Record number of students at the ETH

The number of students at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich has steadily increased over the last few years and reached a record of 20,000 in 2017, according to the university’s annual report.

Across bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, continuing education, visiting and exchange programmes, the total student population reached a new record of 20,607, which is 4 per cent up on the previous year.

The university also maintained its record number of spin-offs, with 25 startup companies founded out of the university in 2017. Among the many specialized in technology and data science is Pathmate Technologies, whose app allows patients to measure the success of their own treatment, and DataHow, which deploys machine learning to optimize industrial processes in pharmaceutical companies.  

Digitalization was indeed a central topic across the whole university in 2017. The ETH and the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) opened the Swiss Data Science Center, while the ETH also introduced a programme in data sciences.

Another of the ETH’s new programmes was a bachelor’s course in human medicine, which combines clinical medicine and natural sciences to help students deal with new approaches and technology in personalized medicine.