Frequently Asked Questions

• Copy of Diploma Certificate & transcript of records
• Curriculum Vitae
• Passport copy or identity card
• Declaration of consent
• Motivational Letter
• Portfolio

It is recommended that you provide 2 reference letters, but it is not mandatory. They should not be older than 5 years.

They can be addressed to MAS UTD Programme Coordination.

The portfolio should include a selection of projects that you were involved in during your studies and (where applicable) professional work. It should describe briefly each project in image/drawing/text and specify what your role was specifically (if it was an individual/group school project, your thesis project, a professional project in a collective where you had done one aspect or part etc.). The portfolio helps to evaluate design work but can also include urban research projects or participative projects/initiatives or similar.

The portfolio can be either portrait or landscape. There is no specific limitation; it is, however, important to state precisely what kind of project it is and what role you played in the project when working in a team. Keep the content to the projects you believe are most relevant for this programme.

This year we are not offering the scholarship. We advise students to look for scholarships from their own countries often. For Switzerland, please contact the scholarship office to enquire if any specific scholarships in ETH and further afield may apply: https://ethz.ch/students/en/studies/financial/scholarships.html

The housing/accommodation office at each school collects all the offers open to students and assists with answering any questions during your accommodation search. You can have a look here at the ETH service however most opportunities only become available once you are enrolled as a student: https://www.wohnen.ethz.ch/en.

It is expected that students live in Lausanne for the fall semester and Zurich for the spring semester. Commuting is possible, but has proven to have a negative impact on student performance so we are advising against this as we think the commute is too long to be easily balanced with the workload. In practice, most of the students sublet for half a year in each locale, as in Switzerland stays under 1 year count as short term.

A C1 language certificate is highly recommended, it is proof beyond doubt that you can follow the courses at a high English level and is therefore important to have. However you are not asked to upload proof of this level in the application.

The MAS UTD is two semesters worth 30 ECTS each, the Autumn Semester is always in Lausanne at the EPFL, the Spring Semester always in Zurich at ETH.

Each semester is organised around the Core Design and Research Studio, which is worth around half of the credits. These studio credits include inputs on integrated skills – such as representation techniques, fieldwork, GIS, photography and film. In addition to the Studios, there are two other learning formats: Interdisciplinary Courses and Sessions (smaller entities with1-3 credits each, making up the other half of the credits per semester). Courses include City and Mobility, Building Design in the Circular Economy, Urban Hydrology, Urban Ecology, or Landscape and Imagination (maximum 3 courses per semester). Sessions include Urban Theory, Critical Writing, Sessions on Territory, Histories of Environments, or Systemic Thinking in the Age of Transition (maximum 3 courses per semester).

Our semesters are conceived at 18 instead of 15 weeks, allowing for 3 weeks of post-production worth 2 credits per semester. This is dedicated to the presentation of the studio results (both research and design) and is meant to impart an extra skill set that will make you more competent to present work and understand also how investigative (research based) design-design can be showcased.

The Final Thesis is the Studio project, which also has the written component of a 3000-word essaying the second semester.

We are offering a sharpening of urban and territorial design skills aimed at future interdisciplinary work including collaboration with natural scientists such as ecologists or hydrologists but also positions with governmental and non-governmental political and societal actors and agencies. During the MAS you will be exposed to people from these fields who will give input to your design work but also discuss their work and the potential collaborative overlaps and ways of working together. You will learn how to deal with the complexity of designing at these beyond-the-city scales, ie region and territory. In particular, we address the contemporary challenges of ongoing climate change and achieving a CO2 neutral future, repairing and regenerating landscapes and the role of cities within that future, with the idea that our own design and planning profession will have to adapt its modus operandi in order to offer relevant expertise in a future planning environment.

This means either that you will still be able to work as a planner, architect, urban designer or landscape designer, but have a wider scope and skill set and can to easily navigate interdisciplinary fields, or that you can shift from being an active practitioner to doing consulting work within government and NGO entities that value an interdisciplinary design view. In addition, the MAS can prepare you for further academic research such as a PhD, by introducing you to design/ research links within the broad field of urban studies.

As a Post-grad (post-Masters) programme, we normally require a previous Master Degree, however we also consider candidates sur dossier especially if they have practice experience (but only have a Bachelor Degree) or have certain other experience/engagements in exhibitions/research/urban activism or within fields relating to urban and territorial design.

A 5-year bachelor’s degree is mostly recognised as a Master equivalent.