Admission criteria for Software Engineering and Digital Transformation

Read more about the programme at Master's programme in Software Engineering and Digital Transformation.

• Bachelor of Science in Technology

  Completed in a University
  Tekniikan kandidaatti

• Bachelor of Engineering

  Completed in a University of Applied Sciences
  Insinööri (AMK)

• Bachelor of Business Administration, Business Information Technology

  Completed in a University of Applied Sciences
  Tradenomi (AMK), Tietojenkäsittely

• Bachelor's Degree in another field of study

  Completed in a University or in a University of Applied Sciences

Regarding all the degrees mentioned above

• Having completed a Master's Degree still makes you eligible to apply, but only when applying with your Bachelor's Degree.
  For example: diplomi-insinööri, maisteri, ylempi AMK-tutkinto
   
  • Exception 1:
    You are not eligible to apply, if having completed a degree diplomi-insinööri  in a degree programme on the same field of study compared to the programme you are applying to.
     
  • Exception 2:
    Degree diplomi-insinööri  is accepted for applying, if completed before 2008 when there was no separate Bachelor's Degree awarded.

The Admissions Committee for the programme always reserves a right to decide whether the degree and the completed studies provide the applicant with eligibility to apply to the programme.

• Bachelor of Science in Technology OR closely related to Technology
  Completed in a University - All countries

• Bachelor of Science in Business Informatics
  Completed in a University - All countries

• Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology
  Completed in a University - All countries

• Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering or in Computer Science or in Information Technology
  Completed in a University of Applied Sciences - All countries

• Bachelor of Business in Business Informatics or in Business Information Technology
  Completed in a University of Applied Sciences - All countries

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

  Having completed a Master's Degree still makes you eligible to apply but only when applying with the Bachelor's Degree.

  Exception to the rule: A combination of Bachelor's + Master's Degree with no separate Bachelor's Degree accepted for applying.

Overall 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
   

The Admissions Committee for the programme always reserves a right to decide whether the degree and the completed studies provide the applicant with eligibility to apply to the programme.

To be eligible to apply to the programme, you must have completed

• a minimum of 24 ECTS credits of programme-specific studies Software Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Business Informatics, Computer Science and Engineering, Business Systems and Analytics, Business Systems Design, Programming, Databases or Data Science

by the application deadline.

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

• a University, all countries
• a University of Applied Sciences, all countries

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

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.

You must list the programme-related studies on your application form in ECTS credits by each course under the related field of study and indicate the total ECTS credits for all the listed courses.

In case of your 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 conversion.

You must also indicate on your application form the total number of all the original study units for your Bachelor’s Degree that you have completed. If you have completed a combination of degrees that together correspond for a Bachelor's Degree you must indicate the total number of original study units for all these degrees.

How to get the conversion factor?

• Divide 180 ECTS credits (= the total credits for a LUT Bachelor’s Degree) by the total number of all the original study units (credits, credit hours etc.) you have completed for the Bachelor’s degree that you are applying with
• As a result you will get a factor for the following conversion.

How to convert your study units to ECTS credits?

• Multiply the original number of study unit (credits, credit hours etc.) for your courses with the factor explained above
• As a result you will have your courses in ECTS credits

Case example:

The total study units completed for your Bachelor’s Degree are 120 credits and you need to convert a course with 2 credits to ECTS credits.
Divide 180 ECTS credits by 120 credits >> the conversion factor is 1.5
Multiply 2 credits with the factor 1.5 >> your course is equal to 3 ECTS credits.

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

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 not 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 2024
• Provide us with the following documents by 31 August 2024 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 6 September 2024 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.

Before the academic evaluation begins, the admission committee checks the programme-specific requirements and the applicants meeting with the requirements will move forward to academic evaluation.

There is no interview included in the evaluation process as the final selection among the applicants is based on:

• Academic performance, work experience, motivation, publications etc.

The application will be evaluated according to the elements included in the evaluation and based on the application documents.

Only a limited number of applicants will be admitted.

Your application is given points as follows:

Field of study and relevance of the degree you must apply with
Max. 5 points

Arithmetic GPA for the degree you must apply with
Max. 5 points

The arithmetic GPA evaluated in the LUT selection process is

• an arithmetic average of all individual study records included in the degree and completed by the application deadline that have been graded on a numeric grading scale

Grade for the Final Thesis is included in the arithmetic GPA while fails are excluded.

Courses without a related study unit such as ECTS credit, credit, credit hour etc. are excluded from the arithmetic GPA even if the course having been graded on a numeric grading scale.

Courses completed outside the degree as well as courses included in the degree that have been credited or compensated are excluded from the arithmetic GPA unless the degree-awarding university having graded them on a numeric grading scale.

All the courses included in the arithmetic GPA must be listed on the official Transcript of Records for the degree you must be applying with.

The arithmetic GPA will be first checked and verified by LUT University and in case of the original grading scale not having been 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.

Work experience
Max. 5 points
Relevant work experience completed by the end of the application period will be evaluated.
Remember to indicate the duration for all the listed individual work experiences as well as the total duration for all the work experience listed.
Remember to upload Certificate/s of Employment to prove your work experience.

Publications and extracurricular activities related to the field of study
Max. 10 points
Remember to upload the related documentation to prove your publications and extracurricular activities.

Motivation
Max. 5 points
Explain why you wish to apply to this programme. Let the Admission Committee know through examples on how your strengths seen from the academic or other aspect are related to this programme and how graduating from this programme would support your career plans in the future. Feel free to list also other issues for your motivation towards studying in this programme.

The applicant must follow the practices of scientific writing: documents related to the application process such as Letter of Motivation must be written by the applicant. It must not present other people's ideas, information, words or other material without a sufficient reference. Artificial intelligence is not a source of scientific text. The applicant must ensure that the source entries are correct.

Previous studies by LUT Open University or by other LUT Pathway studies
Max. 5 points
A minimum of 18 ECTS credits of studies offered by the LUT Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree Programme in Software Engineering and completed through LUT Open University or other LUT pathway studies.
Only courses in Software Engineering with course numbers beginning with CT accepted.
The language of instruction for the courses must be either English or Finnish.