Earth System Science

The Faculty of Science (MNF) and the Geological Institute (D-ERDW) at the ETHZ jointly offer a Master program culminating in the title Master of Earth System Science UZH (Geoscience). This program usually lasts four semesters and includes a master thesis (120 credits in total).

This master program provides in-depth training regarding lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and anthroposphere in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the system Earth along with its interactions and correlations between those spheres. In-depth anthroposphere courses are specifically set up to qualify students with a Bachelor degree and some basic knowledge of earth science for further education in didactics to obtain a teaching certificate in geography for secondary schools (diploma or teaching degree for secondary education).

In order to achieve 120 credits, students will have to account for 12 - 18 credits in the required courses specified before. These include interdisciplinary methods as well as courses in earth system science. Students will furthermore have to select 42 - 48 credits from the following elective courses:

• Earth Surface Processes
• Lithosphere
• Terrestrial Biogeosciences
• Advanced Biogeosciences
• Catchment Hydrosphere
• Groundwater Hydrosphere
• (Advanced) Cryosphere
• (Advanced) Biosphere
• Anthroposphere
• Applied Methods in Earth System Science

Students specialize by combining several elective courses which will also define their future focus. The topic of a master thesis (30 credits) should have a strong relation to the in-depth courses selected and the corresponding modules as well.

Courses of this master program will usually be offered in English. However, required courses of the BSc program will mostly be taught in German.

• Seminar "Current topics in ESS" (compulsory)
• Colloquium & Seminar in Remote Sensing **
• Spectroscopy of the Earth System
• SAR and LIDAR
• Solving Geospatial Problems using Matlab
• Retrieving Geographic Information
• Advanced Spatial Analysis
• Cognitive Issues in GIScience
• Introduction to Databases
• Spatial Databases
• Spatial Algorithms (GIScience B)
• Geographic Information Visualization (Geovis)
• Numerical Methods in Environmental Sciences
• Contemporary analysis for ecology (R)
• Introduction to programming in R
• Practical Introduction to R
• Statistics and Probability
• Einführung in die Statistik (German)
• Computational Science I

The following academic degrees exempt the holder from having to pass any further examinations for admission to the a Master’s degree course: -A Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Science of the University of Zurich, whereby the Faculty determines which types of the Bachelor's degree are required for admission to the respective Master's degree courses. - Corresponding degrees of Swiss and foreign universities which are generally recognized by the Faculty, or recognized by subject. In terms of paragraph 1, such degrees are reviewed according to the stipulations of § 3 of the Bologna guideline of the Swiss University Conference. Further possibilities for admission to a Master’s degree course: the Faculty assesses all other qualifications, in particular those from universities of applied sciences, according to its own criteria, whereby. The principle of equal treatment applies to assessing the equivalence of Bachelor's degrees The Faculty can require the fulfillment of additional conditions in form of evidence of academic achievement. The Faculty decides about the acceptance of academic achievements and credit points which were obtained elsewhere. 

Expenses

Living expenses depend very much on the individual student. These figures should therefore be regarded as a guideline only (in CHF): 

The expected minimum cost of living for students therefore comes to a total of CHF 1,750 per month. Course fees come to around CHF 770 per semester.