Study Administration Offices
Incomings need an official transcript of records in English for their home universities at the end of their mobility stays at ETH.
Incomings are informed by the Student Exchange Office with the document Download Requesting the Transcript (PDF, 124 KB) that they must request the official transcript from the Study Administration Office of their department as soon as their grades are published in myStudies.
Important: Failed course units remain on the transcript.
If the specific title of a project is listed on the transcript in addition to the general course unit title, the Study Administration Office can mark this individually on the transcript in LKW via Grades processing > Performance assessments > Per student > Mark lines > "Replacement/additional text".
By default, electronic transcripts are sent as verifiable PDFs. The verifiable transcript can be downloaded in LKW:
- LKW: Zeugnisse und Diplome > Leistungsüberblick > Austritt
- Search for the person
- In the selection list “Sprache für Austritt,” choose English, then click “Ausw?hlen”
- Keep the default filter settings for “anzugebende Leistungen” (“nur letzte”) so that failed courses are not removed
- Check that the signature of the study director appears on the transcript
- Click “Drucken und Archivieren,” save the PDF locally, and send it via Outlook
- Verify that the verification code appears in the upper right corner of the PDF
When sending the document to the recipient, note that online verification is only possible the day after issuance (data transfer occurs overnight).
Upon request, incoming students may receive up to three physical official transcripts in English free of charge from their departmental student office. Incoming students who are no longer in Zurich when all grades have been finalized must inform the office of their foreign postal address by email. If students request that transcripts be sent directly to their home university, they must provide the contact person and full postal address.
For students whose stay dates back some time and who did not receive an electronic transcript at the time, the Study Administration Office may either forward the request to the Student Exchange Office or issue the transcript retrospectively.
Incomings working on a project must register in myStudies for a course unit which corresponds to the scope of their project.
There are special course units for mobility students comprising 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 60 ECTS credits. One month of full-time project work = 5 credits. Mobility students can also combine various course units. If they are unsure which course unit(s) are correct they should discuss the time necessary for the project with their supervisors.
A search for project course units can be conducted in the Course Catalogue by entering the project scope under "course unit", e.g. "30 credit project".
When they register their projects in myStudies exchange students must enter the official supervisor (professor). He or she must confirm registration; no further confirmation from the Study Administration or the tutor is required. The process corresponds to that for regular academic papers (LKW-Anleitung [instructions regarding performance assessments and certificates; in German], Section 6.4), but no programme regulations are involved (officially these are academic papers for the home university). Students and supervisors will be informed accordingly.
More information can also be found on the website for project incomings.
Related topic
Swiss Government Excellence ScholarshipETH students nominated for an exchange often need an official transcript of records in English in order to apply at the host university. They can order this either from the Study Administration Office of their department / degree programme or from the Registrar's Office (partially for a fee).
Many students carry out a project (internship or student research project) at an institution outside ETH.
In some cases, it is possible for students to do their project through an exchange programme. There are exchange agreements with all Swiss and many European universities, which include stays for projects.
For internships and other projects/study work outside of Switzerland, there are funding opportunities such as SEMP Europe Projects & Internships and SEMP Worldwide Projects & Internships. These are not linked to exchange agreements and stays at all kinds of institutions are possible (companies, research institutions, universities).
Please refer students to us or to our website as early as possible so that we can clarify whether one of the programmes is an option.
The students organise the projects independently. However, all projects must be agreed with the department. The main supervision of student research projects always lies with ETH, even if they are carried out externally. Internships must be approved by the person responsible for the internship in the department (only compulsory or recommended internships).
During their exchange stays outgoing exchange students remain enrolled at ETH and continue to pay their tuition fees here.
The Student Exchange Office designates these students in LisethPro as "mobile" (Workplatz 9, plus the name of the host university), unless the stay is short and it is clear that it lasts less than a semester.
Students registered as "mobile" may undertake regular registration in myStudies, which in the case of courses is not necessary during their absence but which is compulsory for project work, such as the Master’s thesis, even if it is conducted outside ETH.
Only students not taking part in exchange programmes (or self-organised stays abroad, internships etc.) can register for a leave of absence. This should be discussed with the Registrar’s Office.