Information Technology - Communication Systems and Networks
Effective communication networking makes the world go digital
Digitalisation is here to stay. The ongoing digitalisation builds on an efficient communications infrastructure.
The ongoing and all-encompassing digitalisation process, which will eventually penetrate all industries and the whole society, builds largely on efficient communications infrastructures. The associated Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet paradigms refer to the future connected and programmable world, where not only people but also all things are able to communicate. They will have a significant impact on different vertical industries, such as energy, transportation, logistics and manufacturing.
Another prevailing trend in society and industry is robotisation. Modern inventions, such as self-driving cars and drones, strongly rely on highly efficient and reliable wireless communications.
The studies in communication systems and networks focus on Future Internet and the evolving and emerging (4G, 5G and beyond) wireless broadband and multi-service communication systems, which are crucial elements for the future connected world.
Tampere University offers a unique learning environment for Communication Systems and Networks. Please see additional information on research conducted in the field of Communication Systems and Networks at Tampere University.
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The studies in the field of Communication Systems and Networks place special emphasis on the Future Internet and evolving and emerging (4G, 5G and beyond) wireless broadband/multi-service communication systems. While the focus is on radio access system and networking levels, physical layer digital communication techniques and system level RF aspects are also within the scope of this major.
The Master's Degree Programme in Communication Systems and Networks equips students with excellent abilities to become valued experts in communication systems, both in Finland and abroad. A master's degree from this programme is highly respected, and our graduates enjoy excellent employment rates.
The official language of the programme is English, meaning that all the courses, exams and student services are arranged in English. Consequently, proficiency in both written and spoken English is an absolute prerequisite. Students are required to submit an approved certificate of their language proficiency when applying for admission. In addition, students are required to complete a course in the Finnish language. The course provides them with an introduction into everyday Finnish and Finnish culture.
As a student you can freely specialise in either of the following focus areas:
- Networking
- Radio Systems and Networks
The spesialisation in Networking covers various aspects of wired and wireless packet switched networks and the Future Internet. The compulsory courses explore local and wide area wireless and wired networks, providing students with in-depth knowledge of concepts such as TCP/IP protocol suite, MAC-level algorithms and methods, and networking paradigms (e.g. peer-to-peer networking). The spesialisation in Radio Systems and Networks provides students with a theoretical understanding and skills related to the practical optimisation and planning of wireless radio communication systems and networks, such as 3GPP HSPA, LTE, LTE-Advanced, and emerging 5G networks, as well as IEEE 802.11 type WiFi systems, based on an in-depth understanding of digital communications, radio propagation and system-level RF issues.
Major studies and MSc thesis projects are closely linked to the research activities of the Wireless Communications research group of Tampere University, which maintains close collaborations with industry.
Tampere University offers students the opportunity for a broad, cross-disciplinary education. A rich variety of minor studies and supplementary courses are available, as well as the opportunity to concentrate purely on major studies.
The tuition fee of the programme is 12 000 euros per academic year for non-EU/EEA students with a scholarship system for fee-paying students. For more information, please see Tuition Fees and Scholarships.
The programme is comprised of 120 ECTS. Courses are worth 90 ECTS and the remaining 30 ECTS are awarded for successfully completing a Master's thesis. Each ECTS is equal to an average workload of 27 hours, including lectures, exercises, assignments, independent study and an examination. The duration of the programme is two years. Students spend three semesters completing courses and one semester preparing the final project (Master's thesis). They start their studies in late August, and the academic year ends in late May.
For more information, please see the Curriculum.
Graduates are typically employed by mobile communication network operators, R&D houses, wireless device and network vendors, consulting companies, and research institutes. Following the successful completion of the programme, our graduates will also be eligible to apply for admission to doctoral programmes in Finland or abroad.
Overall, the global mobile communications industry is a massive employer with an annual volume of close to 900 billion USD. The field offers excellent career prospects worldwide. With the utilisation of the communications infrastructure penetrating into all industry sectors as a result of digitalisation, experts in communications engineering also have a broad range of career prospects, for example, in the energy, transportation and automotive industries as well as in different production and manufacturing verticals which are outside the basic ICT field.
In addition to studies in one’s own degree programme, students may take full advantage of the teaching offered by the Tampere higher education community ranging from technical to vocational studies in various fields.
Carefully read through the general eligibility criteria and the programme-specific eligibility criteria and see whether you meet them. For additional questions on applying, application documents and application process, please contact our Admissions office. For questions regarding the content of the programme, please contact it.studies.tau [at] tuni.fi.
Click to see the admission criteria
Tampere University master's programme application period 2021
9 December 2020 - 13 January 2021 3:00 p.m. (GMT+2)
Eligibility criteria in the Master's degree programmes consist of two parts: Tampere University's general eligibility criteria, and programme-specific eligibility criteria, which specify and/or add information to the general criteria. You must meet both to be considered eligible. Applicants who do not meet both the general eligibility and the programme-specific eligibility criteria will not be selected as students in Tampere University.
General eligibility
To be eligible to apply to a Master’s degree programme at Tampere University, you must have:
- Bachelor’s degree - nationally recognized first cycle degree*
- which corresponds to at least 180 ECTS (European credits) or to three years of full-time study
- from a relevant field for the Master’s degree programme that you’re applying to
- from an recognised institution of higher education
- The Bachelor’s degree completed in a university outside Finland must provide eligibility for university-level master’s degree studies in the country in which it was awarded.
- AND a good command of the English language for academic purposes. For more information, please see Language requirements.
*Please see detailed information on the General eligibility criteria web page.
Applicants in their final year of the Bachelor’s degree are eligible to apply if the degree will be completed by 31 July 2021. In this case, they would be accepted conditionally. Please see special instructions for applicants in the final year of the Bachelor's degree.
Admission to studies leading directly to a master's degree will be based on the applicant’s bachelor's degree conferred by a university or a university of applied sciences. Depending on programme-specific admission requirements, the programme may take into account skills previously acquired by applicants when considering applications.
A previously completed master’s degree will not make applicants ineligible for admission. However, applicants who are applying for admission to pursue a second master’s degree will only be admitted for particularly weighty reasons.
Programme-specific eligibility criteria
Each Master's degree programme can define more detailed eligibility criteria including, for example, more specific requirements of the applicant's previous education. These criteria will be decided and published yearly for the following application round.
The previous degree should be from a field closely related to the Master's programme you are applying to. In the Master’s programme in Information Technology, the previous degree has to be in one of the following (or highly related) fields: Computing, information technology, computer science, electrical engineering, software engineering or other applicable field with proficiency in mathematics, physics and elementary programming skills.
For applicants who have completed their degree in a University of Applied Sciences (AMK) or a University in Finland the required minimum GPA is the same as in the admission to the Master’s degree programmes offered in Finnish.
| Minimum GPA for bachelor's degree completed in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences (AMK) | Minimum GPA for bachelor's degrees completed in a Finnish university (yliopisto) |
| 3,20/5 | 2,80/5 |
An admission score will be calculated for all applicants who meet the minimum requirements. When counting the unrounded GPA weighted by ECTS only the courses (incl. thesis) with numeric grade value are taken into account.
If you have not yet graduated from your current institution, you may receive a conditional offer of admission. The offer will be withdrawn if your final GPA falls below the minimum requirements.
When applying to a Master’s programme at Tampere University, you must submit evidence of your good command of the English language for academic purposes. You have two options of demonstrating your English language proficiency: language tests or previous studies.
In both cases you must submit a document as a proof of language skills. Please see detailed instructions and additional information on the language requirements web page.
English language tests and the minimum result requirements
| Test name | Minimum test result |
| TOEFL iBT / TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition |
92 overall with no section below 20 |
| IELTS (academic) / IELTS Indicator |
6.5 overall with no section below 5.5 |
| PTE (academic) | 62 overall with no section in Communicative Skills below 42 |
| C1 Advanced | C |
| C2 Proficiency | C1 |
| Finnish National Certificate of Language Proficiency (English) | Proficiency level 5 |
*The previous CAE and CPE have been renamed as C1 Advanced and C2 Proficiency
Previous studies
It is possible to be exempted from submitting a language test score if you have completed particular studies listed by Tampere University that demonstrate your good command of English for academic purposes. Only studies that fulfill the criteria will be accepted so if you apply without a valid language test result, carefully examine the exemptions listed by Tampere University and how to submit documents.
55 students are admitted into the Information Technology programme.
The Information Technology programme includes the following specialisations: 1) Communication Systems and Networks, 2) Information Security, 3) Embedded Systems and 4) Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
Students are selected to the programme from those applicants who submit a complete application (application and sufficient application documents by the deadline) and fulfil the official eligibility criteria.
The student selection is made by an admissions committee based on the academic qualifications and merits shown in the application documents. Please note that not all applicants fulfilling the requirements can be admitted.
Students admitted to a Master’s degree programme may be required to complement their earlier degree with complementary studies. The complementary studies will be decided at the faculty case by case, maximum 60 ECTS credits)
The number of eligible applicants annually exceeds the number of students that can be accepted. The student selection is made by an admissions committee on the basis of the academic qualifications and merits shown in the application documents.
Student admission will be based on the faculty’s academic assessment of applicants’ prior degree and the merits presented in their application documents. Applicants will be ranked according to an admission score that is calculated based on their existing degree, proficiency in the English language and other supporting factors.
Admission points (maximum 100 points) are given in the following categories:
- Previous qualifications maximum 60 points
- English language skills maximum 10 points:
- Other relevant factors that support the application maximum 30 points
An admission score will be calculated for all applicants who meet the minimum requirements. The main supporting documents attached to the application, which are considered when calculating the admission score, are a CV and a letter of motivation.
Admissions step-by-step checklist
- Check the general eligibility and programme-specific eligibility criteria of the programme/s you wish to apply. You are allowed to apply to three programmes at the same time.
- Read through the instructions on how to apply and start preparing your application documents as early as possible!
- Take a language test if required, please see the language requirements.
- When the application period opens, fill in the online application at Studyinfo.fi during the application period and upload required enclosures to the application. The application period is 9 December 2020 at 8.00 GMT+2 - 13 January 2021 at 15.00 GMT+2.
- Upload all required enclosures and send the educational documents by post to Tampere University Admissions Office within two weeks, by 27 January 2021 at 15.00 GMT+2. The documents must reach the University by the given deadline and they must be delivered according to the country-specific requirements, if applicable.
- Remember to apply for a scholarship, if applicable.
- Wait for the admission results to be announced at the end of March 2021.
- If you are offered a study place, remember to accept it by the given deadline. Pay the tuition fee if required.
- Start preparing for your arrival in Finland well in advance.
- Register as a student and join the Tampere University community when the studies start in August 2021!
Additional information on application process in detail.
Online application form
The online application form will be available only during the application period only at Studyinfo.fi. The application period starts on 9 December 2020 at 8 am (GMT+2) and ends on 13 January 2021 at 3 pm (GMT+2).
You will need to upload copies of all required documents as enclosures on the application form. In addition to the general application enclosures, some programmes have listed additional programme-specific enclosures that are needed when applying to these programmes.
You will need to upload all required enclosures on your application form online at Studyinfo.fi. In addition to uploading, you must submit officially certified copies of your educational documents to Tampere University Admissions Office by post. Applicants whose degrees have been awarded in certain countries need to pay special attention to the documentation and documents from these countries must be submitted in a particular way. These country-specific requirements must always be followed first and foremost, prior to the regular requirements.
Applicants must post the educational documents to Tampere University Admissions Office so that they arrive by 27 January 2021 at 15.00 GMT+2. You can find the list of the required general application enclosures and further instructions on the Application documents webpage.
There are no programme-specific enclosures when applying to this programme.
Admissions results will be announced at the end of March 2021. All applicants will be informed about the admissions results.
Please see additional information regarding the results of student selection and Tampere University's rectification procedure.
Open university route applications
Separate application (Open University Masters' Routes in English) 2021
Application period for Open University Masters' Routes in English 17.3.-31.3.2021 15:00
- Admissions based on Tampere University open university route studies
You will be eligible to apply for admission through this route if you are currently studying on the Open University MSc route in Tampere University and completing a set of required courses by 30 June 2021 and your academic performance meets the requirements. The MSc route studies define for which degree programme the applicant can apply for.
The Degree Requirements of Tampere University will apply to the granting of a study right to applicants applying through the Open University route.
As the admission is based on studies completed at the Open Univesity of Tampere University, you will not be required to separately demonstrate their language profiency.
All fulfiling the minimun criteria will be accepted.
The scope of route studies is 20–30 credits, depending on the study programme. All courses must be completed by 30 June 2021 and the academic performance must meet the requirements set for the degree programme in question.
Please apply for admission through the electronic application system used by Finnish higher education institutions at studyinfo.fi.
Information about applying will be sent by email to students on the MSc route before the application period begins in March 2021.
You will not have to attach a transcript listing the courses you have completed at our Open University to your application. We will verify that you have completed the required courses through our electronic student records system.
There is no waiting list for the Open University route.
The admission results for the Open University route will come out no later than 9 July 2021. We will notify all applicants of our admission decision. You can also log in to My Studyinfo at studyinfo.fi to check the status of your application.
Applicants are entitled to appeal a decision where they feel that the assessment of their application has not met the standards. Such an appeal must be made in writing and submitted to Tampere University within 14 days of the release of the admission results. Appeals must arrive before 15.00 on the final day of the appeal period. If the results are not released on the announced date, the fourteen-day appeal period will begin to run on the day following the release of the results.
The appeal should be delivered in one of the following ways:
1) Scan the document and send it by email to tau [at] tuni.fi (pdf or docx)
2) Send the document by post and deliver it to: Admissions Office, FI-33014 Tampere University, Finland
3) Deliver the document in person to the Info Desk of the Main Building at our City Centre Campus: Kalevantie 4, 33100 Tampere
The possible reconsideration of an application following receipt of an appeal will not affect the admission of other applicants.
For additional information, please contact the Tampere University Admissions Services.