Language tests

All students selected for an exchange must take a language test. The test is taken after the selection.

The information below doens’t apply to students who have been selected for Carnegie Mellon Pittsburg and the University of California San Diego. These students have to pass a TOEFL or IELTS exam. Students are responsible to organize this exam on their own and will receive further instructions about the test after the selection.

The English written and oral tests for students who have been selected for an exchange to the USA or Canada will take place at the EPFL Language Centre only on the dates below.
This test is selective, as our partner universities require level C1 in English.

Oral test: (exact time slots of 15 minutes to be confirmed)
– Thursday 27th January 2022
– Friday 28th January 2022

Written test:
– Saturday 29th January 2022 from 9am to 12pm

Students nominated for an exchange in Australia have to pass a TOEFL or IELTS exam. They are responsible to organize this exam on their own and will receive further instructions about the test after the selection.

The language tests for German, English (except for USA, Canada and Australia), Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are organized by the Language Centre.
The tests will take place on the following dates (2 hours time slot). The modalities of the test (online or in-person) will be defined later on according to the sanitary conditions.

  • Friday 4th March 2022 from 2pm to 8pm
  • Saturday 5th March 2022 from 10am to 6pm
  • Friday 11th March 2022 from 2pm to 8pm
  • Saturday 12th March 2022 from 10am to 6pm
  • FRiday 18th March 2022 from 2pm to 8pm

The registration for the tests are open in the student portal in IS-Academia between February 28th and March 3rd, 2022.
The tests take place in person at the language Center.

Please note that some partner universities require a TOEFL, IELTS or other specific test from non-European exchange students for visa purposes (e.g. UK). This information can be found on the partner university’s exchange website.

  • Germany, Austria: German and/or English, if study plan in both languages
  • Belgium:  English, if flemish host university. No test for other universities
  • Brazil, Portugal : Portuguese. Except Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST) : English
  • Danmark, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Sweden, Turkey, UK : English
  • China, Korea, India, Singapore, Israel : English
  • Chile, Spain, Mexico : Spanish
  • France: English for Polytechnique Paris, ENS Lyon. No test for other universities
  • Italy: Italian. Politecnico di Torino : language of the majority of courses (Italian or English)
  • Japan : English test at EPFL + certificate of Japanese level (eg. course attestation)
  • Russia : test of Russian at the host university at the beginning of the exchange
  • Switzerland: Mendrisio: Italian. ETHZ: language of the majority of courses (German or English)