at the end of June/beginning of July. This creates symmetry with the Autumn Semester, as the preparation times are then roughly the same in winter and summer.

Furthermore, the performance assessments, including corrections, can be completed before the summer school vacation. As the academic calendar as a whole is not particularly family-friendly (spring and fall breaks fall during lecture times), this is a relevant aspect.

And finally, the early examination date leaves sufficient time for everyone involved, which can be used in a variety of ways.

This must not happen! The implementation of PAKETH must be accompanied by adjustments in teaching structure and learning behaviour.

Students will increasingly work on course content during the semester and thus be prepared for the final examination earlier. However, this will demand more time freedom. It will require focussing and, in some cases, a reduction in the amount of teaching material.

Initiating this process within the lectures is an important part of the PAKETH project.

This must not happen either.

The quality of an academic education will increasingly be measured not by the pure quantity of knowledge, but by how graduates use knowledge and how they can apply it.

Other universities, with which we like to measure ourselves, show us that this can be achieved within a much more compact timetable.

Committed students will also know how to benefit from the resulting freedom for their personal development.

Unfortunately not. The school holidays are in semester weeks 4 and 5, which is definitely too early for the break.

Starting the autumn semester in calendar week 37, i.e. one week earlier than today, would be an option.

However, this would mean that ETH would break out of the coordinated Swiss academic calendar. For the joint degree programmes with UZH and the University of Basel, this would be a major problem for which solutions would have to be found.

It should be borne in mind, however, that the net teaching time in the Spring Semester is also no more than approx. 13 weeks, as several public holidays fall in the semester in addition to the Easter break. A reduction of the autumn semester to 13 weeks will lead in fact to a symmetrisation of pure teaching time.

It is conceivable that all preparatory activities, including welcoming events for new students, could be brought forward to week 37 so that the first week of the semester can be used entirely for teaching.

Today, exams from both semesters take place in the sessions. In particular, examination blocks are offered in each session. In addition, the exams are used as initial examinations and as well as repetition examinations.

In future, only course units that took place in the previous semester will be examined in the subsequent exam period. There will then be a separate time slot for resits of the previous semester.

This will considerably simplify the framework conditions for compact exam schedules. It is also planned that the examination dates will be set and communicated much earlier than at present.

In principle, we see the integration of registering for a course unit and simultaneously registering for the assessment as one of the core concerns of PAKETH.

For students, this will mean that they will have to make binding plans at the beginning of a semester as to which course units they want to complete.

It remains to be seen whether it will also be possible to attend course units in "auditor status", i.e. without taking part in performance assessments. One argument in favour of this is that matriculated students should not be granted fewer rights than external persons enrolled as auditors.

In the short term, the number of performance assessments could indeed increase.

However, a reduction can be achieved by merging smaller courses into larger ones and by increasingly integrating assessments into the courses.

Furthermore, a two-semester course (Jahreskurs) does not necessarily have to be divided into two semester courses; it can also be accommodated as one large semester course in one semester.