Raising the first-year pass rate without compromising on standards

© Alain Herzog/2022 EPFL As the new academic year kicks into gear, we spoke to Simone Deparis, the executive director of EPFL's Propedeutic Center (CePro), which is aiming to raise the first-year pass rate (currently 51.5%) without lowering standards. For as long as he can remember, Simone Deparis has enjoyed sharing his knowledge and observing those lightbulb moments when students finally connect the dots. Back in high school, he organized study sessions with his friends. Now, he supervises PhD research and teaches analysis to students at EPFL. "Mathematics is an elegant discipline, but not everyone sees it that way," he explains. "My goal is to try to kindle interest in this much-maligned but eminently accessible subject." Deparis, who picked up the 2018 Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching for introducing a flipped classroom approach in an algebra class , is now the executive director of EPFL's Propedeutic Center (CePro), which provides support to first-year students and the staff who teach them (read the box below). EPFL already has 30 different centers.