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There is just one thing standing in between those fun summer days and us: the study and exam phase which stretches from early June to the start of September, making it hard for ETH students to find time to rest and reset. But this is going to change soon: Summer holidays are coming! So bare with me while I spill the tea.
Last spring, Rector Günther Dissertori initiated a huge reform project called PAKETH (Prüfungen und Akademischer Kalender an der ETH, Exams and academic calendar at ETH). This project is supposed to be introduced in autumn semester 2027.
The project is about reforming ETH at its core. ETH’s academic calendar and teaching style are not contemporary anymore and it’s time for an upgrade. When we look at the best universities in the world, such as MIT or Harvard, we see a very different style of teaching and academic calendar. Inspired by those top universities, PAKETH will bring another system to ETH.
The first big change is the academic calendar. Firstly, a week of vacation will be introduced in the middle of the autumn semester, similarly to the Easter break we already have. Secondly, the study phases are going to be shortened down to three or four weeks, both in winter and summer. In summer, this shortened study phase gives room for a summer break of at least six weeks.
The second big change will affect the exam blocks. The current system of block examination blocks, which are mostly used in the first years of a bachelor’s program, will be relaxed. With PAKETH, blocks will stretch over years and not semesters anymore. E.g., all exams of first year examinations will become one relaxed block. In addition, students won’t have to write all the exams in a block in the same exam session anymore, allowing students to split one block across multiple exam sessions. Also, if you fail a block, you won’t have to repeat all exams anymore, you will just have to repeat the exams you failed. This new system of relaxed blocks keeps the advantage of compensating grades between different subjects and loses the disadvantages of having to write all exams of one block in the same session and having to repeat the whole block instead of just the exams you failed.
The third big change is to move away from big exams at the end of the summer that make up all your grade and towards more small examinations consisting of reports, homework hand-ins, project work, presentations or mini exams during the semester. Like this, the session exams will lose weight and length, and therefore it will be possible to adequately prepare for the exams during the shortened study phase.
In total, the goal of PAKETH is to switch the focus from quantity to quality. The main objective of teaching at ETH should not be to let students learn as much content as possible by heart, but to teach them the main contents, as well as academic and logic thinking and prepare them to become the next generation of problem solvers.
PAKETH is currently in its consulting phase where all departments and also we as VSETH can give our opinion. You can find all details of the project on its official website: https://ethz.ch/staffnet/en/teaching/projects/paketh.html.
If you have any questions or comments regarding PAKETH, you are very welcome to write an email to hopo@vseth.ethz.ch.
Jana Lea Fuchs, VSETH Board Member for University Politics and Communication
