EPFL opened 11 administrative investigations over past four years
© 2021 EPFL
As part of its commitment to transparency towards the EPFL community and society at large, the School will regularly publish statistics on administrative investigations involving academic staff. A total of 11 investigations were opened in the 2017–2021 period.
EPFL promotes a culture of respect and aims to be supportive of community members who report allegations of inappropriate conduct to the Respect Unit or Ombudsperson or via one of the many other channels available to them.
Where a report of ethically inappropriate or unlawful conduct is found to be admissible, the School opens an administrative investigation in order to establish the facts. Between 2017 and 2021 (up to and including 21 March), 11 such investigations were opened following reports of inappropriate conduct by academic staff members, including seven in 2018 alone. The investigations involved 10 individuals: five male professors and five female professors. Six of the reports concerned bullying or mismanagement, three were for alleged scientific misconduct, one related to patent infringement, and one involved allegations of sexual harassment, mismanagement and scientific misconduct.
Seven of these 11 investigations are now closed. In three of those cases, the allegations were found to be baseless. They all involved female professors. In a further three, the allegations were partially upheld but the staff member was not found to have breached ethical standards or to have acted unlawfully, and conflict-resolution measures were put in place. The one remaining case was judged to amount to ethically inappropriate or unlawful conduct, and the individual in question received a warning.
In three of the four investigations where the allegations were partially or fully substantiated, the staff member filed an appeal with the ETH Appeals Commission. The Commission upheld EPFL’s decision in two cases and has yet to give its verdict in the third.
Following the sharp increase in reports in 2018, the School introduced de-escalation measures in 2019, bringing in mediation and group coaching as alternatives to administrative investigations where circumstances allow. Since then, allegations against four academic staff members – two male and two female – have been handled in this way.
EPFL takes ethically inappropriate conduct extremely seriously and has set up a long-term monitoring system to keep track of allegations. While the School is committed to constantly improving the way it handles reports of violations of personal rights, its priority is to reduce the number of cases through campaigns designed to foster respect.