Student Exchange
Are you an ETH physics student and would like to spend part of your studies at another university? Here you can find important information on how to proceed.
Your first point of contact is the website of the ETH Student Exchange Office.
If you are a physics student at ETH and wish to spend part of your studies at another university, then you find all the information you need on the Study abroad page on the ETH Student portal.
For the application process, please have a look at this detailed checklist.
The Student Exchange Office team and your contact persons at the department are happy to assist.
This is a must!
The Infomarkt is a forum to meet the team of the Student Exchange Office, your departmental exchange coordinators and former exchange students. The event takes place at the end of October.
Most of your questions will be answered already here. You will find various information booths dedicated to the different exchange programmes.
The departmental exchange coordinators organise the exchange programmes at the departmental level and work closely with the Student Exchange Office. The departmental exchange coordinators maintain contact with departments and lecturers at partner universities, arrange new mobility and exchange agreements, select students who wish to participate in exchange programmes, and advise students (incoming as well as outgoing) on these programmes.
The Student Exchange Office regularly informs the departmental exchange coordinators about the students participating in exchange programmes.
Your departmental exchange coordinator helps preparing your study plan.
You are expected to be well prepared when arranging a consultation appointment with the departmental exchange coordinator.
Detailed planning of your stay
It is your responsibility to get detailled information about the courses offered at the partner universities. Please do not ask the exchange coordinator which university you should go to, which general requirements you have to meet for studying at another university or what you have to do for spending part of your ETH studies at another university. Please ask your exchange coordinator specific questions about your planned stay, and only questions that are not answered on the website of the Student Exchange Office.
The exchange coordinators are regularly asked which host universities they recommend. Please note that all partner universities chosen and recommended by ETH have been evaluated and fulfil the high quality requirements of ETH.
It is recommended to start by visiting the Infomarkt and immediately thereafter preparing the necessary documents: Required language certificate, CV, transcript of records, letter of motivation, study plan, etc.
Please check first if your average grades are sufficiently high for participating in a given mobility programme. Please note that the average grade requirements differ from university to university. Minimum requirement is an average grade of 4.5, some universities require a 5.0. This minimum requirement is also valid for self-organised stays abroad.
These reports are an important source of information. Please read them carefully. The reports may be found in the International Knowledge Base (IKB). Contact and meet former exchange students; they know best what a specific host university can offer and they will tell you about it.
Application deadlines for the upcoming academic year can be found at the website of the Student Exchange Office. Please pay attention to the fact that the application deadlines are different for the various exchange programmes. Please make sure that you know the current deadlines, which can be found at the website of the Student Exchange Office.
Internal deadlines for consultation at D-PHYS
For worldwide programmes: 15 December 2023
For European programmes: 01 February 2024
Language courses: Please find out in good time which language skills and certificates are required for your planned exchange stay. You can find the deadlines and the necessary information on the required language certificates on the website of the Student Exchange Office. The external pageLanguage Center of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich assists with certifying your language skills.
Prepare your study plan carefully. Compare the contents of the courses at the host university with the corresponding contents of the ETH courses. Find out about the level of these lectures compared to the ETH courses and about the amount of work required for the courses at the host university.
Find out about alternative courses. Some universities may not grant you access to some of the courses you have chosen.
For questions concerning the Physics Lab please contact Dr. M. Donegà or Dr. S. Gvasaliya.
For questions concerning semester projects please contact your exchange coordinator.
For questions concerning Science in Perspective lectures please contact the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences.
Back home
After you have received the transcript of records from your host university or from the Student Exchange Office, please arrange a meeting with your departmental exchange coordinator. She or he will be interested to hear about your experience during the exchange stay. This information is most valuable for the work of your departmental exchange coordinator.
At the same time, the departmental exchange coordinator will convert the acquired credits.
Worldwide programmes
Appointments with Dr. Ramasubramanian will be possible again Autumn next year.
Exact dates tba.
European programmes
Meeting by appointment.
To register your interest in a European exchange, please fill out the following external pageform.