Degree & Documents
MEST is a full-time study programme for four to five semesters. The programme consists of core courses, elective courses, a semester project, an internship in industry and a final Master's thesis. All the courses and the semester project are usually completed in two to three semesters. The internship and the Master’s thesis usually take an additional six months (full-time) each. At least 120 credit points ECTS must be acquired (1 credit point corresponds to 25–30 hours of work).
Most of the examinations take place in January/February and in August (between semesters).
A highlight is a (compulsory) team-work course called the Case Studies, designed specifically for MEST students, analyzing a real-world challenge proposed by industry experts, covering technical, economic and/or regulatory aspects and elaborating a potential solution.
Each student can shape their own individual curriculum by choosing from a wide variety of courses on offer at ETH Zurich. This is done in conjunction with a selected tutor (an ETH professor in the field of energy science) who must approve the course selection within four weeks of commencement of the first semester.
Find out more about the study programme on the Studies overview page.
Programme Regulations
The MEST programme was updated in 2018, so the regulations were updated.
MEST Regulations for 2018 and later
Official MEST regulation 2018 - German
DownloadOfficial MEST regulation 2018 - English translation (PDF, 260 KB) (legally non-binding)
Tutor/Learning Agreement
The Tutor Agreement is accessed online via myStudies.
To ensure that the correct procedure is followed, these guidelines are specifically for the MEST programme: DownloadMEST myStudies Tutor Agreement (PDF, 1.1 MB)
Note: Registration of both the MEST Semester Project and the MEST Master Thesis is done via myStudies.