Education Office Newsletter - December 2014

Contents

• IS-Academia
• Statistics Observatory
• Registrar’s Office
• Housing office
• 4 students receive the Durabilis Award!
• Associations news - Autumn 2014
• Language Centre: Human Ressources

IS-Academia
The year 2014 ends with the completion of a number of projects including:
• The launch of the new Business Portal enabling nearly 6,000 contacts to quickly and easily post industry internship offers for our students. The new platform has been revamped and redesigned to be more user-friendly, which has been highly appreciated by the users.
• The launch of the management of tutoring for the Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry Sections. This development is based on the doctoral assistant management module launched in 2012, which has proved its worth. New features include the ability to simplify the tutor selection and hiring process.
• The management of applications for research internships organised by International Relations. An admission form was developed and the ISA application management platform has undergone some changes so as to automate the entire process. About 600 applications have been processed in this way.
On the governance side, the Steering Committee met in early December to validate activities planned for 2015. Among the flagship projects are the redesign of the billing process, the complete processing of applications for outgoing exchange and an adjustment of pass rules in line with the reform of the foundation year.

For further information: laurent.ramelet@epfl.ch

Statistics Observatory
Educational dashboards
For the new 2014-15 academic year we observe a 10% drop in new 1st year Bachelor enrolments, bringing the total of new BA1 students to 1,412. This decline is due to a decrease in foreign student numbers only, particularly those with French training. This can be explained by the new terms for BA1 admissions (the average grade required of Europeans has risen from 70% to 80%). All Sections have lower enrolment figures except microengineering (183 new BA1 students), computer science (158) and environmental science and engineering (55). However, one should note an increase in the number of repeat students, which brings total BA1 student numbers up to 2,313, i.e. 22 students less than last year.
At Master level one also notes a decline with 280 (-4%) new students in 1st year Master (MA1) and HES pathway. The total number of MA1 students is 1,093. The Sections with the most MA1 students this year are computer science (37), life sciences (23), management of technology (22), financial engineering (22) and electrical and electronic engineering (21).
The total number of EPFL students is 9,921, of whom 5,124 Bachelor students, 2,594 Master students (and with tailored curricula), 2,032 PhD students and 171 students in continuing education.

For further information: statistiques.formation@epfl.ch

Registrar’s Office
Human Resources
Having worked at the Registrar’s Office since 2012, Valérie Krier will be leaving at the end of the year to take a position at the EPFL Bernoulli Center. SAC and DAF wish her every success in her new mission! At the same time, we are pleased to announce that Ms Emma Sorrentino will take over Valérie’s position at the start of 2015. Ms Sorrentino will thus be in charge of supporting the Doctoral Students' Office and doctoral programmes and also back up Ms Sauthier for room bookings.

For futher information: jean-paul.festeau@epfl.ch

Housing Office
A lease for 25 studios in downtown Lausanne, Rue St-Laurent, was concluded by the EPFL. These units are specifically intended for interns, PhD students, postdocs and academic guests.
The studio rents were calculated to include all expenses incurred by a tenant in order to facilitate access to housing for the above-mentioned persons, without additional costs. These units were furnished with the support of the DII and funding from the VPAA. All studios were rented in less than 2 weeks, highlighting the strong demand of the EPFL community. They are fully booked until April 2015, with leases ranging from 1 month to 2 years.
A more detailed article on the various housing office projects will follow in an upcoming Flash.
The Housing Office is also pleased to announce that Mr Sébastien Cornaz joined the team on 1 December 2014.

For futher information: logement@epfl.ch

4 Students Receive the Durabilis Award!
Four Durabilis awards were presented on 5 November last on the EPFL campus. This year, the Jury chaired by Benoît Frund, the Vice Rector of Lausanne University for campus sustainability, decided to reward two architecture projects and one in environmental science.
“Repenser le site de l’Exposition universelle de Séville 1992” by Juliane Miani and Laetitia Pierlot. This project addresses the sustainability of infrastructure set up to host major international events such as the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, universal expositions, etc.
“Agriculture urbaine : Conséquences spatiales d’une nouvelle conscience alimentaire” by Nicolas Pierret. This master project deals with the relationship between food and urban space with the city of Lausanne as a concrete example. The city of St-Sulpice funded the Durabilis prize awarded to Nicolas Pierret, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the commune for its generous contribution.
“Réseau d’Espaces Urbains Organo-Dynamiques (Zacatecoluca, El Salvador)” by Raphaël Payet-Burin. This engineering internship project deals with the temporary occupation of urban wasteland for cultural activities. The Durabilis Jury warmly congratulates the 4 winners and wishes them every success for the future of their project!

For further information http://developpement-durable.epfl.ch/durabilis/en
Contact: albertine.kolendowska@epfl.ch

Association News – Autumn 2014
The fall semester 2014 has seen a significant number of applications for recognition of student associations by EPFL. Since September no less than 10 student groups approached the Education Office for acknowledgment of their association. Of these requests three were denied, five are pending, one is in the process of being acknowledged, and one already has been. So this semester a total of 5 new associations, with 4 requests for acknowledgment dating from last semester, have received official recognition by the EPFL. Since this fall our campus therefore offers an even wider range of activities through the following associations:

• EPFL & UNIL Wine Society for the promotion of œnological culture
• Solar (preparing students for the international Solar Decathlon competition)
• Financial Engineering Society (Association of financial engineering students)
• Dynamic (Association of microengineering students)
• ADSV (Association of PhD students in life sciences).
  
  In October, two key events of our School, EPFL Forum and the Graduates’ Ball, were held for the first time in the new EPFL congress centre - the Swiss Tech Convention Center (STCC).
  Finally, as each fall semester, students involved in association life were able to attend various courses in accounting, communication, and communication through social networks, delivered by various external professional lecturers.

For futher information: magali.favre@epfl.ch

Language Centre
Human Resources
Céline Restrepo, who has worked as an instructional designer since 2006, has decided to steer her career in another direction and left the UNIL Language Centre at the end of October 2014.
She was primarily responsible for the management and development of the Multimedia area of the Language Centre and its learning platform. She was also deeply involved in projects and initiatives related to the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies for Education) and contributed teaching innovation insight to research (e.g. as co-coordinator of the SIG Switch Eduhub ePortfolio, AAA Continuation Activity 2013 project, SWITCH, head of EUROCALL - European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning for Switzerland).
Céline Restrepo’s position has been taken over by Luis Gonzalez, instructional designer with a degree in Education Sciences and a Master in Learning and Teaching Science and Technology from the University of Geneva.
We deeply thank Céline Restrepo for her commitment and quality work and welcome Luis Gonzalez.

For futher information: elisabeth.paliot@epfl.ch