The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (French pronunciation: [ekɔl pɔlitɛknik fedeʁal də lɔzan], EPFL) is a public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland".

The roots of modern-day EPFL can be traced back to the foundation of a private school under the name École spéciale de Lausanne in 1853 at the initiative of Louis Rivier, a graduate of the École Centrale Paris and John Gay, the then professor and rector of the Académie de Lausanne.

Following the nomination of Patrick Aebischer as president in 2000, EPFL has started to develop into the field of life sciences.

The environment at modern day EPFL is highly international with the school attracting students and researchers from all over the world.

Holders of a Swiss "maturité gymnasiale" are directly accepted with no other condition in the first year of their Bachelor's program of choice.

If the weighted average is insufficient, a student is required to retake the entire first year of coursework if they wish to continue their studies at EPFL.

Roughly 60% of students fail the first year at EPFL all majors combined, and many choose to drop out rather than to repeat the propaedeutic cycle.

For foreign students, the selection procedure towards the undergraduate program is rather strict, and since most undergraduate courses are taught in French, foreign students must provide documentation of having acquired a level B2 proficiency in French as measured on the CEFR scale, though C1 proficiency is recommended.

[18][19] EPFL typically scores high on faculty to student ratio, international outlook and scientific impact.

[23][24][25][26] Times Higher Education also ranked EPFL as the most international university in the world two years in a row 2014[27] and 2015.

In 1974, five years after EPFL was separated from University of Lausanne and became a federal institute under its current name, the construction of a new campus at Dorigny in Écublens, began.

[29] Together with the University of Lausanne, EPFL forms a vast campus complex at the shores of Lake Geneva with about 20,000 students combined.

The campus is served by the Lausanne Metro Line 1 (M1) and is equipped with an electric bicycle sharing system.

[31] Of the 14,000 people that work and study at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne campus, roughly 9.300 are students in either Bachelor, Master or Doctoral programs, the remaining 4,700 being administrative staff, scientists, technical staff, professors and the entrepreneurs located in the Science Park EPFL7.

However, it also has branches in Neuchâtel ("Microcity"), in Sion ("Pôle EPFL Valais"),[33] in Geneva (Campus Biotech, including the Wyss Center for Bio- and Neuro-engineering) and in Fribourg ("Smart Living Lab").

There was also a research centre in Ras al-Khaimah (United Arab Emirates), EPFL Middle East, between 2009 and 2022.

[35] Beyond its main campus, EPFL operates a network of associated campuses in Western Switzerland, often sharing these spaces with partner academic institutions and hospitals: The Language Centre offers language and communication modules for French, German, Italian and English (CEFR levels A1 to C2)[41] to enable learners to participate more effectively in academic, professional and social situations in an internationalized multilingual and multicultural context.