Frequently asked questions

PAKETH will schedule the exam period of the spring semester at the end of June to Mid-July. This creates symmetry with the Autumn Semester, as the exam preparation times are then roughly the same in winter and summer.

In addition, performance assessments, including corrections, can be completed partially before the summer school vacation. As the academic calendar as a whole is not particularly family-friendly (spring and autumn holidays fall during lecture periods), this is an important consideration.

And finally, the early examination period offers a new time window of 8 weeks for everyone involved, which can be used in a variety of ways, like for internships, summer schools, extra-curricular activities or for relaxation and well-being.

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. The lecture period will be interrupted for one week after the 7th week of teaching (calendar week 45).

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 planned that all preparatory activities, including welcoming events for new students, will be brought forward to week 37 (the new Onboarding Week) 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 modul 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 early in the semester as to which course units they want to complete.

In addition to the normal registration for a module, the option is also created to attend it as an ‘auditor’. This allows students to attend lectures and access the materials if they are interested. Participation in performance assessments and thus the acquisition of credits is not possible. Auditor registration cannot be converted to normal registration at a later date. However, it is possible to re-register in a later semester for the purpose of earning credits.

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.

In the detailed concept phase, the proposals for changes brought back from the teaching retreat 2023 were further concretised and combined into an overall concept. The overall meaningfulness and consistency are demonstrated and it is shown how the implementation will work. However, not all details have been finalised yet. Following the consultation process and the subsequent decision by the school board, the implementation phase began in autumn 2024 and it will last until the rollout in 2027. During this time, the necessary details will be clarified and all the preparations required for therollout will be made. During the implementation phase, departments, lecturers and many units of the administration will be very directly involved and will have to make their contributions.

protected page PAKETH-Manual Version 1.2, concept and implementation rguidelines of the Rectorate.

You can find all working documents for PAKETH in the Working Documents Box on our homepage.

No, PAKETH cannot be implemented without Digital Campus. PAKETH and
Digital Campus are two projects that are closely interlinked. PAKETH reforms
the academic calendar and examination system at ETH Zurich. Digital Campus is
developing a new digital system landscape for teaching, studying and administration at ETH Zurich.

As the current system landscape is not compatible with the reforms being
implemented by PAKETH, Digital Campus is one of the necessary conditions for
PAKETH to be introduced. The introduction of PAKETH and Digital Campus is
planned for the autumn semester of 2027.

The PAKETH and Digital Campus project teams are in constant dialogue
with each other and with departments, central services, university groups, and
the Executive Board. This ensures that the reform process is regularly reviewed
to ensure that it is progressing as planned.

The current plan is to introduce PAKETH and Digital Campus in the Autumn
Semester of 2027. With these two reforms, ETH Zurich is breaking new ground
without any previous experience to draw on. Among other things, it is difficult
to make an accurate long-term forecast because there is a strong interactionwith the Digital Campus project.

The PAKETH and Digital Campus project teams are in constant dialogue
with each other and in exchange with departments, central services, university
groups and the Executive Board. This allows for regular checks to see whether
the reform process is developing as planned.

The latest date by which the Rector will decide on the introduction date
of PAKETH and Digital Campus in the autumn semester of 2027 is June 2026 (see
also Digital Campus schedule). However, the decision may be made
earlier as to whether the 2027 introduction date will be maintained or whetherthe introduction will be postponed by one year to the autumn semester of 2028.

The PAKETH and Digital Campus project teams are in constant dialogue
with each other and in exchange with departments, central services, university
groups and the Executive Board. This ensures that the reform process is
regularly reviewed to see whether it is developing as planned.