Master of Science in High-Performance Computing
Jyväskylän yliopisto, Finland
MSc
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
EUR 10,000 / per year
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* applications open from January 8th to January 22nd.
Fast-track counseling
By contacting the school, you'll get access to free priority counselling for any study and application questions.
Key Summary
The application period for JYU's bachelor's and master's degree programmes is open 7-21 January 2026. Find your programme, check the admission criteria and apply!
The Master’s Degree Programme in High-Performance Computing combines knowledge of high-performance computing and computer systems with expertise in computational models and methods in the natural sciences. By choosing this programme, you will learn to develop and apply parallel and distributed computing methods to multidisciplinary problems. Through your studies, you will be able to develop and implement sophisticated data mining and machine learning methods for different types of data. Additionally, you will be able to keep pace with the rapid development of these technologies and apply them to solve large and challenging computational problems.
Programme info
The Master’s Degree Programme in High-Performance Computing is a two-year (120 ECTS) full-time programme taught in English. It is provided together by the Faculty of Mathematics and Science and the Faculty of Information Technology. You can specialise in either Computer Science, Chemistry, or Physics.
The overarching theme of the programme is combining skills in computer science with pressing problems in natural sciences. Many scientific challenges related to climate change or energy production and consumption need the concepts and understanding of natural sciences — the so-called first principles of understanding. However, understanding these principles is not enough: one needs people skilled in using computational tools to effectively solve the numerical problems that arise when those principles are applied in real-life situations, such as complex materials, the atmosphere, or biomedical innovations.
You can apply for this master's programme during the annual spring joint application to higher education in January. If you are accepted, your studies will begin in September. Upon graduation, you will be granted a Master of Science degree.
Student profile
We are looking for students with a suitable higher education degree and adequate proficiency in the English language.
Suitable fields of the degree include:
- Physics, physical sciences, materials science, or some other physics-related field
- Chemistry, chemical engineering, molecular science, or some other chemistry-related field
- Computer science, data science, computer or software engineering, information technology, applied mathematics, artificial intelligence or some other related field
Additionally, for all majors, all applicants should have undergraduate-level skills in:
- Mathematics: Calculus and linear algebra
- Programming: Data structures, algorithms, programming, and theoretical or technical computer science and
- either chemistry (e.g., physical chemistry or computational chemistry) or physics (e.g., computational physics, classical or modern physics)
If you have acquired the required skills in programming, data, mathematics, and theoretical computer science outside your formal degree education, relevant proof of this must be provided.
Learn about our tuition fee policy and the available scholarships (e.g., the Finland Scholarship and JYU tuition fee scholarship) for studying in the International Master's Degree Programmes of the University of Jyväskylä.
Tuition fee policy
The University of Jyväskylä charges tuition fees from non-EU/EEA students in the English-taught Master's programmes. There is a scholarship programme in place to support students who are liable to pay tuition fees.
Please note that tuition fees only apply to English-taught Master's programmes. No tuition is charged for:
- student exchange programmes (regardless of your nationality),
- Bachelor's and Master's programmes taught in Finnish or Swedish, or
- doctoral programmes.
You are also not liable to pay the tuition fee if you
- have started your studies in one of our English-taught Master's programmes before 1 August 2017,
- are a citizen of an EU/EEA country or Switzerland,
- possess a valid residence permit in Finland of the type A (granted for a purpose other than studies), P, P-EU, EU Blue Card, SEU-sopimuksen 50 artikla = Right of residence under the withdrawal agreement or P SEU-sopimuksen 50 artikla = Right of permanent residence under the withdrawal agreement (Brexit residence permits), or residence card for a family member of an EU citizen residing in Finland.
For further information, please see our FAQ about tuition fees.
Information about the degree structure in the Master's Degree Programme in High-Performance Computing
The programme requires completion of 120 ECTS credits within two years, with compulsory core studies and profiling studies with a degree of optionality. Studies include a compulsory computer science element in addition to studies in chemistry or physics, depending on the student’s specialisation.
The compulsory studies include distributed and parallel computing, GPU programming, quantum algorithms, software development, data mining, and machine learning. In addition, the programme includes advanced profiling studies according to the chosen specialisation, such as particle physics, condensed matter physics, quantum mechanics, computational chemistry or computational biophysics. In addition, language, communication, and working life skills courses are included in the programme.
Students are also free to choose optional courses across the University subject to course-specific prerequisites. Optional courses include various preparatory or advanced-level language courses offered by the Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication (Movi), the Basic Business Studies module by the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics (JSBE), and the Creating Careers lecture series, just to mention a few examples.
The Research and Training module of the programme includes Thesis Seminar, Thesis and Professional Training.
In this programme, we train multidisciplinary specialists able to operate, solve problems, and learn new skills in research and development requiring demanding computational research and development tasks. You will become an expert skilled in driving HPC adoption and knowledge transfer in industry and academia in different strategic domains, making an essential contribution to joint industry-academia R&D efforts.
Possible job titles for graduated students include computer scientist, data scientist, data analyst, software engineer, and computational chemist/physicist.
Additionally, soft skills like responsibility, professionalism, ethics, resource wisdom, goal orientation, and teamwork are part of every graduate's toolbox.