Master’s Programme in Urban Mobility is organized by the School of Engineering.

Master's programme in Urban Mobility is a European double degree programme, which is implemented jointly by leading European universities.The two-year Master's programme is completed by studying at two different universities, both eventually awarding a Master's degree to their graduates. 

The participating universities for intake 2024* are the following:

• Aalto University, Finland (entry and exit)
• Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands (exit)
• KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (entry and exit)
• Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Spain (entry and exit)
• University of Tartu (UT), Estonia (exit)
• University of Lisbon-Técnico IST, Portugal (entry and exit)

At Aalto University, the programme is organized by the School of Engineering. The major offered at Aalto University is called Sustainable Urban Mobility Transitions (SUMT), containing a minor in Innovation & Entrepreneurship for Urban Mobility.

* For intake 2025, Ghent University will join the programme as entry university (added 20 Nov 2024).

The world’s cities are changing, but not enough. New technology, business models, and global priorities are transforming the way we get around, and regional planners and urban engineers are under pressure to prepare for and exploit these transformations to help bring about an urban environment that consumes fewer scarce resources, contributes less to climate change, and provides more livable neighborhoods and workplaces. To accomplish this requires competence beyond the traditional urban planning and civil engineering disciplines, along with entrepreneurial skills to drive change that puts innovations into practice.

Sustainable Urban Mobility Transitions (SUMT) focuses on the holistic approach in study, design, development and evaluation of sustainable, inclusive, resilience urban environment. After completing the programme, the graduate will be equipped with the ability to i.a.:

• Participate in strategic work to meet transport-related problems.
• Create and analyse technological solutions to urban mobility challenges. 
• Translate innovations into feasible business solutions.
• Identify and assess short- and long-term future consequences of plans and decisions

The programme Sustainable Urban Mobility Transitions (SUMT) focuses on the holistic approach in study, design, development and evaluation of sustainable, inclusive, resilience urban environment. The technical learning objectives of the SUMT Master are that a graduate:

Knowledge and understanding:

 

• Broad knowledge of theories and concepts in urban planning, transport and sustainability,  and its disciplinary foundations, proven experience in working with methodological knowledge in the area of ​​urban mobility challenges, and a considerable degree of specialised knowledge of multidisciplinary decision support systems for transport and urban development.

Skills and abilities:

• The ability to critically, independently and creatively participate in strategic work to meet transport-related problems and to be able to relate these measures to sustainable social development, the planning process, the physical infrastructure and transport,  
  
   
• The ability to harness practical experiences from urban environments to help identify, formulate and deal with complex research problems and challenges for urban transport systems and sustainability planning from a system perspective, for both public actors and the public, autonomously and critically and with a holistic approach.
• The ability to contribute to the formation of new knowledge in research and development work for transport systems and urban planning from a system perspective, as well as the ability to evaluate this work.
• The ability to autonomously and systematically explore and generate new ideas in a wide range of fields in urban mobility planning, and to create, analyse and critically evaluate various solutions to sustainable urban mobility challenges.
• The ability to plan and use appropriate, cutting-edge research methods, processes and techniques both to foster new venture creation and growth in cross-disciplinary teams, and to  facilitate that growth as part of a broader transition toward sustainable mobility.
• The ability to critically and systematically integrate knowledge from diverse fields related to sustainable urban mobility and translate innovations into feasible business solutions for public or private urban mobility actors that facilitate a transition toward sustainable mobility.
• The ability to model, simulate, predict and evaluate sequences of events in urban mobility systems, even with limited information.
• The ability to apply knowledge, ideas and technology to develop and design new or significantly improved urban mobility policies, products, processes, systems, services, or business models while taking into account the circumstances and needs of individuals and the targets for economically, socially and ecologically sustainable development set by the community.
• The abilities of decision-making, leadership, teamwork and collaboration with various constellations, based on a holistic understanding of the contributions of higher education, research, business, and public entities to value creation, in both limited sized teams and contexts and large-scale organisational processes.
• The ability in speech and writing both nationally and internationally to clearly report and discuss his or her conclusions and the knowledge and arguments on which they are based in dialogue with different audiences.

Evaluation ability and approach: 

 

• The ability to identify and assess short- and long-term future consequences for urban sustainability of mobility policies, plans and decisions by public, private, and other societal actors, informed by an integrated scientific, social, ethical and intergenerational perspective and to merge this into a solution-focused approach, moving towards sustainable urban mobility.
• Show insights into the role that transport and mobility have in society and impact on the built environment and people's responsibility for how it is used, including ethical, social and sustainability aspects, 
• Demonstrate the ability to identify their need for additional knowledge and to take responsibility for their knowledge development.

^{*) Organized biannually. No teaching in academic year 2024-2025.}

^{*) Make sure you reach a total of 60 ECTS in SUMT major (entry + exit university credits).
**) Organized biannually. No teaching in academic year 2024-2025.}

^{*) Independent online course. Recommended to complete in the autumn semester (before Entrepreneurship Lab).}

^{*) Centrally organized EIT Urban Mobility summer school; credits awarded with SPT-E8030
**) The course is mandatory for those who have not completed a similar course in their bachelor’s degree in Finland or who have not completed / will not complete a similar course at the partner university (e.g. AK2038 Theory and Methodology of Science with Applications at KTH). If you are not required to take the course or any other language course at Aalto, select more elective courses on the list.
***) Make sure you reach a total of 30 ECTS for the I&E minor (entry + exit year).}