É«É«À²

Elective studies must meet the following requirements: they must be completed at a university or university of applied sciences; they must, as a rule, be a part of the degree studies of the university or university of applied sciences organizing the studies and they must meet the objectives of the degree completed at the Aalto University School of Business. Elective studies cannot overlap with other studies included in the degree in terms of content and intended learning outcomes.

Higher education institutions also offer studies outside degree education aimed at a wide audience, the suitability of which for the degree is assessed in relation to the intended learning outcomes of the degree. For example, courses that can be completed freely online and have a scope of 1-3 ECTS are generally not accepted as part of the degree.  

Elective studies are selected so that the scope of the degree of 120 ECTS is met.

Elective studies can, for example, be used for:

• completing a minor
• broadening your skills and knowledge via multidisciplinary studies by
  • completing another minor or individual courses in the fields of technology, art and design
  • completing University Wide Studies
  • completing studies at European 
  • completing network studies, for example from the Hilma network of gender studies or other networks
• acquiring entrepreneurial skills
• deepening language and communication skills by
  • completing studies at the Aalto University Language Centre either as individual courses or as an entire minor
  • completing studies in 
• broadening or deepening expertise in your own field by
  • completing additional studies in your programme or major
  • completing studies in other programmes or majors
  • completing additional studies in a minor
  • completing the Customized Student Business project BIZ-E0100 (read more here) or Non-governmental organization project BIZ-E0110 (read more here)
• acquiring working life skills by completing an intership (read more at During your studies > Other studies)
• learning self-leadership skills, finding meaningfulness and developing study-wellbeing by completing Personal Impact courses.

A minor can be

1. a minor organized by Aalto University (find the list of offered minors here)
2. international minor that is completed through the Aalto University exchange programme at a university abroad or in a programme fulfilling the requirements of the exchange programme as a free mover student (instructions here)
3. a study module completed at another university in Finland or abroad. As a rule, the minor must be a confirmed minor or similar study module in the curriculum of the higher education institute offering the study module.

The scope of the minor is determined according to the requirements of the minor.

If you have mandatory language studies in your master's degree, they are included in the elective studies module. You have received information about these in the beginning of your studies, if this applies to you. If you are uncertain of whether you need to demonstrate language proficiency in the master's degree, please contact your programme's planning officer to get further information about the matter. 

• If you have completed your bachelor's degree in Finland (in Aalto or in another higher education institute), you have fulfilled the compulsory language requirements in the respective degree or received the exemption. You do not need to complete language studies in the master's degree.
• If your language of education is Finnish or Swedish and you have completed your bachelor’s degree outside of Finland, you must demonstrate proficiency in national languages by writing the maturity test in your language of education (Finnish or Swedish) and complete the language proficiency tests in the other national language. Read more about the language of education here. You may also apply for an exemption of demonstrating proficiency in national languages. See also the following bullet.
• If you have completed your bachelor’s degree outside of Finland, you must complete minimum of 3 ECTS in English including both oral and written proficiency. You can choose any course on level B2 or higher. Courses at a sufficient level and including both oral and written proficiency are marked with ‘o’ and ‘w’ in the course name. Students, whose language of education is not Finnish or Swedish, may alternatively complete an elementary course in Finnish or in Swedish. The courses in national languages can be at any level on CEFR scale.