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Law honours programme (master’s research track)

The Faculty of Law offers a supplementary Law honours programme (Research Track) for its ambitious master’s students. The programme allows master students to conduct academic research, in addition to their regular studies. The programme is embedded in the Maastricht Graduate School of Law.

Honours students have the opportunity to specialise in one of the core research fields of the Faculty of Law and write an extended master’s thesis on the topic of their choice. Students who successfully complete the Masters Honours Research Track may be considered for future PhD positions.

Programme
The Masters Honours research Track comprises courses on the foundations of the common law of Europe, on methods of human rights research and on empirical research methods, as well as practical research, writing and presentation skills. Students enrolled in the two-year master’s programme in International Laws can spend their third semester abroad taking courses relevant to their research.
An honours student’s extended master’s thesis is defended within the Graduate School.

Click here for the one year programme and the two year programme.

Study load
Students admitted to the Honours (Research Track) programme may achieve 18 extra credits with courses of the Maastricht Graduate School of Law, which will then be in addition to the normal study load of 60 credits. On top of that, they may, in consultation with their supervisor, increase the study load for their master’s thesis by at most 12 credits.

For students in the two-year International Laws master’s programme the increase of the study load for their master’s thesis by at most 12 credits, will then count as electives for the second academic year. These two-year students may also earn up to 18 credits for the electives in the second academic year by taking courses from the Maastricht Graduate School programme. None of this will be possible, however, unless the student has earned at least 24 credits abroad through approved elective, non-language courses.

Certificate
Students who successfully complete the honours programme will receive a Law Honours Programme (Research Track) certificate together with their master’s degree.

Admissions

You can apply for the Law Honours programme (Research Track) by submitting a CV, a letter of motivation, an academic transcript and an example of your legal writing (for instance a paper or thesis written at the bachelor’s stage). Applications have to be submitted before 23 January 2012 via email:
admissions-law@maastrichtuniversity.nl.

After a selection based on the submitted documents, a number of applicants will be invited for a selection interview. These selection interviews will take place on Friday 27 January. Invitations for these interviews will be sent no later than 26 January 2012.