Water and Environmental Engineering

With limited natural resources and an increasing demand for water, food, energy and shelter, we look at practical ways to develop our society in a sustainable manner. We combine a strong technical basis with a sound understanding of a broader societal context. The ultimate aim of our programme is to ensure a sustainable and functioning society.

Interested in many things? Our Master’s Programme is multidisciplinary, bringing together the best of water & environmental engineering and providing a broad view of the field. Our education combines theory with practice, including hands-on laboratory work, case studies and project work. We collaborate with other master’s programmes in Aalto, and encourage you to go for student exchange to diversify your views and skills.

Want to create your own specialisation within our field? Our programme is student-centered, making use of our students’ varied backgrounds. Our field is diverse and you have several possibilities to pursue your career. To ensure that you will study things that you are thrilled about, you can design your own study path. Our personal portfolio process helps you to recognise your strengths and interests together with your mentor and peers.

Ready to change the world? The ultimate aim of our programme is to ensure a sustainable and functioning society. Such an aim also means we are passionate and motivated about what we do: we are proud to be water and environmental engineers!

The structure of the programme is designed so that you are able to study your common and advanced courses during the first year. This leaves the second year for elective courses and Master’s thesis. It also makes it easy for you to go for student exchange during the second year. Alternatively, you can deepen your expertise by taking more of our advanced courses as elective courses.

Master’s thesis

The Master’s programme finishes with a Master’s thesis that provides you an excellent opportunity to synthesise your studies and deepen your expertise within a project context. The Master’s thesis (30 cr) is a piece of applied research that includes not only the written thesis but also the maturity essay and seminar presentation or a corresponding presentation. The master’s thesis takes 6 months (fulltime) and it is an individual project.

The topic for the Master’s thesis will be defined together with the supervising professor. Depending on your interest and career plans, your thesis can focus, for example, on scientific research, technical development or business innovations. Similarly, the thesis can be done at our university or with a partner organization such as a company or a municipality.

Student selection

The selection process is paper-based and competitive, and it can be complemented with interviews. Applications that pass the eligibility check of Aalto University Admissions Services proceed to the School's programme specific academic evaluation.

The following academic evaluation criteria applies to this master's programme:

•     Degree and institution of higher education
•     Relevancy of studies
•     Academic performance
•     Motivation letter 
•     Recommendations
•     Other relevant activities such as work experience, publications

Academic evaluation is split into two phases:

• In the first phase, the applicant’s degree that is used as grounds for the application and the related institution of higher education are evaluated. The applicant’s academic performance is evaluated, while any of the applicant’s other education that is attached to the application may also be evaluated. Criteria used to evaluate academic performance may include the time taken to complete the degree as well as the date of the degree’s completion.
• In the second phase, the acceptable applicants are ranked. This phase can also include interviews. A number of eligible applicants no greater than the allotted quota are admitted based on the academic evaluation. The most important criteria are the applicability of previous studies and academic performance in studies relevant to the study option. The aim is to admit only those applicants who have the required competence to begin studies without any supplementary studies.

The water and environmental engineering field is diverse, and we therefore welcome students with diverse backgrounds to our programme. Being an engineering master’s programme, we expect our students to be skilled in mathematics and physics. However, an engineering background is not a precondition to apply.