Swiss-European Mobility Programme (SEMP, formerly Erasmus)

Contact the responsible office at your home university in order to find out about the requirements for participation, the application deadlines at your home university, the required documents, etc.

The nomination deadlines are 25 March for the Autumn Semester and 25 September for the Spring Semester.

Important: Nomination for an exchange is subject to the approval of your home university.

Specific conditions might apply at your ETH department or study programme. Check which conditions apply in your case.

You have to attend in person. Distance learning is not possible.

An exchange period within SEMP must be at least 91 days and a maximum of 12 months.

Exchange students are expected to earn 20 to 30 ECTS credits per semester during their exchange at ETH.

The study plan is the list of courses you plan on taking at ETH Zurich. You will be enrolled in one specific department/study programme.

Your study plan must be coordinated with your home university.

You must adhere to our Download study plan guidelines (PDF, 142 KB). All the links (e.g. conditions set by the departments at ETH) in the file are relevant to your application. If you want to change your study plan during your stay at ETH, you must refer to the guidelines.

Check if the semester and exam dates at ETH are compatible with the dates of your home university. You have to attend the exams in person. Shifting examinations requires official approval and is only granted in exceptional, study-related cases.

There are different types of performance assessments at ETH. Check in advance what type of assessment is used in your courses, as they might be during or after the semester.

Once you have been selected and nominated by your home university for an exchange period, you will receive an email from ETH with instructions on how to apply. After you have received the email, follow the application instructions. They contain the link to the online application.

If you need a visa, you will receive the necessary information after your application has been accepted by ETH.

You can take courses at the University of Zurich (UZH) in addition to those at ETH Zurich. To do so, you must apply online for module mobility (studying at more than one university) through UZH. external page Conditions for studying at more than one university.

• The internship programme (Erasmus Traineeships) for incoming students is not offered by ETH.
  
• Students from European universities we maintain a bilateral exchange agreement with can be nominated as exchange students if they conduct a project / thesis at ETH (even in study fields without an existing agreement). The minimal duration for such stays is three entire months.
• If your home university is a partner university of ETH but you have not been selected and nominated for an exchange period, you can apply as a project student.  

SEMP scholarships are paid as semester scholarships, regardless of the exact length of stay. Only students who receive a contractually guaranteed exchange place from their home university are eligible for the scholarship. When you apply online for SEMP, you automatically also apply for the scholarship. No separate application is necessary.

The amount of the scholarship depends on the country in which the home university is located.

• DK, FI, GB, IS, IE, LI, LU, NO, SE: 1,900 Swiss francs per semester
• AT, BE, BG, CY, CZ, DE, EE, ES, FR, GR, HR, HU, IT, LT, LV, MK, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, RS, SI, SK, TR: 2,200 Swiss francs per semester

There are additional scholarship options and you can apply for a top-up for an environmentally friendly travel method (see below).

Individual adjustments to study conditions can be arranged to compensate for study and examination-related difficulties. Please check out the application requirements and deadlines.