Admission criteria for Applied Physics

Read more about the programme at Master's programme in Applied Physics.

University

• Bachelor of Science in Technology 
  Tekniikan kandidaatti, laskennallinen tekniikka
• Bachelor of Science in a field other than Technology  
   

Applicants who have completed or are completing a Master's Degree in Computational Engineering (laskennallisen tekniikan diplomi-insinööri) before starting LUT studies are not eligible to apply.

Applying with a Master's degree in a field other than Computational Engineering is only accepted if it was completed before the two-tier degree, when no separate Bachelor's degrees were awarded. 

University of Applied Sciences

• Bachelor of Engineering 
  Insinööri (AMK)
• Bachelor's Degree in a field other than Engineering
   

Applicants having completed a Master's Degree (YAMK) are eligible to apply but only with the Bachelor's Degree (AMK). However, if you have completed or are completing a Master's Degree in Computational Engineering in a university (laskennallisen tekniikan diplomi-insinööri) before starting LUT studies, you are not eligible to apply.

Applicants having completed a Master's Degree (YAMK) with the prior degree completed on a secondary or higher secondary level are not eligible to apply.

University (all countries)

• Bachelor of Science in Technology or closely related to Technology
   

Applicants having completed a Master's Degree are eligible to apply but only with the Bachelor's Degree.  If you have completed or are completing a Master's Degree in Computational Engineering in a university in Finland (laskennallisen tekniikan diplomi-insinööri) before starting LUT studies, you are not eligible to apply.

You can only apply with a Master's degree if you have a higher university degree that does not include a lower university degree (no separate Bachelor's degree awarded). 

Applying with a combination of a 2-year Bachelor's + 2-year Master's Degree completed in certain countries is accepted when the combination of these two degrees is equivalent only to a Finnish Bachelor's Degree. 

University of Applied Sciences (EU/EEA countries and Switzerland) 

• Bachelor of Engineering   
   

Applicants having completed a Master's Degree at a university of applied sciences are eligible to apply but only when applying with the Bachelor's Degree. However, if you have completed or are completing a Master's Degree in Computational Engineering in a university in Finland (laskennallisen tekniikan diplomi-insinööri) before starting LUT studies, you are not eligible to apply.

Applicants with a Master's Degree whose prior degree was completed on a secondary or higher secondary level are not eligible to apply. 
 

Requirements for the Bachelor's Degree

• The degree must be equivalent to a corresponding Finnish Bachelor's Degree regarding the number of academic years and ECTS credits.
• The degree must provide eligibility for applying to university level Master's studies in the country where the degree was awarded in.
   

Requirements for the degree-awarding university

• The university must be recognized by the national education system in the country in question.
• The university must be listed on the World Higher Education Database WHED by International Association of Universities.

To be eligible to apply, you must have completed following studies by the application deadline

• a minimum of 40 ECTS credits of studies supportive to Applied Physics; Classical Physics, Modern Physics, Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics, Mathematics
  • the required number of 40 ECTS credits must include at least 30 ECTS credits in Physics.

If you have not listed the required studies on your application form as requested, your application is incomplete and will not be forwarded for academic evaluation.

These studies must be completed in one or two of the following university groups:

• a University, all countries
• a University of Applied Sciences, EU/EEA countries and Switzerland

The programme Admissions Committee reserves the right to decide whether the studies completed qualify the applicant to apply to the programme.

Requirements for the programme-related studies
What to do if there are no credits available for the completed courses?

To be eligible to apply to the programme, the arithmetic GPA for the degree you have to apply with must be

• a minimum of 3.00 on the scale of 1.00 - 5.00.

First, LUT University checks and verifies the arithmetic GPA. If the original grading scale is not on a scale of 1.00 - 5.00, LUT University will convert the arithmetic GPA to this scale during the evaluation process. Finally, the arithmetic GPA is evaluated with two decimals.

The arithmetic GPA evaluated in the LUT selection process is

• an arithmetic average of grades for all individual courses and the grade of the Final Thesis included in the degree you must apply with
  • that are completed at the time of applying
  • that have been evaluated on a numerical, verbal or letter-based grading scale
  • that are listed on the official Transcript of Records

What is excluded from the arithmetic GPA?

• Courses evaluated with "pass" or "fail"
• Courses evaluated with a grade corresponding to a fail grade
• Large modules, unless the individual courses in the module are not evaluated separately.
• Courses without a related study unit such as ECTS credit, credit, credit hour etc. 
• Courses completed outside the degree
• Courses completed outside the degree that have been credited or compensated, unless the degree-awarding university having graded them on a numerical, verbal or letter-based grading scale.

You must prove your proficiency in English with one of the following:

• one of the accepted language tests
• a higher education degree completed in English from an EU/EEA country or from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom, or the United States of America
• a higher education degree completed in Finnish or in Swedish in Finland

More information: How to prove your proficiency in English

Before starting your application process, have a look at the basics on applying at

• Applying to Master's Programmes through Regular Admission
  
  >> Application process

where all the important information regarding to applying in general is given.

Filling in your application form

In your application form, you must indicate the cumulative number of original study units completed for your Bachelor's degree.

If you are applying with an unfinished Bachelor's degree, you must indicate the cumulative number of original study units that you need to complete in order to graduate. 

If you have completed a combination of degrees that together correspond to a Bachelor's Degree, you must indicate the cumulative number of original study units for all these degrees.

Requirements for the Transcript of Records

The Transcript of Records for your Bachelor's degree must include the cumulative number of original study units (credits, credit hours, etc.).

If the cumulative number of original study units is not indicated, you need to upload to your application form one of the following documents in English:

• an official statement from the university indicating the cumulative number of original study units, or
• an official programme brochure indicating the cumulative number of original study units.

In your application form, you must list the programme-related studies in ECTS credits for each course under the related field of study and indicate the total number of ECTS credits for all the courses listed.

Studies not originally in ECTS credits >> Conversion needed

If the courses are not originally listed in ECTS credits on your Transcript of Records, you are responsible for converting the original study units (credits, credit hours, etc.) into ECTS credits according to the following conversions.

What elements are required for the ECTS conversion?

For the conversion, the transcript must include the following:

• Original study units for each course (credits, credit hours, etc.)
• Original cumulative study units for the degree (credits, credit hours, etc.)

What to do if the required elements are missing?

If one or both of these requirements are missing from your transcript, you need to upload to your application form one of the following documents in English:

• an official statement from the university indicating the cumulative number of original study units, or
• an official programme brochure indicating the cumulative number of original study units.

What to do if there are no credits available for the completed courses?

Conversion factors for ECTS credits

Studies on a Bachelor's level

1. Divide 180 ECTS credits (=cumulative ECTS credits for a LUT Bachelor’s degree) by the cumulative number of original study units (credits, credit hours, etc.) you have completed for the Bachelor’s degree that you are applying with.
2. As a result, you will get a factor to convert your Bachelor's studies.
3. Multiply the original number of study units for the courses listed by this factor.
4. Now you have the result in ECTS credits. Do not round up the result for the converted ECTS credits. If the result is 2.25367 ECTS credits, you must list the course with exactly same number of ECTS credits.

Studies on a Master's level

1. Multiply the original number of study units for the courses listed by 1.5, which is a fixed factor for Master's studies.
2. Now you have the result in ECTS credits. Do not round up the result for the converted ECTS credits. If the result is 2.25 ECTS credits, you must list the course with exactly same number of ECTS credits.

Case examples

Bachelor's studies

The total study units completed for your Bachelor's degree is 160 credit hours and you need to convert a course with 2 credit hours to ECTS credits.

• Divide 180 by 160 credit hours = the conversion factor is 1.125
• Multiply 2 credit hours by 1.125 = 2.25 ECTS credits

Master's studies

You have completed 60 credits of Master's level studies and you need to convert a course with 3 credits to ECTS credits.

• Multiply 3 credits by 1.5 = 4.5 ECTS credits

You have completed 95 credits of Master's level studies and you need to convert a course with 2 credits to ECTS credits.

• Multiply 2 credits by 1.5 = 3 ECTS credits

Bachelor's Degree is a combination of several degrees

Example 1: 2-year Bachelor's degree + 2-year Master's degree = Bachelor's degree (16 years of education).

You have completed 

• a 2-year Bachelor's degree of 90 credits and 
• a 2-year Master's degree of 80 credits. 

Together they correspond to a Bachelor's degree of 170 credits in total. The conversion factor is therefore the same as for the Bachelor's studies.

You need to convert a course with 3 credits to ECTS credits.

1. Divide 180 by 170 credits = the conversion factor is 1.05882353 
2. Multiply 3 credits by 1.05882353 = 3.17647059 ECTS credits

Example 2: National Degree + Higher National Degree + top-up degree = Bachelor's degree

You have completed 

• a 2-year National Degree of 85 credit hours and
• a 1-year top-up for a Higher National Degree of 50 credit hours and
• a 1-year top-up for a Bachelor's degree of 30 credit hours.

Together they correspond to a Bachelor's degree of 165 credit hours in total. The conversion factor is therefore the same as for the Bachelor's studies.

You need to convert a course with 2 credit hours to ECTS credits.

1. Divide 180 by 165 credit hours = the conversion factor is 1.09090909 
2. Multiple 2 credit hours by 1.09090909 = 2.18181818 ECTS credits

You must upload the scans for the originals, and official translations when documents are not in English, Finnish or Swedish.

Step 1. Arrange all the individual pages of the document in the correct order so that the scan corresponds to the original. Make sure that each scan is clearly readable.

Step 2. When your document has several pages, combine them all into one document, e.g. multiple pages of your transcript(s) and/or a Bachelor's degree being a combination of several degrees.

Step 3. Name your document according to its content, e.g. Transcript of Records - Bachelor, etc.

Step 4. Upload your document to the correct place on the application form.

Educational documents

Degree Certificate for the Bachelor's Degree

Transcript of Records for the Bachelor's Degree including the following:

• Original study units for each course
• Original cumulative study units for the degree
• Grades for each course

If one or more of these required elements are missing, you must upload an official additional statement from the university, indicating the missing elements. The original study units for each course and the cumulative ones for the degree can also be provided by uploading the official programme brochure if these elements are indicated in it. These additional documents must be combined into one document and uploaded to the same section with the Transcript of Records.

Additional educational documents

• When proving your proficiency in English with another degree apart from the one you are applying with.
• When having completed programme-specifically required university-level studies not in the degree you are applying with.

What to do if there are no credits available for the completed courses?
 

Proficiency in English language

Language test result or a screenshot from your test account when applicable

• The result is always electronically verified from the test database.
   

Other documents relevant to the evaluation

• Letter of Motivation (max. 500 words) and CV
• Post-Bachelor's studies at Master's level relevant to the programme when applicable
  • Requirements for the transcript of records apply to this document, see the section "Educational Documents".
• Other programme-related studies in the field of technology, information technology and science when applicable
  • Requirements for the transcript of records apply to this document, see the section "Educational Documents".
• Participation in research projects when applicable
• Other academic activity during studies when applicable
• Letters of Recommendation when applicable
• Certificates of Employment when applicable
  • Only the work experience mentioned in a CV will not be evaluated.
     

Identification / (Residence permit)

ID page of an international passport or an official ID card with nationality

Finnish Residence Permit Card if having one

• Upload a scan for the card both front and back.

What is an unfinished Bachelor's Degree?

• You have not yet graduated = you have not been awarded your Degree Certificate or the Provisional Degree Certificate

Having completed all your studies does not mean that you have graduated unless having been awarded the Degree Certificate or the Provisional Degree Certificate.

If not being able to upload your Degree Certificate or the Provisional Degree Certificate by the supplementary deadline, you must identify your status on the application form as "not yet graduated".

When applying

• Indicate the estimated date of graduation on your application form.
  • No official statement from the awarding university is required for the date.
• Upload your latest Transcript of Records to your application form
  • plus the official translation (when required)
  • Transcript of Records must include the name of the degree to be awarded.
    • If not included, you must upload to your application form an additional statement of the name of the degree from the awarding university.

If admitted

You must be able to

• Graduate by 31 August 2025
• Provide us with the following documents by 31 August 2025 at 15:00 (UTC+3)
  • Scan for your original Degree Certificate
  • Scan for your original Transcript of Records
• Provide us with the following documents by 5 September 2025 at 15:00 (UTC+3)
  • Scans for the official translations in English of both documents (when applicable)
  • Official translations required, if the original documents are not in English, Finnish or Swedish.

The documents must be provided according to the instructions given, no matter in which country the degree was awarded.

If you are not able meet both requirements by the given deadlines, your right to study in the programme will be automatically cancelled and you will lose your place without a possibility to claim it back.

In the Letter of Motivation (maximum 500 words), the applicant justifies his/her application for the Master's programme, demonstrates his/her knowledge of the subject, compares the subject with his/her strengths and explains how the degree supports his/her career plans. The applicant may also present other reasons for applying.

Applicants must follow scientific writing practices: documents related to the application process, such as the motivation letter, must be written by the applicant. It must not include ideas, data, words or other material from others without adequate citation. The text is not a source of scientific text. The applicant must ensure that the references are correct.

Work experience relevant to the programme and the field will be considered in the selection process. Employment valid until further notice will be considered until the application deadline. 

Calculating work experience

When calculating work experience, part-time work is taken into account by a coefficient corresponding to the part-time nature of the work (e.g. 80% part-time work = 0.8 x duration of employment). 

For each listed work experience, you must indicate separately whether it is full-time or part-time and indicate the percentage of part-time work as a percentage of full-time work (100%).

In your application form, you must indicate the duration of each work experience and the total duration.

Certificate of Employment

Applicants must include their certificates of employment to the work experience they have listed. The certificates must indicate whether the job was full-time or part-time and the percentage of part-time compared to full-time (100%).

Certificate of employment is an official document from your employer specifying

• the starting date of your employment,
• the date of termination of your employment, or an indication if employment is continuing,
• the nature of your work, e.g. job description, duties, and responsibilities.

It must also include the name and contact details of the employer and be signed or electronically authenticated by the employer.

An employment contract or pay slip is not valid.

The programme Admissions Committee reserves the right to decide whether the degree and studies completed qualify the applicant to apply to the programme.

The Admissions Committee checks the academic eligibility regarding to the previous programme-related studies and the minimum arithmetic GPA for the degree you must apply with. The applicants who meet the requirements and have submitted a completed application will proceed to the academic evaluation.

The final selection of applicants is based on their educational background, motivation, work experience, study potential, and a possible interview. The evaluation will be based on the information provided on the application form and the required application documents.

• The majority of applicants are admitted to the programme based on their points in the different evaluation elements. The maximum score for students admitted in this group is 30.00 points.
• In addition to the first group of admitted students, a certain number of applicants close to the minimum points for getting admitted may be invited to an interview. In a possible interview, the Admissions Committee wishes to examine in more details the information provided on the application form related to the evaluation elements of the programme. The maximum score for students admitted in this group is 35.00 points.

Only a limited number of applicants will be admitted.

Academic success, max. 5 points

Arithmetic GPA for the degree you must apply with is scored as follows:

• 3.00 - 3.50 = 1 point
• 3.51 - 4.00 = 3 points
• 4.01 - 5.00 = 5 points

For further information, please see Arithmetic GPA evaluated in the process under Admission Criteria.

Previous relevant studies, max. 5 points

• 50 - 60 ECTS credits = 1 point
• 61 - 70 ECTS credits = 3 points
• 71 ECTS credits or more = 5 points

For further information, please see Previous programme-related studies under Admission Criteria.

Other suitability, max. 10 points

• Post-Bachelor's degree studies at Master's level relevant to the programme, for example in Electrical Engineering and other fields of Natural Sciences can be included as well, max. 2 points
• Other programme-related studies in the field of technology, information technology and science, max. 2 points
• Relevance of the applicant's background and experience to the LUT University and department's strategy and research areas, max. 3 points
• Participation in research projects, max. 2 points
• Other academic activity during studies, max. 1 point

Applicant's motivation and study potential is evaluated based on the Letter of Motivation, CV, work experience, letters of recommendation, and a possible interview.

• Letter of Motivation (max. 500 words) and CV, max. 6 points
• Work experience, max. 2 points
  • 6 - 12 months = 1 point
  • 12 months or more = 2 points
• Letters of Recommendation, max. 2 points
• (Possible interview, max. 5 points)