Student Guide
Studies at the School of Engineering for exchange students
At the School of Engineering, most of the courses offered in English are on Master level. However, Bachelor’s degree students on the final stage of their degree can take master level courses provided that they fulfill the prerequisite skills and knowledge required for the courses.
In some cases, there may be restrictions in participation for certain courses (e.g. the amount of students can be restricted or priority given to degree students).
Above you can find the list of courses offered in English at the School of Engineering during the academic years 2024-2026. Download the document and open in a spreadsheet programme to see all the information. The courses have been divided into separate tabs per programme.
The full course descriptions will be published in Sisu on 1 April 2024. The course schedules for the next academic year are updated in June. Thus, the learning agreement/study plan made when applying is preliminary. You may need to change it upon arrival due to overlaps in schedule or course changes/cancellations.
Instructions for selecting courses
Making your Learning Agreement / Study plan
You should choose at least 2/3 of the courses from one programme at the School of Engineering, to be admitted to this school for exchange. This is approximately 20 credits.
The remaining 1/3 of the courses (10 credits) can be selected from another programme at the School of Engineering, from the other three Aalto University engineering schools (School of Chemical Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and School of Science), from the Language Centre or from the interdisciplinary course offering.
- Courses in Real Estate Economics (course code REC-Exxxx) and Water and Environmental Engineering (course code WAT-Exxxx) are only available to exchange students in those programmes.
- Courses from School of Arts, Design and Architecture and School of Business cannot be selected, apart from the Aalto cross-school courses, University Wide Studies (UWS) and interdisciplinary courses.
- It’s important to plan for 30 credits when applying so that once you’re registering for the courses and make changes you will have enough credits (usually 25-30 credits). There is no upper limit to credits you can take, but 30 credits is considered full-time studying at Aalto and we do not recommend exceeding this due to course overlaps, workload and availability of spaces on courses.
- Please note that we cannot guarantee places on individual courses as they are subject to fulfilment of certain preconditions, availability, limitation to intake and timetabling factors. Therefore, you need to be prepared to adjust your Learning Agreement / Study plan when registering for courses.
Checking course details
Make sure that you have the prerequisite skills and knowledge required for the course. We will check your course choices preliminarily, but in the end you are responsible for checking the course prerequisites.
- How do I know if I have the background knowledge required if I haven't completed the prerequisite course(s) at Aalto?
-> Compare the prerequisite course details to the courses you have completed in your home university. - Periods I and II refer to teaching periods of the autumn term (September - December), and periods III and IV and V refer to the teaching periods of the spring term (January - June). Teaching periods include examinations during the last week of the period.
- Check carefully the language of instruction and the term when the course is offered (especially if you are applying for one term only).
- The extent of the courses is given in ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits. One credit corresponds to 27 hours of work, including lectures and other forms of instruction, exercises, seminars and independent work. The scope of a course varies between 1-15 credits depending on the content of the course.
Full workload is approximately 1600 hours per academic year which equals to 60 credits, which makes it 30 credits for one term. We expect incoming exchange students to study full time while at Aalto and to pass the courses with good grades.
A nominated student from a partner university is able to complete a master level final project during his/her exchange studies in case the resources of the department in question allow it. Placement is not guaranteed even though the exchange period would require a thesis work. Priority in thesis placements is given to the degree seeking students of the School of Engineering. Please, note that also Final project applicants need to respect the deadlines for incoming exchange students.
If you wish to complete a final project of 20 - 30 ECTS, you have to apply either for the full academic year or for the spring term. The autumn term in Aalto University is not long enough to complete a final project of this extent. Normally it takes approximately 6 months to complete this kind of final project. Students must always complete their project within the time allocated (i.e. during the time when their right to study is still valid), because an extension to the right to study will not be granted.
It is important to note, that you plan and organize your final project well in advance. Doing final project during your exchange is not possible without an academic supervisor from Aalto University.
At the time of applying to become an exchange student at the School of Engineering, you will already need to have agreed about a project with a supervisor at Aalto University. Applications without a professor contact and study plans with only a general title "Thesis or Project work" will be rejected.
Exchange students have to do their final projects in the university. It is not possible to do the final project in a company during the exchange period.
For your information about insurance: Laboratory work (applies also to the final project work) for exchange students is not covered in Aalto’s university insurance, it only covers degree students. So it is important that exchange students have their own insurance.
At Aalto University School of Engineering incoming exchange students can make final projects between 10 - 30 ECTS. Please, note that doing the final project at Aalto University doesn't mean getting a degree from Aalto University. The final project is demanding so prepare to work on it full time, especially if staying only for one term.
Topics are agreed personally with a professor in the field of interest, and you need to contact them yourself. We cannot guarantee final project placements, it depends solely on the professors if they have the possibility to accept you to do your final project in their research group.
The first step is to browse the School of Engineering's Departments website, under each one you will find the different research groups and their areas of specialization. Look for the members of the research group or see the Department's Contact information for professors' details.
The supervisor of the Final project can only be a professor (in addition there may be an adviser who has a Master's degree). When you contact the staff, please introduce yourself and your educational background and research interest. Only in case the supervisor is found and the topic has been agreed upon by the time of the deadline of the applications, the final project can take place.
Remember to make sure that your home university agrees on the topic and that you have a contact professor also at your home university. Due to the different educational systems and different final project requirements, the involvement of a professor from your home institution is important. This enables the professor at Aalto and the professor at your home institution to communicate during the process.
Aalto University School of Engineering has the right to reject the application if a student is applying for a Final project and he/she can not find a supervisor at Aalto and/or agree about the topic of the final project before the application deadline.
Even if you are applying to only do a Final project, please remember to follow the application process and deadlines for incoming exchange students.
The exchange students who do their final thesis and have been accepted for only one term should notice that the credits cannot be registered at Aalto University if the right to study has finished before the thesis work is ready. In this case the exchange period needs to be prolonged. It is the responsibility of the student to arrange this well before the new term starts.
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