Helping students succeed by looking after their well-being

A student’s journey at EPFL is closer to a hike along a mountain trail than a stroll down the sidewalk. You have to stay concentrated, be confident in your abilities and be prepared to overcome whatever obstacles may come your way. In the upcoming school year, we’ll be implementing new measures – and continuing existing ones – aimed at helping our students in their journey and promoting the well-being of our entire community.

The biggest measure we’re introducing is a one-week break in the fall semester (which in turn will start a week earlier). The idea is to give students an opportunity to catch their breath in an intense semester, especially for those in their first year. This year’s fall break will run from 21 to 25 October.

Greater flexibility

To allow for a slower pace, the School is also introducing more flexibility in the Bachelor’s studies by removing the rule that required 60 credits over a two-year period in the Bachelor’s cycle. However, the duration of the Bachelor’s cycle remains a maximum of 4 years. And master’s students can now take up to one year off between the end of their coursework and the start of their master’s project; provided that the maximum duration of the Master’s cycle has not been reached.

“Being able to put their studies on hold eases the pressure on students – the measure is meant to serve as an escape valve,” says Kathryn Hess Bellwald who, as EPFL’s Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Outreach, spearheaded the new measures. “The mental health and well-being survey we conducted in 2022 showed that fatigue levels increase as students progress through their degree program. That’s why I felt it was important to give them the option of taking time off.”

The university environment can be highly competitive, but we can set high standards while still being sympathetic to students’ needs

Shoring up self-confidence

Another goal for EPFL is to level the playing field for students in terms of their chances of success. To that end, Hess Bellwald and her colleagues put together a “cookbook” with “recipes” – peer-tested exercises – that teachers can use with first-year students to improve their feeling of self-efficacy. Studies have shown that among students with the same skill level, those with more confidence in their ability to complete a task or achieve an objective (i.e., those with higher reported self-efficacy) do better in school. “Experiments at other universities found that initiatives to improve students’ feeling of self-efficacy can be particularly beneficial to those in minority groups, such as students whose parents didn’t go to college,” she says.

Nurturing connections

EPFL’s mental health and well-being task force is exploring other concrete measures to adopt, too. It set up focus groups representative of the entire community to examine factors like the physical environment at EPFL, the workspaces, the structure of degree programs, and events for keeping the EPFL community informed, fostering dialogue and providing helpful resources. In 2025, the task force will launch a thorough review of EPFL’s culture and values. “The university environment can be highly competitive, but we can set high standards while still being sympathetic to students’ needs,” says Hess Bellwald, who heads the task force.

Encouraging our community members to take care of themselves in both mind and body is the goal of the Health Days event that EPFL holds jointly with the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Service Sport Santé UNIL-EPFL. This year’s edition will take place from 30 September to 10 October at the EPFL and UNIL campuses. The 2024 theme is the connections that keep us healthy: connections with others, with our mind, with our body and with nature. The event will include workshops, talks, panel discussions and a range of other activities – everything students need for the journey ahead.