Prerequisites for Environmental Engineering

Academic requirements for this programme

Applicants for admission to the Master of Science in Environmental Engineering should hold a bachelors degree in engineering in Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, BSc Engineering or other areas related to environmental science and technology. This includes a strong background in natural sciences (mathematics, chemistry, physics) as well as skills in the field of environmental engineering, such as hydrology, microbiology, earth science, environmental management and environmental processes.

National Applicants (holding a Bachelor from Denmark)

Students from DTU

The following BSc Eng programmes at DTU give students legal right of admission to the MSc Eng in Environmental Engineering:

• Environmental Engineering

The following BSc Eng programmes at DTU give students access to admission to the MSc Eng in Environmental Engineering:

• Chemistry and Technology
• General Engineering, Living Systems
• Biotechnology
• Civil Engineering
• Human Life Science Engineering
• Life Science
• Earth and Space Physics and Engineering
• Design and Innovation
• Software Technology
• Data Science and Management (former Strategic Analysis and Systems Design)
• Mathematics and Technology

It is recommended that the BSc Eng electives are used to acquire the necessary prerequisites in the planned area of specialization. Options for MSc specialization will be limited by the prerequisites obtained in the BSc studies.

Students from other BSc Eng programmes at DTU have access to be admitted provided their BSc Eng study contains 20 ECTS Mathematics, 10 ECTS in Chemistry and 10 ECTS in Physics (or similar) and completed 20 ECTS out of the following courses:

The following Bachelor of Engineering programmes at DTU have access to be admitted to the MSc Eng programme in Environmental Engineering: 

• Civil Engineering
• Arctic Civil Engineering
• Chemical and Bio Engineering

provided they have completed the following courses or similar:

Students from other Danish Universities

The following BSc Eng programmes have access to be admitted to the MSc in Environmental Engineering: 

• University of Southern Denmark: Chemistry and Biotechnology
• Aalborg University: Chemistry and Biotechnology
• Aalborg University: Environmental Science
• Aalborg University: Biotechnology
• University of Copenhagen: Chemistry with specialization in Environmental Chemistry
• University of Aarhus: Geoscience
• University of Aarhus: Biotechnology
• University of Aarhus: Chemical Engineering

The following BSc and BSc Eng programmes from other Danish universities have access to be admitted to the MSc in Environmental Engineering provided the students have completed course 01035/01037 Mathematics 2 or similar unless the applicant already has passed 20 ECTS mathematics in the previous education:

• University of Aarhus: Physics
• University of Copenhagen: Physics
• University of Aarhus: Chemistry
• University of Copenhagen: Chemistry
• University of Copenhagen: Biology-Biotechnology
• Universitz of Copenhagen: Natural Resources with specialisation in Environmental Science
• University of Aarhus: Agrobiology
• University of Aalborg, campus Copenhagen: Sustainable Biotechnology
• University of Aalborg: Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

Students that lacked courses on redox processes, reactor kinetics, chemical reaction kinetics and process kinetics in their studies are advised to chose course 12111 Environmental Processes early in their MSc studies because it is a pre-condition for many courses. 

International Applicants (holding a Bachelor from outside Denmark)

Applicants for admission to the Master of Science in Environmental Engineering should hold a bachelors degree in engineering in Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, BSc General Engineering or similar relevant areas. 

Students must hold a BSc with the competences (university level): 

• Mathematics      20 ECTS points
• Chemistry          10 ECTS points
• Physics              10 ECTS points
• Additional courses in computing, mathematics, statistics, physics, chemistry or biology so that the total amount of courses in the natural sciences amounts to 45 ECTS points. 

In addition, the applicant must either A) demonstrate strong skills in the field of environmental engineering equal to 45 ECTS (university level), for example environmental processes, environmental microbiology, resource engineering, hydraulics & hydrology, geochemistry, environmental chemistry, quantitative environmental management, water engineering, or B) in other ways demonstrate strong ability and potential to thrive in MSc Environmental Engineering studies.

Relevant skills are found in courses such as:

It is strongly recommended that international students take course 12111 Environmental Processes in their first semester, unless they had a similar course in their previous studies. 

Note also that some of the technological specialization courses in the MSc Eng programme have one or more of the bachelor level subjects listed above as prerequisites. The description of the MSc level courses may be used to assess the expected level of knowledge.

Applicants already holding a MSc degree are asked to provide a justification for applying for a second MSc degree, since DTU only can admit a limited number of students for this program. Admission will be decided on the basis of the overall relevance and quality of the applicant's educational background and work experience. 

General admission requirements

Only applicants holding a relevant Bachelor of Science in Engineering, a Bachelor in Engineering (diplomingeniøruddannelse) or a Bachelor of Natural Science degree can be admitted to a Master of Science in Engineering programme. The bachelor's degree must be less than ten years old.

The individual MSc Eng programme states in detail which bachelor programmes qualify and whether applicants must complete supplementary educational activities.

Requirements for supplementary educational activities can equate to up to 30 ECTS credits and are specified as a list of courses under the individual MSc Eng programmes.

The specific requirements must be met before graduating from the bachelor's programme or in connection with conditional admission to a particular MSc Eng programme. The courses must be passed prior to the commencement of studies within one year from the conditional admission.

Supplementary educational activities in connection with conditional admission to an MSc Eng programme do not form part of the MSc Eng programme, and tuition fees are charged. If the supplementary courses have not been passed within the specified deadlines, the conditional admission to the programme is withdrawn.

The Master of Science in Engineering programmes are offered in English. Therefore applicants must demonstrate proficiency in English (B-level, IELTS, TOEFL, CAE) https://www.dtu.dk/english/education/graduate/admission-and-deadlines/language_test_requirements

DTU offers an Honours Programme as part of all MSc  Eng. programmes. The admission requirements are described at https://www.dtu.dk/english/education/graduate/honours-programmes

Specific prerequisites for the Industry MSc Eng Programmes

The prerequisites are similar to the specific ones that apply to the 2-year-programmes, but in addition, the applicant must have a job relevant to the studies with a workload of at least 25 hours a week, or the applicant may be self-employed in a start-up company. Read more about the rules on https://www.dtu.dk/english/education/graduate/industry-master-of-science-in-engineering