FAQs

The courses are taught by highly-qualified instructors who bring strong professional experience in the topics they teach.

There are no fixed dates for courses. You can start learning as soon as you have completed your enrollment. Once you have started your course work, you’ll be able to learn at your own pace. However, you’ll need to have completed your course or program within 18 months of starting.

Learners in our courses and programs benefit from on demand, personalized one-on-one support with our course instructors once per week. Learners in our discovery offer have support based on the specific option in which they are enrolled. Our learning platform also offers other support options, including forums and messaging tools.

Yes. You have direct access through one-on-one video chats and our learner platform.

All courses and learner support are only in English at the moment.

Yes. There is normally no on-campus requirement for any of our course or project work.

There are no mandatory on-campus segments. We may offer special on campus days, such as workshops or presentations, but they are not part of the course.

We're working on that one! At the moment, you can download other course materials, such as data sets and template files, through the tools provided on the learner platform. We're currently developing functions to let you download additional course materials.

Programs can be taken in any order, but courses within each program must be taken sequentially.

You receive 15 ECTS credits when you successfully complete any of our intermediate-level programs.
Learn more about ECTS credits

EPFL does not accept ECTS credits toward any of its degree programs.

Learners who have completed an EPFL Extension School course or program will be recognized as alumni of the EPFL Extension School. Our alumni group has close ties with the EPFL Alumni organization.

Most courses, whether part of a program or not, end with a course project. You can choose to show publicly the project work that you have completed as part of your coursework.

Absolutely. All project work is submitted through GitHub, and you can decide how you want to make it available.

This is the optional final project for each of the certificate programs. You can decide several of the parameters and components of the capstone project based on your personal interests and needs. However, it must meet pre-defined project criteria that allows you to demonstrate mastery of the subjects covered in your program.

All projects are individual because we want to give you the opportunity to demonstrate that you have acquired the skills taught in each course.

You will get a digital certificate of completion in PDF format for each course you complete. For our certificate programs, learners who have successfully completed all the required coursework, the course projects and the capstone project, will receive an official EPFL Certificate of Open Studies (COS).
Learn more about the COS program at the EPFL

All project work is submitted on GitHub, and you can decide how you want to make it available to people outside the course.

Each program is priced individually, on a monthly basis.
Learn more about our pricing

We accept most major credit cards but do not accept debit cards.

You are billed on a monthly basis, starting on the date you begin a course or program. If you start on the 14th of the month, your monthly fee will renew on each 14th of subsequent months until you complete the program or exit the course. If you sign up on the 31st day of the month, you’ll be billed on the subsequent last day of every successive month.

All of our courses and programs are entirely self-paced, allowing you to proceed through the coursework at a pace that fits you. Our programs consist of 450 hours of course and project work for the average learner, which we would expect to be able to be completed in three to nine months.

Please be aware that it is not possible to complete a certified program in fewer than three months, owing to the combined course and project work for the learner as well as the time it takes for our instructors to review all course and capstone project work. Similarly, learners enrolled in a program must complete all course and project work within 18 months of starting the program.

We do not provide an 'audit' option at this time.

You may choose to withdraw from any of our courses or programs at any time. However, we do not offer reimbursements for any month already charged.

Financial support is not available from the EPFL, as the school does not have a financial aid office.

Not at this time, but we hope to change the answer to this question soon!

We cannot provide you with specific guidance on this. You should contact your local unemployment office to check on any implications to your status.

We are working with Swiss authorities in select cantons to see how and when this might be possible. If you live outside of Switzerland, we suggest you contact the relevant unemployment office and see what your options are.

Our courses and programs are designed to cover the needs of a wide variety of industries and sectors. Contact us if you'd like to know more about how your company can benefit from your employees' learning at the EPFL Extension School.

Yes. Please contact us directly for more information.