Edito - French-English bilingualism as a free choice for the Bachelor's degree at HEC Lausanne from the beginning of the academic year 23/24

Dear Alumni,

It is a pleasure to reach out to you through my traditional note introducing the “Du Côté de la Fac’” section, in which you can find the latest news concerning the HEC faculty. Today I have chosen to highlight a novelty of this edition of which we are very proud: the increased availability of bilingualism and flexibility of Bachelor courses. Enjoy your reading, and I am looking forward to meeting you at an event in the future.

As of the start of the 2023/24 academic year, HEC Lausanne Bachelor students will no longer be required to take their BA program in French but they will have the option of taking their entire BA program in English. Indeed, HEC Lausanne offers students an unprecedented choice of courses with identical versions in both languages: all first and second year courses are available in French and English. Each student can choose at any time in which language they want to follow the course. The course materials are identical and the exam is presented in both languages. The student can choose to answer either in French or in English.

The real novelty is that the student has the flexibility to decide in which language they want to take a certain course; they may even alternate each week the language of each course. At any given time, students have access to the same course in English and French. With this option, we hope to encourage French-speaking students to boost their English skills by occasionally or even completely taking courses in English, with the reassurance that the course material and exam are also available in French.

In addition to this, we offer an “English for Managers and Economists” course for all native French speakers, tailored to the English level of each first-year student. For English-speaking students, a similar “French for Managers and Economists" course will be available. These are language courses in small groups, targeted and designed specifically for HEC Lausanne students.

From the beginning of the 2023/24 academic year, HEC students will have the choice of taking a Bachelor's degree in management or economics in English, in French or any mix of both. We are thus responding to a demand from our students' future employers: multilingualism!