Admission criteria for Sustainability Science and Solutions

Read more about the programme at Master's programme in Sustainability Science and Solutions.

• Bachelor of Science in Technology Tekniikan kandidaatti
  Completed in a University
• Bachelor's Degree in a field other than Technology  
  Completed in a University 

Applicants who have completed or are completing a Master's Degree in Environmental Technology (ympäristötekniikan diplomi-insinööri) before starting the LUT studies are not eligible to apply. 

Applicants who have completed a Master's Degree in a University in a field other than Environmental Technology are eligible to apply but only when applying with the Bachelor's Degree. 

Applying with a Master's Degree in a field other than Environmental Technology completed in a University is accepted only if the Master's Degree having been completed before the two-tier degree system when there were no separate Bachelor's Degrees awarded. 

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

Applicants who have completed or are completing a Master's Degree in Environmental Technology in a university (ympäristötekniikan diplomi-insinööri) before starting the LUT studies are not eligible to apply. 

Applicants who have completed a Master's Degree in a University of Applied Sciences are eligible to apply but only when applying with the Bachelor's Degree. 

Applicants who have completed a Master's Degree in a University of Applied Sciences with no prior Bachelor's Degree while the prior degree having been completed on a higher secondary or secondary level are not eligible to apply. 

• Bachelor of Science in Technology 
  Completed in a University - All countries
   
• Bachelor of Science in Natural Sciences 
  Completed in a University - All countries

Applicants who have completed a Master's Degree in a University are eligible to apply but only when applying with the Bachelor's Degree. 

Applying with a Master's Degree completed in a University is accepted only if the Master's Degree having been completed before the two-tier degree system when there were no separate Bachelor's Degrees awarded. 

Applicants who have completed or are completing a Master's Degree in Environmental Technology in a university in Finland (ympäristötekniikan diplomi-insinööri) before starting the LUT studies are not eligible to apply. 

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. 

• Bachelor of Engineering 
  Completed in a University of Applied Sciences - EU/EEA countries and Switzerland  

Applicants who have completed a Master's Degree in a University of Applied Sciences are eligible to apply but only when applying with the Bachelor's Degree. 

Applicants who have completed or are completing a Master's Degree in Environmental Technology in a university in Finland (ympäristötekniikan diplomi-insinööri) before starting the LUT studies are not eligible to apply. 

Applicants who have completed a Master's Degree in a University of Applied Sciences with no Bachelor's Degree while the prior degree to the Master's having been completed on a higher secondary or secondary level are not eligible to apply. 

Requirements for the Bachelor's Degree

• An equivalent degree to a corresponding Finnish Bachelor's Degree by the number of academic years and ECTS credits.
• Degree providing you with eligibility to apply to university level Master's studies in the country where the degree was awarded in.

Requirements for the degree-awarding university

The university having awarded you the degree you are applying with must be

• An official and recognized part of the national education system
• Listed on the World Higher Education Database WHED by International Association of Universities

There is no minimum number of ECTS credits for programme-related courses required. 

In the academic evaluation, higher points will however, be given to a certain listed degrees with a specialisation on sustainability or environmental issues.

The arithmetic GPA will be first checked and verified by LUT University. In case the original grading scale not being on a scale of 1.00 - 5.00, the arithmetic GPA will be converted by LUT University on this scale during the evaluation process. Finally, the arithmetic GPA with two decimals will be evaluated.

The grading scale must include at least two different grades for passing that together form a clear range of passing grades so that an arithmetic GPA can be calculated.

If the completed courses having been evaluated by using verbal or letter-based grades, these grades will be converted on a numerical scale of 1.00-5.00 by using linear conversion.

The arithmetic GPA evaluated in the LUT selection process is

• an arithmetic average of grades for all the individual courses and for the grade for the Final Thesis included in the degree you have to apply with 
  • that have been completed at the time of applying
  • that are listed on an 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 failed grade
• Courses without a related study unit such as ECTS credit, credit, credit hour etc. 
• Combined modules including only a single grade for all the courses included in the module unless the individual courses having been evaluated separately
• Courses not included in the degree you have to apply with
• Courses not included in the degree you have to apply with that have been credited or compensated unless the degree-awarding university having evaluated them on a numerical, verbal or on a letter-based grading scale

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

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

When filling in your application form

While filling in your application form, you must indicate the cumulative number of original study units completed for the Bachelor's Degree you are applying with. 

If applying with an unfinished Bachelor's Degree, you must indicate the cumulative number of original study units expected to be completed for being able to graduate. 

If having 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 the related degrees.

Requirements for the Transcript of Records 

The Transcript of Records for the Bachelor's Degree you are applying with must include the cumulative number of original study units (credits, credit hours etc.).

If the cumulative original study units not included on the Transcript of Records, an official statement on them issued in English by the related university must be uploaded. You may also upload an official brochure for the programme issued by the university instead of the official statement if the cumulative original study units indicated in the brochure. 

If applying to Sustainability Science and Solutions with a degree in Natural Sciences, the ECTS credits for studies in Mathematics/Physics have an impact on the evaluation and you must therefore, list them in ECTS credits by each course under the related field of study and indicate the total ECTS credits for all the listed courses.

Studies not originally in ECTS credits >> Conversion needed 

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

What elements are required for ECTS conversions?

To be able to make the necessary conversions for ECTS credits, the following elements must be included on your Transcript/s of Records: 

• 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 either one or both of these required elements are missing on your Transcript of Records, you must upload an additional, official statement in English provided by the related university, indicating the missing elements. 

You may also upload an official brochure for the programme issued by the university instead of the official statement if the missing elements are indicated in the brochure.  

Conversion factors for ECTS credits

Studies on Bachelor's level 

• Divide 180 (=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 you are applying with
• As a result you will get the conversion factor for Bachelor's studies
• Multiply the original number of study units for the listed courses by this factor
• As a result you will get the result in ECTS credits

Studies on Master's level

• Multiply the original number of study units for the listed courses by 1.5
  • 1.5 = a fixed factor for Master's studies
• As a result you will get 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 2.25367 ECTS credits. 

Examples: How to correctly convert and list the required studies in ECTS credits

Case examples

Bachelor's studies 

Example: 

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

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

Master's studies

Example:

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

Example: 

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: 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 (90 credits) and 
• a 2-year Master's Degree (80 credits) 

that together are equivalent to a Bachelor's Degree (170 credits in total) and you need to convert a course with 3 credits to ECTS credits.

Since the combination of both the degrees is equivalent to a Bachelor's Degree, the conversion factor follows the factor for Bachelor's studies.

• Divide 180 by 170 >> the conversion factor is 1.05882353 
• Multiply 3 credit hours by 1.05882353 = 3.17647059 ECTS credits

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

You have completed 

• a 2-year National Degree (85 credit hours) and
• a 1-year top up for a Higher Nationial Degree (50 credit hours) and 
• a 1-year top up for a Bachelor's Degree (30 credit hours) 

that together are equivalent to a Bachelor's Degree (165 credit hours in total) and you need to convert a course with 2 credits to ECTS credits.

Since the combination of all these degrees is equivalent to a Bachelor's Degree, the conversion factor follows the factor for Bachelor's studies.

• Divide 180 by 165 >> the conversion factor is 1.09090909 
• Multiply 2 credit hours by 1.09090909 = 2.18181818 ECTS credits

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 for the date required from the home university
• Upload your latest Transcript of Records to your Online Application Form
  • plus the official translation (when required)
  • The Transcript of Records must include the name of the degree to be awarded.
    • If not included, an additional statement issued by the awarding university about the name of the degree must be uploaded to your Online Application Form.

If admitted

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 for both the documents (when applicable)
  • Official translations required, if the original documents are not issued in English, Finnish or Swedish.

The documents must be provided according to the given instructions despite of the country the degree was awarded in.

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

Only complete applications will be forwarded for academic evaluation done by the Admissions Committee for the programme. 

The Admissions Committee first checks the academic eligibility regarding to previous programme-related studies and minimum arithmetic GPA for the degree the applicant must apply with. The Committee reserves a right to decide whether the degree and the studies completed by the applicant qualify him/her to apply to the programme.

If the application meets with the academic minimum requirements it will be forwarded to academic evaluation which is completed in two different stages.

Stage 1: Educational background

The applicant's educational background will be evaluated according to the elements included in the evaluation and based on the application documents.

Stage 2: Interview

A limited number of applicants will be invited to an interview and the final selection will be completed among the interviewed applicants based on

• Total points for stages 1 and 2

Only a limited number of applicants will be admitted. 

Previous studies, max. 10 points
 

• 10 points
  Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Technology or Engineering
  Emphasis on sustainability or environmental issues.
  Degrees completed in a university - All countries.
  Degrees completed in a University of Applied Sciences - EU/EEA countries and Switzerland.
  Holders of a Finnish degree diplomi-insinööri, ympäristötekniikka not eligible to apply.
   
• 8 points
  Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Natural Sciences
  Emphasis on sustainability or environmental issues.
  Including a minimum of 35 ECTS credits of studies in Mathematics and/or Physics.
  Requirements for the programme-related studies
  Degrees completed in a university - All countries.
   
• 6 points
  Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Technology or Engineering
  Degrees completed in a university - All countries.
  Degrees completed in a University of Applied Sciences - EU/EEA countries and Switzerland.
  Holders of a Finnish degree diplomi-insinööri, ympäristötekniikka not eligible to apply.
   
• 4 points
  Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Natural Sciences
  Including a minimum of 20 but less than 35 ECTS credits of studies in Mathematics and/or Physics.
  Requirements for the programme-related studies
  Degrees completed in a university - All countries.

Even if having completed a Master's Degree, you must apply with your Bachelor's Degree.

In this case, if your Master's Degree is the one with the programme-related emphasis, you must also upload the educational documents for that Master's Degree to prove of having completed those studies.

Academic Success, max. 5 points

Arithmetic GPA for the degree you must apply with:

• 2.50 - 3.49 = 1 point
• 3.50 - 4.49 = 3 points
• 4.50 - 5.00 = 5 points

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

On the second stage of the admissions process, a limited number of applicants are invited to an interview in the order of the highest total points on stage 1.

The following elements will be evaluated:

• Motivation
• Suitability for the programme
• Possibilities for successfully completing your studies in two years
• Language skills in English regarding fluent communication and professional terminology

To possibly get admitted, you must get a minimum of 7/10 points for the interview.