Master of Science in Design and Innovation

Master of Science in Design and Innovation is one of 12 English-taught Industrial Design programmes at Master's Degree level in the register, offered by 5 institutions. 10 of them list an annual fee for students from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, from EUR 6,700 to EUR 9,000. 10 are recorded as free for EU, EEA and Swiss students.

Design and Innovation is a two-year MSc Eng programme at DTU in Lyngby, taught in English and worth 120 ECTS. It sits between design science and technical disciplines: you learn to run innovation projects that develop products, services and systems, and to lead design work in industry, service organisations and the public sector.

What you study

The programme builds on both design science and technical disciplines. The page names three competencies that run through it:

• Structured problem-solving processes that develop your creative synthesis competence and weigh social, technical, environmental and economic aspects.
• A people-centric understanding of the design process, so you can understand and integrate users and other stakeholders.
• A reflective technical-scientific competence that qualifies you to take part in and lead engineering design activities.

You gain knowledge of one or more technical domains, learn to develop and communicate problem and solution concepts, and work on implementing innovation processes in private and public organisations. Core areas named on the page are design methods, system and product design, material technology, innovation management, digital innovation and sustainability.

If you want a defined track, the programme offers three specialisations: Design of Complex Technical Systems (Systems Engineering), Design for Circularity and Sustainability, and Design of Smart Products and Systems. You can also build your own study programme from the elective courses on offer at DTU.

How the programme is organised

Project work is the long-standing tradition here, and teaching uses different methods rather than one format. Lecturers come from several departments and centres, including DTU Civil & Mechanical Engineering, DTU Entrepreneurship, DTU Compute, DTU Elektro and DTU Sustain, so the core areas are covered by expertise from across the university.

You can work closely with Danish and international companies, either inside courses, as an individual project or while writing your thesis. There is also the option to join an Industry Master of Science, which combines work and study so you apply your academic knowledge in a real setting.

Who it suits

This suits someone who wants to design for people and society and is comfortable with complex, open problems. You should like working in projects, talking to users and stakeholders, and connecting technical choices to environmental and economic ones. The programme expects you to handle both design methods and technical depth, so an interest in at least one technical domain matters.

Admission, language and next steps

Everything is taught in English. The page points to a Prerequisites page for academic requirements and selection criteria, and to an Application procedure page for how to apply to an MSc programme at DTU. Applicants with a bachelor's degree from outside Denmark can get guidance from the International Admissions Office. Study Guidance handles course planning, credit transfer, exemption applications and DTU's rules and regulations. Students from the EU/EEA and Switzerland study free of charge; other students pay a fee that the institution sets.

Master’s applications go straight to Technical University of Denmark, not through optagelse.dk, and the institution sets its own deadline. Entry requirements and language tests are set by the institution, so start from the official programme page. Our guides cover tuition fees, residence permits and housing.