M.Sc. in Information Sciences

Curriculum

Are you keen to guide organisations, the business world and society at large in responsible digital transformation? Then the one-year, full-time Information Sciences programme at VU Amsterdam may be the perfect choice for you.

Our Information Sciences Master’s is the number one programme of its kind in the Netherlands: it is the frontrunner when it comes to responsible, sustainable and socially aware software and data systems – the new kind of ICT that’s essential for a thriving smart society. Having completed this Master’s programme, you’ll be both an all-round ICT professional and a specialist in this future-proof approach!

The programme has a unique multidisciplinary focus on digital socio-technical systems and sustainability in a broad sense. Teaching is composed of compulsory core courses, a selection of elective courses, and a Master’s project in Information Sciences. For your project, you can choose to take a professional internship with a partner organisation or carry out cutting-edge research on a topic of your choice. Either way, the programme culminates with writing a thesis on your chosen project. Take a look at current internship vacancies on the VU Fresh Heroes platform.

To offer you even more professional expertise, the faculty has close contacts with local, national and international trade and industry. New developments are integrated seamlessly into the programme all the time. Faculty staff work with consultancy firms, the financial services sector, the music industry, electricity suppliers, cultural institutions and many more.

The start date of this programme is September 1st.

Content of the programme

The course content of the Information Sciences programme has been recently revamped to reflect the ever-evolving digital landscape of our society.

Courses on offer cover topics like digitalisation and sustainability, the disruption of eco-systems by IT, questions of ethics and privacy, and a digital transition and sustainability portfolio course.

Research is also an important component of the programme – especially when it comes to writing your Master’s thesis. You’ll therefore take an academic research course that teaches you both qualitative and quantitative methodologies for performing academic research. And you’ll apply these methods directly to the design of your thesis.

Based on your thesis design, you’ll carry out your Master’s project – which takes the form of either an internship or a research project. The thesis that you’ll write at the end of it can be a regular thesis or a 10 to 15-page academic paper. You’ll discuss the options with your supervisor and decide the best course of action for your project.