Degrees and career
Degrees
When you have finished your degree project and other courses, you need to apply for the degree. Keep in mind that once you have obtained your degree, you can no longer take any more courses within the program, so if you want to do so, you must be tactical and wait until you completed any extra courses that are not given as a freestanding course.
Possibility to take out a one-year Master's degree (60 credits)
If you for any reason realize that you would like to take out a one-year Master's Degree it is possible. Find the requirements on UU's studentpage about Levels and Degrees and contact the programme´s study advisor.
Check that you meet the degree requirements for your programme
The degree requirements for the programme can be found in the programme syllabus but are also summarised under each programme link below.
- Master´s Programme in Mathematics – Mathematics
- 120 ECTS credits, of which at least 60 ECTS credits (excluding the degree project) with specialisation in mathematics.
- independent work (degree project) of at least 30 credits in mathematics.
- Master's Programme in Mathematics – Financial Mathematics
- 120 credits, of which at least 60 credits (excluding the degree project) with specialisation in financial mathematics.
- independent work (degree project) of at least 30 credits in financial mathematics.
- Master's Programme in Mathematics – Applied Mathematics and Statistics
- 120 ECTS credits, of which at least 60 credits (excluding the degree project) with specialisation in mathematics
- independent work (degree project) of at least 30 credits in mathematics.
Apply for a degree
Information on how to apply for a degree (University's student website)
Closing ceremonies
The department organises a graduation "fika" at the end of the spring semester after all thesis presentations have taken place.
There is a closing ceremony for international Master's students arranged by the university
There is a graduation ceremony for all graduates of the Faculty of Science and Technology.
Join alumni networks
Whether you choose to continue your studies, for example as a PhD student or go into working life, we hope you will stay in touch with us by joining the LinkedIn group for mathematics alumni from Uppsala University and Uppsala University's alumni network (if you haven't already). In our LinkedIn group we post the invitation to our annual alumni event. Hope to see you there or perhaps at one of our future career days.
Labour market for mathematicians
Good labour market and forecast
Today, the labour market for mathematicians and statisticians is characterised by little competition. This applies to both new graduates and experienced professionals. Digitalisation and developments in AI have improved the ability to describe and model reality and increased the demand for mathematicians, statisticians, analysts and actuaries (insurance mathematicians). Unemployment is low and decreasing.
The trade union SACO's (Swedish Academics) labour market forecast (only in Swedish)
The trade union Naturvetarnas (Natural scientists') web page about labour market
Well paid
The choice of profession is of course determined by several parameters, of which salary can be one. Mathematicians are a highly paid profession. If you look through SCB’s salary statistics for different occupational groups, only managers, directors, doctors, traffic controllers, ministers, diplomats and various financial traders/managers have higher salaries.
The following statistics are taken from SCB (Statistics Sweden) and refer to monthly salary before tax (data are taken from 2024).
- Mathematicians, actuaries and cryptologists: 62,700 SEK
- Financial analysts and investment advisers, etc.: 66,800 SEK
- Statisticians: 47,200 SEK
- Professors: 72,000 SEK
To compare with:
- IT security specialists: 53,900 SEK
- Systems analysts and IT architects, etc.: 52,700 SEK
- Software and systems developers, etc.: 50,700 SEK
- Physicists: 48,500 SEK
- Chemists: 48,000 SEK
Many paths to take
Common maths occupations
The majority of those who graduate with a Master's degree in mathematics choose to work outside academia, while a smaller proportion go on to doctoral studies and pursue a research career.
Among those who choose the labour market outside university, the most common occupations are actuary and data scientist. Furthermore, many work as different types of analysts, e.g. financial analyst, risk analyst, quantitative risk analyst, data analyst, business analyst, technical business analyst. There are also many people working in signal processing, systems development, statistics and biostatistics.
See list of professional titles of our alumni
Common industries and areas
The majority of our alumni works in one of the following areas:
- Finance
- Insurance
- Data/IT
- Medicine and health
- Trade and marketing
- Security and defence
- Education
- Academia/Research
- Technology industry
- Gaming companies
They work in organisations such as Länsförsäkringar, SPP, SDS Life Science, Uppsala Monitoring Centre, Swedbank, SEB, Handelsbanken, Statistics Sweden, Uppsala Clinical Research, Regional Cancer Centre, Combient Mix, Svensk Exportkredit, Max Matthiessen Group, Ray Search Laboratories, Qliro, Anticimex, Zettle (PayPal) and many others.
If you have completed a maths course with us, you are an alumni and thus welcome to join the LinkedIn group ‘Uppsala University's Math Alumni’ where you can see where the other group members work.
Career day for maths students
The Department of Mathematics organises a Career Day for mathematics students once a year. During the Career Day, students have the opportunity to meet alumni, hear about their work and ask questions. All students of the Bachelor's and Master's programmes in Mathematics receive an invitation to the event by email. Other interested parties are also welcome, subject to availability.
Our careerday takes place in April and is announced in the department's calendar and posted for programme students in Studium.
See previous years' Career Day programmes where many alumni shared their presentations
Do you want to become a researcher?
If you're wondering what it's like to work on mathematical research, you can read interviews with some of our maths researchers.
You can also ask your teachers about their research and check out our research pages.
We organise research lunches a few times a year where our researchers talk about their research. You can also ask questions about what it's like to work as a researcher. The research lunches are advertised on the Master's programme's Studium page.
If you want to become a researcher, you should take a doctoral programme.
Career advice
If you want to find a job that suits you, you need to be active and map the labour market.
LinkedIn is a great tool
If you search for the job titles of mathematicians, you will find relevant companies. This way, you can get a list of companies that might be of interest. Go to the companies' websites and see if their activities might be of interest to you.
Join the LinkedIn group "Uppsala University Math Alumni"
Dare to ask
If you find someone working in a field that interests you, it's a good idea to find out more about the profession. Contact the person, tell them that you study maths and are interested in their profession. Then ask for a meeting to be organised. Make it clear that the purpose of the meeting is to find out more about the profession in question. There is a good chance that the person will enjoy talking about their work. Prepare for the meeting and ask as many questions as possible about the job and how to get there. This way, you will get both an idea of whether the profession suits you and a valuable contact in a company.
Do a thesis project in a company
A good way to get a foot in the door of the labour market is to do your degree project in a company.
Read more about external degree projects
Tell about your skills
If you feel uncertain about entering the world of work, it can help to think of yourself as a creator of the labour market. The labour market is not a ready-made package that you should try to fit into, but a dynamic world that you can influence with your creativity and skills. Although it may be hard to see it when you are still a student, you actually have a lot of skills that you have developed during your education and a variety of other competences that all together make you unique.
If you want tips on how to showcase your skills, the university offers lectures and workshops.