About the Programme
Master in Science, Technology and Policy (MSc ETH STP)
Join this interdisciplinary programme at the intersection between technology and society/policy at ETH Zurich, one of the leading technical schools in the world and ranked the best university in Continental Europe. Complementing your technical background with skills in Policy Analysis, you are ready to tackle today’s grand societal challenges, such as climate change, digital society, urban development, sustainable mobility and the energy transition.
ETH Zurich’s Institute of Science, Technology and Policy (ISTP) offers an interdisciplinary specialised Master’s (MSc) Programme (120 ECTS) in order to enable students who have already completed a degree in science and engineering to acquire policy analysis skills while deepening their knowledge of science and engineering at the Master’s level. This full-time programme is taught in English by internationally known faculty and experts.
The Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (D-GESS) is the MSc STP programme's host department and where students are enrolled.
Vision
Mitigating and adapting to climate change, making mobility and the energy system more sustainable, improving the quality of life in rapidly expanding cities worldwide, as well as using the opportunities and coping with the challenges of digital society are among the many societal issues where solutions are likely to emerge at the interface of science, technology, and public policy.
To contribute effectively to policy-making in such areas, science and engineering skills are essential, and so are policy analysis skills. Policy analysis is a distinct academic field that draws on concepts, models, and methods from economics, political science, psychology, and other social sciences. Applying such skills to substantive real-world issues, whose analysis also requires science and engineering know-how, is at the core of our Master's programme in Science, Technology and Policy.
What Kinds of Questions Can Be Addressed With Policy Analysis Skills
- Is an increasing share of autonomous vehicles likely to lead to more or less traffic, and what policies could be used to mitigate this potential risk?
- How to regulate the digital space to achieve an appropriate balance between demands from businesses in the Big Data sector and customers’ and citizens’ privacy rights?
- What kinds of policy interventions/policy instruments for increasing the adoption of electric cars would be effective and also politically feasible?
- How to design efficient and effective policies for accelerating the transition to new renewables while avoiding technology lock-in?
- How to design a carbon tax that is effective in terms of reducing emissions and that is also politically feasible?
- How to design public lighting systems in urban slums to increase residents' security?
- How could agricultural policies and pesticide regulations be revised in order to mitigate problems of groundwater pollution by pesticides?
- Which policy interventions could ensure that artificial intelligence is used in an effective but also socially fair manner?
- What policies are more effective in ascertaining an adequate supply of transplantation organs in a public health system?
- How to design international labelling and certification systems in a way that is effective in achieving more sustainable and socially responsible production of goods produced in poorer and consumed in richer countries? How to design international trade agreements to achieve such goals?
Moreover, refer to our Completed Master's Theses topics in the Master's Thesis section.