University Challenged - How Switzerland Figured Education Out

The SNSF offers multiple funding instruments, all of them on a competitive basis and only for time-limited projects. It supports a much smaller number of universities (11) than the ANR, but with almost the same budget, which makes the selection less competitive. I believe an admission rate of around 30% is healthy, while an admission rate below 5%, as some EU instruments imply, means that 95% of applicants wasted their time. A side effect is the scarcity of permanent research positions outside or inside universities. Another corollary is that no time is wasted writing and reviewing reports: while some of my French colleagues tell me of how they have to write multiple reports, as they belong to multiple structures, I merely write a brief annual report for my SNSF grants. The dean of my school can easily find my publications, citations, grants, start-ups and how students appreciate my courses (but I am not sure he does, there is enough emulation among us).

The above applies to all Swiss universities, but does not explain why EPFL suddenly emerged as it did in rankings. When Patrick Aebisher started his presidency in 2000, he progressively collected what he called the ‘low hanging fruits’ from the US Ivy League universities. The first of these fruits has been a tenure track for assistant professors, which concerns about half of all recruitments. Very young professors are thus selected, between 30 to 35 years old, finishing or having recently completed their PhD. The system is tough but fair: promotion depends on one’s performance, not on the departure of older professors. EFPL was one of the first universities in Europe to do so, with many others then following suit. The craft, however, is in the way this is implemented. Firstly, EFPL gives junior professors full independence in their research: they are not juniors in a lab driven by seniors, they have their own lab and get a start-up financial package. The university invests a significant amount of time in the recruiting process, aligned with the US recruiting season, ensuring that offers are made to a candidate only if there is conviction that they could then be given tenure. Interestingly, the recruiting committee includes tenure track professors: since it’s about choosing colleagues for many years, more senior professors should not decide alone. As EFPL competes in the top-10 league in computer sciences, applicants who receive an offer from there also receive an offer from top US universities: Switzerland selects them as much as they select it. Their stay on campus is thus designed with this reciprocity in mind. Similar efforts are of course made for senior hires. For them, the committee pays little attention to the bibliometrics used in other places, but focuses instead on the substance, i.e. what candidates previously have discovered, proven or invented.

Once on campus, they have to take doctoral courses where they meet students from other labs: they also have to pass a candidacy exam after one year. Thereby, EPFL broke away from the European doctoral tradition where students somehow remain within the walls of their hosting lab. Enormous efforts are also engaged in selecting PhD students: in computer sciences, we receive 700 applications per year, we accept 95 and then do our best to convince them to come. 

A third feature that differentiates EPFL from French universities is the univocal commitment for innovation and tech transfer. EPFL labs are expected to generate several start-ups. Multiple instruments are in place to support them. In 2020, 20 start-ups were created and, between 2012 and 1018, Swiss start-ups raised 1.6 billion Swiss francs. As narratives are better than statistics at conveying culture, let me share the story of Jean-Marc Tasseto. When he visited EPFL in 2013, he had recently left his position as CEO of Google France in order to create CoorpAcademy, a B2C company producing MOOCs for corporate training. He asked whether it would be possible to rent office space in our innovation park. At 6pm, he signed the rental contract! 

A controversial point has been the embellishment of the campus with multiple buildings, including the campus lighthouse, the Rolex Learning Center. Today, I would argue that it has been a clever choice. It is of course hard to prove in pandemic times, but the quality of the campus became a significant part of the EPFL education or professional experience. Every spring, I sit down for lunch with some French students visiting EPFL before choosing their university. They often mention the quality of the campus, the contact with students and teachers from all over the world and of course the reputation of EPLF. This attractivity led to a massive influx of French students, getting close to 50% freshmen, which quickly became politically risky. EFPL now therefore requires to obtain at least 16 as a graduating grade in high school in order to enter EPFL. Instead of doing a pre-university program, at EPFL, students have immediate contact with their chosen professional track (mechanics, chemistry…). 

Since EPFL already had solid experience with online education, it managed to adapt to the pandemic overnight. One year later however, students are nonetheless expressing their suffering, as they miss campus life. There is however consensus that some elements of online teaching should be kept even after the pandemic - for instance, 20% of teachers reported in a survey they had fully converted to online classes. A commission is currently preparing this hybrid future.

From all what precedes, the reader may expect that EPFL leaders have been criticized for being too influenced by their US experience. It is true that the majority of our professors and leaders have spent time in the US academic system, but they come from all over the world. The same is even more true for our students who come from 120 different countries. EPFL has been recently ranked as the most international campus by the Times Higher Education. Down the road, I would rather claim that EPFL invented a perfect blend, integrating American processes into a European culture with an international mindset.

Copyright: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP