Prepare your stay

One of the major concerns of students who are preparing for an exchange is finding accommodation in their host city. How easy it is to find accommodation at a reasonable price will depend on your destination. Some partner universities have a campus and may offer you accommodation but this is far from the norm in the majority of cases.

Whatever the circumstances, it is worth finding out about the state of the local housing market and its conditions, well in advance. Follow the advice from your host university carefully and don’t hesitate to contact the relevant department for help, once the university concerned has confirmed your enrolment.

We recommend you to use the website student.com, which lists over a million accommodation offers in 25 countries, to help you find somewhere to live. The accommodation offered is mainly in student halls managed by private firms.

Academic calendars

The maximum duration of an academic exchange is two consecutive semesters, usually in the same academic year. However, academic calendars differ significantly from one region of the world to another, and from one country to another, even in Europe. In Switzerland, the academic calendar consists of the first semester which runs from August to January and the second semester, from February to July. On the other hand, in the southern hemisphere for example, the academic calendar is based on the calendar year and starts in January. There are many other variations such as in Germany where the first semester starts in October and ends in March and the second runs from April to September. It is thus your responsibility to get information from your host university about the dates of the academic calendar. These are generally available on the official websites of the universities.

Exams

Because of the differences in academic calendars between countries, it could happen that if you are leaving for the spring semester according to the UNIL calendar, you may need to leave already in January. Therefore, you should make arrangements with the heads of your faculty, section or school in order not to have to take your exams in January. There are indeed various solutions that will allow you to complete your mobility as smoothly as possible, such as moving your exams to the August session, for example.

Length of exchange

An exchange program can be from one to two semesters long. However, some countries (Canada, for example) split their academic year into three terms, it is therefore important to communicate with the host university to define exactly when you plan to study there. Your mobility advisor will be happy to provide you with more detailed information on this point.

It is essential to get information on how you will be covered during your exchange in terms of insurance, particularly for illness and accidents, before you depart.

Your compulsory health insurance in Switzerland should also cover you against accidents, provided you are in regular employment and your employer covers you for this risk. If you are intending to terminate your employment contract in preparation for your exchange, it is essential to ask your LAMal insurer to cover you against accidents.

Once you have done this, you must contact the relevant local authorities in your host country about the requirements for health and accident insurance. Some countries will recognise your Swiss insurance (which will be the case within the European Union, if you have a European Health Insurance Card), while others will require you to take out local insurance.

In the first case, you should check the limits to your cover while you are living abroad with your LAMal insurer and, if necessary, take out top-up insurance to provide additional cover.

In the second case, it is not unusual for the host university to require you to take out additional insurance. However, you should still check that it provides appropriate cover during your stay.

Finally, UNIL has partnered with the assistance company International SOS, which offers assistance services abroad in case of need. You'll find all the information you need on the Assistance and insurance abroad page.