MSc Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies — Nanochemistry

The Nanochemistry track of Université Grenoble Alpes' Master in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies is one of the few UGA science master's where the programme states outright that all lessons are held in English across both years, not only in the second. It runs 120 ECTS over two years, jointly delivered by UGA's physics and chemistry-biology faculties, and is aimed at graduates in chemistry, physical chemistry, materials science and physics.

Grenoble is the reason to study this here. The city hosts the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the Institut Laue-Langevin neutron source, the CEA's nanotechnology campus at Minatec and CNRS chemistry institutes, all within a few kilometres of the university — an instrumentation density that few places in the world match for anyone working on materials at the nanoscale. Coursework covers synthesis and self-assembly of nanomaterials, surface and colloid chemistry, characterisation techniques (electron microscopy, X-ray and neutron scattering, spectroscopy), nano-objects for energy and catalysis, molecular electronics, and the health and environmental considerations of nanomaterials. Laboratory work and a research internship are central.

Cost is the part of this entry that needs the most honesty. UGA's own fee page publishes the standard French national master's rate of €255 a year plus a €105 CVEC contribution for 2026-27, and states separately that differentiated fees apply to non-European students without publishing an amount, while also confirming that exemption requests are possible. Different official UGA pages have carried different positions on how broadly those exemptions are granted. We plan conservatively against the differentiated master's rate — in the region of €3,770 a year — so that a family budgets for the worst case, and we get the actual figure confirmed in writing before anyone commits. The real outcome may be closer to €360.

Two further gaps are worth knowing before you invest time. UGA publishes no programme-specific application deadline for Nanochemistry and no numeric English requirement — the route depends on whether Sri Lanka is covered by Campus France's Études en France procedure for your cycle, and sibling programmes in the same faculty have published spring application windows in March and April. Both need confirming with the faculty's international office rather than assumed. What the programme does publish is its outcome data: around 70% of graduates continue to doctoral study and about 25% take industrial or engineering positions in the chemistry and materials sector.