Who is eligible?

Studying the Master’s Degree in Sustainable Development requires a preliminary application and the fulfillment of several admission criteria such as:

Eligible Students have obtained an university bachelor's degree in one of the following branches of study (at least 90 credit points (according to ECTS) from one, or at least 150 credit points from two subject areas):
agricultural sciences, biology, business administration, chemical engineering, communication and media sciences, earth sciences, economics, electrical engineering, environmental and geomatics engineering, environmental sciences, geography [incl. geosciences], mechanical engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, philosophy, political science, social and cultural anthropology/ethnology, social work and social policy, sociology.

If your bachelor's degree is from abroad, from an university of applied sciences or the branch of study does not correspond exactly to one of the list, we check the equivalence with the above mentioned branches of study. Admission may be possible with "additional requirements" (= extra courses of max. 30 credit points according to the letter of admission). These courses are not part of the MSD degree programm, but can be visited at the University of Basel while the student has enrolled for the MSD already.

Further admission conditions

Only candidates accomplishing these conditions are accepted to the MSD:

• Bachelor's degree with an average grade of at least 5.0 (Swiss scale system; see formula for the conversion of final grades of degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions).                                                                                                       Note: If have graduated from a recognized university, and your GPA is lower than a 5.0 you can try to get the admission providing the results of a completed Graduate Record Examination® General Test (GRE®-Test) from the following two test sections:
  • quantitative reasoning: your performance must be among the top 30%;
  • analytical writing: your performance must be among the top 20%.
• Evidence of basic knowledge in mathematics, and/or in statistics and/or in methods in empirical social research at university level in the form of at least 6 CP. When applying, the applicants have to submit documents like course syllabi in order to prove their knowledge. The study guidelines provide more details on the content of these requirements.