Minors

In order to deepen a particular aspect of their training or to develop interfaces with other sections, students may choose to follow the training offered in a Minor.


The person in charge of the minor in Civil Engineering is Pascal Turberg.
Registration: make an appointment by email to establish the list of courses and sign the form.

Students enrolled in a disciplinary Master’s program can deepen a particular aspect of their training or develop interfaces with other EPFL sections by choosing to follow a minor. Students in the Master’s program in Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship must take the minor imposed upon admission to this Master’s program.

There are two types of minors:

  • the interdisciplinary minor, focused on a particular field and made up of subjects from several sections or even specific subjects (more information)
  • the disciplinary minor, focused on a single section, other than that of the student’s Master’s degree

The student announces the choice of a minor to his/her section and selects it in the course registration screen on IS-Academia, no later than the end of the first semester of his/her Master’s studies. To make your choice, remember to consult the list of minors on the Study Plans and Regulations page, which specifies which ones are recommended for each Master’s program.

The choice of courses that make up a minor is made in agreement with the student’s section and the minor leader. The student normally registers for these courses on IS-Academia.

A minor is successful when a minimum of 30 credits are obtained from the approved subjects. Each subject must be passed individually: there is no compensation possible between subjects. These 30 credits are added to the total for a 90-credit Master’s degree (the total is therefore increased to 120) or replace 30 credits of options in a 120-credit Master’s degree, according to the section’s application regulations.

Some minors have a plan of study with defined subjects. These plans of study are available on the Plans of Study and Regulations page.

Admission to the Science, Technology, and Area Studies (STAS) minors is by application. For more details, we invite you to consult the page of these minors.


What is a Minor ?

A minor is a group of courses offered by another section of EPFL than the one in which the student is registered.

Each minor corresponds to 30 ECTS which must be obtained and validated during the Master cycle.

Only a portion of the proposed minors will be recommended by each of the different sections.


Therefore, students must choose and validate:

  • 30 credits of electives specific to the minor chosen and recognized by the Civil Engineering Section
  • 19 credits of elective courses chosen from the elective courses offered in the Master’s program

If a student chooses to take a minor, they must do at least one, but no more than two, semester project(s) related to that minor!


Deadline for registering for a minor: at the end of the first semester of the Master’s program (usually early/mid December)