Dean's editorial - December 2023

Pioneering is in the DNA of HEC Lausanne - the most recent example? - The Bachelor reform, which offers an innovative possibility for a Bachelor's program: tailor-made bilingualism!

As of the beginning of the 2023 academic year, the University of Lausanne's HEC Faculty will be offering French-English bilingualism for its Bachelor's courses in economics and management. A complete flexibility is given to students which will not only be able to follow courses in French or English, but - and this is the real novelty - will be able to select the language of a specific course from one week to the next as the same course is given in French and English. Course materials and exams will be available in both languages allowing students to prepare their exams in their preferred language and to answer in either French or English during the exam. The idea is to encourage students to take courses at least occasionally in English without fear of difficulties in passing the exams.

We hope to encourage students to improve their language skills, and in addition to the flexibility between languages, in the first year of the Bachelor's program students follow a course entitled "English for Managers and Economists" adapted to each student's level of English. This is a targeted language course in small groups specially designed for HEC Lausanne students to give them a solid grounding in business vocabulary and put them at ease to tackle their program in English. For foreign students however a B1 level in French is required to enroll in the Bachelor's program. By the end of the Bachelor's program, students will have a higher level of English which will be a major asset on the job market and an advantage for continuing on to the Master's program where courses are mainly taught in English.

We are currently in the first semester of this new feature in our Bachelor's program and it's not the only news. We have also welcomed the students during the first week of the semester for “onboarding days” which consisted of 4 workshops each covering one of our values (Rigor - raising awareness of the level of statistics and mathematics required for the Bachelor's degree, as well as plagiarism, Integrity - raising awareness of microaggressions and stereotypes and how to avoid them, Collaboration - raising awareness of limited resources and the implications of our behavior, Entrepreneurial spirit - introduction to innovation and problem-solving with an entrepreneurial approach). The onboarding days were a great success and also enabled students to get to know each other as collaboration in small groups was on the menu.

And the reform brings a third pioneering element: we are reserving weeks 1 and 8 of each semester for new integrated cross-disciplinary courses, once again offering students the chance to work differently (self-managed and in small groups). The first cross-disciplinary course provides an introduction to sustainability and spans over an entire year.

Dear Alumni, would you like to redo your studies?