Master’s project in a university abroad or in Switzerland

The Master project can take place in one of EPFL’s partner university or non-partner universities. You must have found a professor at EPFL and at the university of your choice who will supervise your project. No minimum grades are required to be able to do a Master project in a university in Switzerland or abroad.

This does not apply for students in Architecture who are not authorized to do their project outside of EPFL.

Please take note of EPFL’s specific requirements for Master’s projects.

You are responsible to organize the administrative aspects related to your Master’s project in another university in Switzerland or abroad.

For all questions related to EPFL’s guidelines for a Master’s project outside EPFL (the duration, the start and end dates, the credits, for a prolongation etc.), please refer to EPFL’s specific requirements or contact the student services desk if needed.

Once you have found a professor at the host university, inquire with this person or with the student exchange office of the home university about the registration procedure and the deadlines. Usually, students who undertake a project are registered as visiting or host students. The procedure is specific to each receiving university.

It is also advised to inquire with the host university if any tuition fees or taxes have to be paid. It is possible that some universities will ask you to pay semester fees, which are at your own costs.

If your host university is one of EPFL’s partner universities and that it asks you to be nominated by EPFL (this is sometimes required by host universities in Japan), please contact the student services desk.

If your home university requires the signature of a convention, please contact your EPFL professor.

Tuition fees

Students who undertake a Master’s project in another university remain registered at EPFL and pay EPFL’s tuition fees even if the host university charges tuition fees or taxes.

Funding

Please visit this webpage to see various scholarships that are offered. These scholarships are handled by the Student Affairs so please contact them directly if you have any questions. You can find more precisely on this webpage the various scholarship opportunities for studying abroad.

If your Master’s project takes place at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a limited number of Severin B. Hacker Fellowships of CHF 2’500 per student-project will be granted for the academic year 2025-26 on a first come – first served basis (subject to change).

In order to apply for this scholarship, please fill in the application form for a Master project in IS-Academia under the tab Exchange application (not to be mistaken with the tab Master Project which needs to be filled out in any case).

The form must be signed by your EPFL Professor, by the Program Deputy of your section and by yourself. Once the form is signed by the 3 parties, please upload it back onto IS-Academia and validate the application form. This procedure will help you to verify that the form has been validated correctly.

The Student Exchange Office will then send you instructions regarding the payment of the scholarship or the allowance.

If your Master’s project takes place at a university in Japan (with the project already accepted and approved by a professor at the host university and at EPFL), and the host university indicates that a partnership with EPFL exists and requires an acceptance letter or nomination from EPFL, please contact the student services desk.

For general questions related to the organization of your Master’s project at another university in Switzerland or abroad, you will find the answers on our Frequently Asked Questions page (available in English only).

For questions related to the EPFL regulations governing Master’s projects (duration, start and end dates, credits, extensions, etc.), please refer to the specific requirements or contact the Student Services Desk if needed.