Admission to the Master’s Program

The University of Zurich offers numerous Master’s degree and study programs. Depending on the faculty and subject area, within a specific degree program you undertake only one study program (a single-major study program), or combine two study programs (one major and one minor study program).

The content of consecutive Master’s study programs builds on the preceding Bachelor’s study program. Specialized Master’s study programs often focus on a special topic, have an interdisciplinary approach, or are run in cooperation with partner universities in Switzerland or abroad. The vast majority of Master’s study programs at the University of Zurich are consecutive.

Besides meeting the formal admission requirements, you must also fulfill the relevant academic admission requirements to be admitted to a Master’s degree program. Once you have submitted a complete application dossier, it generally takes up to three months to check that you meet these requirements.

If you are admitted, you can only start your chosen Master’s program once you have met the relevant language requirements.

Please note that we are unable to conduct individual assessments of qualifications in advance over the telephone or by e-mail if you have not submitted an application with all of the required application documents.

• Bachelor’s diploma or a degree that is at least equivalent from a state-accredited university.

• Credits for any transferred coursework must also have been acquired at a state-accredited university.

• The degree program must last at least three years (of regular full-time study: 180 ECTS credits or equivalent workload).

• The diploma must be state-accredited (no equivalency certificates or university-internal confirmations of the successful completion of interim sections).

• The diploma must grant entitlement to undertake a consecutive Master’s program at a state-accredited university in the relevant country.

The Bachelor’s diploma does not necessarily have to be available at the time of application. If you are admitted, it may be submitted at a later date (by 30 September at the latest for admissions for the Fall Semester, by 15 March at the latest for admissions for the Spring Semester). Depending on the study program, admission is also possible with adegree from a university of applied sciences or teacher education, provided that

• the university in question is accredited by a signatory state to the Lisbon Convention and
• the Bachelor’s degree was earned with an overall grade of at least 5 (unrounded) in accordance with the Swiss grading system or an equivalent overall grade in accordance with a foreign grading system as per theconversion formula.

• You must fulfill the requirements of the Master’s study program in question; in other words, you must have the knowledge and skills required for the Master’s study program. These requirements are set on the basis of the quality, content and scope of, and the level of skills imparted in, one or more Bachelor’s degree programs at the University of Zurich.

• If these requirements are not fully met, additional requirements and/or conditions (in the form of Bachelor’s modules) may be imposed. Please note that additional requirements and/or conditions might only be offered in German in some cases (Information Systems). For questions concerning additional requirements and/or conditions that are only offered in German, please contact the student advisory services at the faculty. 

• Conditions must be met in a preparatory phase within the framework of your Master’s studies. In the preparatory phase students cannot book Master’s modules. Additional requirements may be fulfilled during the preparatory phase or in parallel with Master's modules.

• Admission will not be granted if the coursework to be completed as additional requirements and/or conditions for all Master’s study programs of a Master’s degree program comes to more than 60 ECTS credits.

• Faculties may impose additional requirements for admission to specialized Master’s study programs, for example a minimum overall grade for the Bachelor's degree and/or minimum grades for individual modules, a letter of motivation, or additional qualifications relevant to the studies in question.

• Admission to a Master’s study program is generally not possible if you have previously completed studies with equivalent academic content.

• Anyone who has been definitively expelled or barred from one or more study programs at the University of Zurich or another higher education institution is excluded from admission to the study program in question, and all study programs deemed similar by the faculty concerned, at all academic levels.

You will find the relevant requirements on the faculty websites:
Faculty of Theology and the Study of Religion
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Faculty of Science

Please note: If restrictions or conditions can no longer be fully met because of failed coursework (failed attempts), or if a deadline imposed at the time of admission is not adhered to, you will be definitively excluded from the Master’s study program in question. Such exclusion results in a ban from the study program in question and for all study programs deemed similar by the faculty at all academic levels.

The main languages of instruction for Master's study programs are German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Foreign-language applicants must prove that they have the necessary German skills of at least level C1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). 

For details please check the following web page: Language Requirements.

• Before you apply, please find out about theapplication procedure and documents to be submitted. Please be sure to note theapplication deadlines.

• As a rule, only one application per person per semester will be assessed. For this reason we would ask you to please decide on one Master’s degree program, including a study program or programs, and submit only one application at a time.

• Students currently matriculated at Bachelor’s level at the University of Zurich must request a change of degree program to the Master’s degree program under “My Requests” in the student portal and must not submit an application.

• Those interested in a specialized Master’s program listed below must apply in two stages:

1. Pre-registration with the department in question:
   Master of Science UZH ETH in Quantitative Finance
   Master’s in History of the Contemporary World/Zeitgeschichte
   Master’s in Economic History / Wirtschaftsgeschichte
   Master's in Studi italiani
   Specialized Master’s study programs at the Faculty of Science
   Please note the pre-registration deadlines!

2. Student Services will notify you of the next steps once you have received a provisional confirmation of admission from the department.

• If you combine a major with a minor study program in your chosen Master’s degree program, it may be that there is a different main language of instruction for each of these two study programs. This means that if you are admitted, you will have to demonstrate adequate language skills in both of these languages (e.g. English as the main language of instruction of the major study program and German as the main language of instruction of the minor study program). You will find a list of study programs by main language of instruction on ourlanguage requirements website.

• Please note that if you choose a minor study program for which you cannot present any previous academic achievements, restrictions totaling 60 ECTS credits may be imposed. If this is the case, any additional restriction for the chosen major study program will lead to your application being rejected (see above under “Academic Admission Requirements”).

• You will find information on the admission restrictions, admission requirements, and application procedure for a Master’s program in medicine on our website underMaster’s level medicine (in German).