Master's Programme in Industrial Design Engineering
Lahti, Finland
MSc
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
31 Mar 2027*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2027
TUITION FEES
EUR 15,000 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
* For international applicants: 1 October 2026 – 31 March 2027
** EUR 5,000 early bird discount
Key Summary
About: The Master's programme in Industrial Design Engineering at LUT University blends production engineering, industrial design, and material development. It covers design methods, manufacturing tools, production processes, ergonomics, aesthetics, human factors, sustainability, and advanced materials science. Project courses with Finnish and European industry apply skills to practice. The programme uses MOOCs and hybrid delivery: half of studies are remote and two-thirds of teaching is online.
Career Outcomes: Graduates can work in design departments, research, or start firms. Career opportunities include industrial designer, product designer, design engineer, interaction designer, production manager, brand manager, packaging designer, and researcher.
Product development and prototyping.
Since product design and development are considered transdisciplinary, they require a profound knowledge of design methods, manufacturing tools, production processes, ergonomics, aesthetics, and sustainability. Skills in these areas help to respond to market demands rapidly and produce justifiable and usable products in a competitive market.
The Master's Program in Industrial Design Engineering provides students with knowledge of innovative design, manufacturing methods, human factors, creative problem-solving, advanced materials, industrial and business challenges, and environmental considerations. This knowledge is needed at different stages of product development to meet the needs of industries, support product users, and respond to environmental issues.
This Master's program is a unique study opportunity in Finland, combining knowledge of and working methods in production engineering, industrial design, and material development. It emphasizes a combination of design skills and engineering qualifications through project courses in which students apply their knowledge to practice. Projects are carried out in close cooperation with Finnish and European industries. As a result, this program is a popular major subject that has seen rapid growth in applicant numbers nationally and internationally.
The Master's Program in Industrial Design Engineering employs massive open online courses (MOOCs), enabling students to complete nearly half of their studies remotely. Online courses and internet-based exercises are flexible and dynamic ways to complete studies.
The course applies a hybrid of online and contact teaching: nearly two-thirds of the teaching sessions are conducted remotely online. The contact lessons are usually not mandatory, and teachers may provide teaching material to students online. Course presentations, seminar days, meetings, and laboratory visits are agreed on flexibly with the lecturer in charge of the course.
The Master's Program in Industrial Design Engineering is a two-year program. It leads to the degree of Master of Science in Technology, M.Sc. (Tech.), which is 120 ECTS credits.
The program includes core and advanced specialization studies as well as a Master's thesis.
Most of the lectures and exercises take place online on the Moodle platform. Contact teaching mainly takes place on the Lahti campus, but some seminars and presentations are held on the Lappeenranta campus.
The course includes a few in-class lectures. The laboratories and other facilities of the Department of Mechanical Engineering are located in Lappeenranta, but some facilities are also available in Lahti. This program is well-suited for people with full-time jobs.
Core studies, 33 ECTS credits
You will study research methods, product design and production process, selection of materials, applied mathematics, and additive manufacturing.
Advanced specialization studies, 57 ECTS credits
Focus on topics such as sustainable design, ergonomics in design, interaction of products and consumers, productivity and sustainability in sheet metal production, design communication and visualization, innovation in design, product design and production processes, structural and mechanical system design, and forming and assembly for metal product design.
Master's thesis, 30 ECTS credits
An advanced research project during the program's fourth semester. The Master's thesis is a part of the advanced specialization studies and requires approximately six months of full-time work.
During the program, you will acquire diverse knowledge of designing anything from a simple stationary product to a sophisticated one, such as a vehicle and learn to consider the production processes and manufacturing possibilities.
You will acquire:
- Competence in areas such as innovative design, manufacturing methods, human factors, creative problem-solving, advanced materials, industrial and business challenges, and environmental considerations. You will learn to understand different aspects of design for manufacturing, sustainability, and creativity in design as well as the importance of consumer behaviour, development trends, and value addition through new industrial techniques;
- Multidisciplinary project work skills to cooperate with experts from other fields, such as engineers, marketers, procurers, and project managers; you will participate in theoretical and methodological courses integrated into projects with regional companies and learn to see problems from multiple perspectives and solve them optimally with innovative production processes, consumer products, interactions, and processes;
- Professional skills to develop and design new products and services effectively on the global industrial scale; you will gain skills in concept visualization, CAD modelling, product development, and technological and commercial perspectives, and in-depth knowledge of the selection of materials in production, design methods, sustainability, and manufacturing aspects;
- A professional network by learning about practical issues in design, production processes, and applied projects in close collaboration with Finnish and other European companies.
Early Bird discount / First academic year
When required to pay a tuition fee, you are offered
- an Early Bird Discount of EUR 5,000 (making the early bird fee for the first year EUR 10,000)
for the first academic year if confirming your place and paying the rest of the tuition fee of EUR 7 500 within 21 days from the date of having received your Certificate of Admission.
Early Bird discount is available in both Regular Admission and Early Admission.
LUT Scholarship / Second academic year
When required to pay a tuition fee, you are offered
- LUT Scholarship of EUR 6 000
for the second academic year if having completed a minimum of 60 ECTS credits of studies included in the personal study plan during the first academic year.
With LUT Scholarship the tuition fee is EUR 7 500 for the second academic year.
The required ECTS credits will be automatically checked for and they must be included on your Transcript of Records by the end of the first academic year i.e. by 31 July.
The demand for industrial design engineering experts is growing due to new technological developments and their importance in the development of our society.
As a graduate of the program, you will have diverse possibilities for a career in companies' design departments as an industrial designer, brand manager, product designer, production manager, design engineer, interaction designer, or packaging designer, in research or even in a design firm of your own.