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Master's Programme in Civil Engineering
Curriculum 2026–2028
About the programme
The Master's Programme in Civil Engineering deals with the design, construction, use, and maintenance of civil engineering structures, such as buildings and bridges. Since building technology plays a central role in creating safe and sustainable living spaces, working in the field gives you a real chance to help the society in solving environmental issues and shape the future for the better. Knowing how to build durable structures, utilise sustainable materials, improve energy efficiency, and reuse structures and materials to advance the circular economy – these are some of the essential competences today’s building technology experts need.
This programme educates future professionals and leaders who seamlessly merge science as well as environmentally responsible and human-centric design to help the transition towards a smarter built environment. As a young university, Aalto offers students a more modern and refreshing approach to building technology. The teaching in this programme is highly research-based – students get insights into ongoing research projects. Additionally, international research findings are quickly integrated into our teaching. Based on the individual selections within the study programme, the students can learn to
- Identify physical phenomena as well as use experimental, theoretical, and computational methods to examine and model them.
- Assess the structures and indoor environments with respect to their performance regarding the context-specific loads and physical phenomena.
- Use appropriate experimental methods to analyse mineral-based materials.
- Identify alternative management methods and apply them to planning and controlling both design and construction processes.
Design and construction of both safe and sustainable living environments is at the core of the Master's Programme in Civil Engineering. In this programme, students gain the essential knowledge and skills to solve environmental issues in construction and to shape tomorrow’s built environments. Students are encouraged to plan their study path primarily on the basis of their own interests and goals. However, to support the students, ready-made study paths that are designed to meet certain professional qualifications within building technology are also available. These paths include:
- Structural engineering. This specialisation consists of varying themes from concrete, steel, and timber structures to material modelling.
- Building performance. Students learn about topics like indoor environment and air quality as well as fire simulation.
- Construction management. In this path, the focus is on design process, operations, and strategic management in construction.
- Mineral-based materials. Students are introduced to concrete as a building material, different production technologies of concrete structures, and testing of concrete.
- Structural and computational mechanics and engineering. Students learn to develop and apply the fundamental tools of civil engineering: structural and material models of mechanics, numerical methods of engineering, and simulation software skills.
Total
120
ECTS
Major studies
60
ECTS
Master's thesis
30
ECTS
ECTS
- Elective studies can include an elective minor 20-25 ECTS
Sisu-instructions
Major studies 60 ECTS
Code: ENG33
Credits:60 ECTS
Responsible Professor: Athanasios Markou
Compulsory studies, 20 ECTS
| Code | Course name | ECTS | Teaching |
|---|---|---|---|
| CIV-E1020 | Mechanics of Beam and Frame Structures | 5 | II, first year, EN (FI) |
| CIV-E1050 | Heat and Mass Transfer in Buildings | 5 | I, first year, EN (FI) |
| CIV-E1030 | Fundamentals of Structural Design | 5 | I, first year, EN (FI) |
| CIV-E1060 | Engineering Computation and Simulation | 5 | II, first year, EN (FI) |
Optional studies, 40 ECTS
| Code | Course name | ECTS | Teaching |
|---|---|---|---|
| Select 40 credits from the courses below. You can freely combine courses from different topic groups as long as the prerequisites are followed. | |||
| Construction management | |||
| CIV-E2050 | Operations Management in Construction D | 5 | IV, first year, EN (FI) |
| CIV-E2070 | Strategic Management of Construction D | 5 | V, first year, EN |
| CIV-E2080 | Design Process Management D | 5 | II, second year, EN |
| Mineral-based Materials | |||
| CIV-E2020 | Concrete Technology D | 5 | III, first year, EN (FI) |
| CIV-E2060 | Production Technology of Concrete Structures D | 5 | IV, first year, EN |
| CIV-E2031 | Testing Methods of Concrete Structures D | 5 | V, first year, EN |
| Building Performance | |||
| CIV-E3050 | Fire Dynamics and Simulation D | 5 | III, first year, EN (FI) |
| CIV-E3030 | Indoor Air Quality D | 5 | IV, first year, EN |
| CIV-E3010 | Applied Building Physics and Design D | 5 | V, first year, EN |
| CIV-E3040 | Indoor Environment Technology D | 5 | I, second year, EN |
| CIV-E3060 | Fire Risk and Evacuation Analysis D | 5 | I, second year, EN |
| CIV-E3020 | Design of Energy Efficient Buildings D | 5 | II, second year, EN |
| Structural Engineering | |||
| CIV-E4040 | Reinforced Concrete Structures D | 5 | III, first year, EN |
| CIV-E4060 | Steel Structures D | 5 | V, first year, EN |
| CIV-E4110 | Timber Engineering D | 5 | IV, first year, EN |
| CIV-E4050 | Prestressed and Precast Concrete Structures D | 5 | I, second year, EN |
| CIV-E4120 | Timber Structures D | 5 | I, second year, EN |
| CIV-E4070 | Composite Steel Structures D | 5 | I, second year, EN |
| CIV-E4020 | Design of Bridges D | 5 | II, second year, EN |
| CIV-E4030 | Engineering Design Exercises D | 5 | II, second year, EN |
| CIV-E2040 | Maintenance and Repair of Structures D | 5 | II, second year, EN |
| Structural and computational mechanics and engineering | |||
| CIV-E4090 | Mechanics of Plate and Shell Structures D | 5 | III, first year, EN |
| CIV-E4050 | Finite Element Methods in Structural Engineering D | 5 | IV, first year, EN |
| CIV-E4100 | Stability of Structures D | 5 | IV, first year, EN |
| CIV-E4080 | Material Modelling in Civil Engineering D | 5 | V, first year, EN |
| CIV-E4140 | Dynamics of Structures D | 5 | II, EN |
| CIV-E4160 | Parametric Modelling for Structural and Architectural Engineering | 5 | III, EN |
| Other courses | |||
| CIV-E5000 | Special Assignment in Civil Engineering D | 5 | any, EN |
| CIV-E6010 | Sustainability and Circular Economy in Civil Engineering D | 5 | III, second year, EN |
Master’s thesis 30 ECTS
The master’s thesis is written on a topic related to the advanced studies of the programme, agreed upon by the student and the supervisor, who is specialised in the thesis topic. Professors from the programme provide master's thesis topics, which are connected to their current research activities. Alternatively, students can propose their own topics to their chosen supervisor. The recommended time for the thesis project is the second-year spring semester. Students are advised to start searching for a thesis topic well before this period.
At Aalto School of Engineering, the master’s thesis supervisor may be a Professor (any rank), Adjunct Professor, Professor of Practice, Senior University Lecturer, or Principal University Lecturer. The thesis advisor must hold at least a master’s degree.
The master's thesis includes a seminar presentation and a maturity test.
Detailed instructions for the master's thesis at the School of Engineering are available in the Master’s Thesis Guide on the MyCourses platform.
| Code | Course name | ECTS | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| CE.thes | Master's thesis | 30 | second year |
| ENG.matr | Maturity test | 0 | second year |
Elective studies 30 ECTS
For your free elective studies, you can study courses offered by Aalto University or by other universities as it is possible by Aalto internal and inter institutional agreements and procedures and course specific prerequisites.
Elective studies must be university level studies that fulfill the degree requirements and, in general, studies that are offered as degree studies at the university in question. Universities also offer courses that are targeted for a larger audience. The suitability of these studies is evaluated taking into consideration the learning outcomes of the degree that the courses are planned to be included in.
Alternatively, you can deepen your expertise by taking more of our advanced courses as elective studies or broaden your expertise by choosing courses from Aalto’s other programmes or from different universities.
Completing a minor is not compulsory in your programme. If you want to include a minor (20-25 ECTS) into your degree, please note that it needs to be an advanced level minor or one of the following minors: [to be updated: List of the new minors offered by language center, for example, “S2 – Finnish as a second language”.] Please see the list of all advanced level minors offered by Aalto University under Minors.
You can also include max 5 ECTS of practical training (ENG-E1010 Practical training) in your elective studies.You can find more information on practical training from MyCourses.
The choice for elective studies is yours: the most important thing is that your elective studies complement your major studies and provide you with expertise that you personally feel important and inspiring for your career.
Please note that some professional qualifications require that additional courses from major studies are included in the elective studies. Please see the Study paths for suggestions.
According to Government Decree on University Degrees (794/2004), student shall demonstrate proficiency in Finnish and Swedish language that is required of central government staff in bilingual public organisations under subsection 1 of section 6 of the Act on the Knowledge of Languages Required of Personnel in Public Bodies (424/2003) andt hat is necessary for their own field; and proficiency in at least one foreign language that enablesstudents to monitor progress in their own field and operate in an international setting.
Student's bachelor's degree completed in Finland
Compulsory language studies are included as part of the Finnish Bachelor’s degree.
Student's bachelor's degree not completed in Finland
Students are required to complete 3 ECTS in one foreign language, including both oral and written proficiency. Relevant courses (marked with ‘o’ and ‘w’) are offered by the Aalto University Language Center.
Students who already have excellent command of English (for example, English as their first language) may choose 3 ECTS of Finnish or Swedish (basic level) courses instead, hence not covering the requirement of oral/written proficiency but meeting the language requirement of the degree.
In cases where student have received their pre-university education in a language of Finnish or Swedish, the language requirements are following: the student must take 2 ECTS in the second national language and 3 ECTS in one foreign language, including both oral and written proficiency. In these cases contact Learning Services.
Language studies are included in students’ elective studies and are agreed in the personal study plan.
Please find more information about language courses and information about learning languages from the Language Centre of Aalto University.
Course substitutions
If you can't find course substitutions in Sisu, do contact your programme's staff (coordinator/planning officer).