Currently at EPFL it is not possible to do an exam outside of the ordinary session’s period, with or without a medical justification. A student absent from an exam has to wait a year to do it. This is problematic for a number of reasons and this is a frequent complaint of student representatives to EPFL’s executive board. Thus we have decided to work on the topic in collaboration with professors and the EPFL board.
The difference between deferred exams and retake exams
This project targets people who could not attend an exam for medical (or alike) reasons, aiming to give them the opportunity to attend the exam in a reasonable time span. The project does not aim to let anyone who fails an exam retake it soon after their first try.
Project’s evolution
Initially, in Spring 2023, we have organized a working group with two professors through which we have gotten to know their constraints, talk about the student’s constraints and discuss with EPFL’s legal service. The first iteration of the project consists in suggesting deferred exam dates during or before February’s first week of classes for exams happening during the Winter session, and before September’s back-to-school for Summer exams. These deferred exams can be held in a format different from the initial exam’s.
Now, the project has some legal concerns to answer for: the principle of equality in opportunities is threatened by the perspective of doing a deferred exam. To be continued…