Master in Sustainable Management & Technology
The Master program in Sustainable Management & Technology (SMT) trains students to be the leaders of a sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive society.
Combining rigorous academic training and personal skills development, students learn to integrate better governance with thoughtful and innovative technology to address the world’s toughest challenges.
To do so, students tackle real problems provided by organizations from E4S’s rich innovation ecosystem in a highly interdisciplinary, diverse, and international environment.
The SMT Master is jointly offered by UNIL-HEC, IMD, EPFL, three world-leading institutions at the forefront of research and education in technology and management.
SMT PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Degree obtained
Msc in Sustainable Management & Technology
One degree – Three institutions
Courses taught on all three campuses (UNIL, IMD & EPFL)
Credits
120 ECTS
Language
All courses are taught in English
Tuition fees
780 CHF / semester
Program duration
3 semesters + 6 months Master project
Admission process
Selection based on students’ records and references
Application deadlines
15 December & 31 March
Start date
Early September
Why join our Master in Sustainable Management & Technology?
- Triple benefits
- Education provided by three institutions of academic excellence and access to their networks (3 Alumni networks, 3 Career Centers, 3 networks of industrial partners).
- World-class training at an affordable price
- CHF 780/semester
- Building competences for sustainability
- Bridging the gap between economy, management and technology to tackle sustainable challenges. The program also offers elective courses to deep-dive into your personal interests.
- Learning by doing
- A practical approach, industry-orientation and exposure to the job market with a fourth semester dedicated to an internship.
- Promoting Interdisciplinarity
- The program is designed to welcome human-sized classes (30-40 students) to foster exchanges between students sharing similar values and promote interdisciplinarity.
Technology (27 ECTS)
Example of courses:
- Science of climate change
- Data science and machine learning
- Sustainable logistics operations
Economics & management (24 ECTS)
Example of courses:
- Sustainable & entrepreneurial finance
- Marketing & sustainability in a digital world
- Economics for challenging times
Transferable skills (9 ECTS)
Example of courses:
- Complex problem solving in organizations
- Communication for impact
- Transformative projects
- Introduction to ethics & critical thinking
Elective courses (14 ECTS)
The elective courses must be chosen among a list of courses in technology, economics & management topics.
Example of courses:
- Life cycle assessment in energy systems
- Advanced sustainable accounting and finance
- Sustainable transformation and future-fit business
- Social innovation Lab
Leadership competencies – development & integration (6 ECTS)
The integration week aims at improving students’ effectiveness in three directions: personal, group and organizational effectiveness.
Example of courses:
- Improve your personal effectiveness
- Improve your group effectiveness
Transformative projects (10 ECTS)
The Transformative Projects aim at solving applied, real-life interdisciplinary issues in the fields of technology, management, and sustainability. Teams of 3-4 students from different disciplines work together on a topic provided by a company with the objective to propose new perspectives or solutions that can have the potential to transform an industry or societal practices.
Master project (30 ECTS)
The fourth semester consists in a Master Project based on an Internship in Industry or in one of the three academic institutions (UNIL-HEC, IMD or EPFL).
Faculty interviews: Guido Palazzo, Business ethics
Faculty interviews: Silke Mischke, Leadership
Faculty interviews: Julia Schmale, Science of climate change
Admission
EPFL general regulations & information
FAQs
Applications have to be filled online only. Check out the application process.
The SMT Master program is intended for holders of a bachelor degree with little or no professional experience. It aims at bringing together students with two different profiles:
- Engineering profile (e.g. holding a Bachelor diploma from EPFL or an equivalent technical university)
- Management/economics profile (e.g. holding a Bachelor diploma from UNIL – HEC or an equivalent business or economics faculty)
Holders of a degree from a Swiss University of Applied Sciences, i.e. HES/FHS, are not eligible.
The application period is from:
- The beginning of November to December 15th
- December 16th to March 31st
- Applicants of the 1st deadline (December 15th) will receive an official answer from EPFL by the end of March of the following year.
- Applicants of the 2nd deadline (March 31st) will receive an official answer from EPFL before the end of June.
Along with the application procedure for the Master program, candidates can apply for an excellence scholarship or needs-based scholarship in accordance with the EPFL guidelines.
All requirements & prerequisites are to be found in the SMT Application & Admission page
Candidates who will be accepted to the program will be officially enrolled at EPFL.
The SMT Master students will however have complete access to facilities on UNIL and IMD campuses.
The SMT graduates will be Alumni of the three institutions
This Master is designed as a full time program. Courses will be mainly given during the week days (even if external interventions could be scheduled in the evening or during weekends). Also, this is a program which requires a lot of project team work so frequent interactions with peers will be expected. There is no such option as following the program part time.
Application deadline
Applications can be filled out online from the beginning of November to the 15th of December, or from the 16th of December to the 31st of March.
CONTACT US
SMT Program Deputy: Caroline Perrot | 2.15 Odyssea Building – Station 5, 1015 Lausanne |
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