| Maastricht University

The information on this page relates to the academic year 2022-2023

Elective course options

On this page, you can find the overview of available elective courses in periods 4 and 5. You can register your preference for these courses by completing the intake no later than 15 January 2023.

Choose your programme:

Master's in Artificial Intelligence
Master's in Data Science for Decision Making
Pre-master's or exchange programme

<a name="ai"></a>Master's students Artificial Intelligence

Find all course descriptions and the full curriculum here. As an Artificial Intelligence master's student, please choose one elective course from the following list for period 4:

Planning and Scheduling (KEN4253)
Dynamic Game Theory (KEN4251)
Computational Statistics (KEN4258)
Building and Mining Knowledge Graphs (KEN4256)

The other course you will follow in period 4 is the core course Autonomous Robotic Systems (KEN4114). Period 5 has two fixed courses: Information Retrieval and Text Mining (KEN4153) and Computer Vision (KEN4255). The Student Affairs Office will also book the Semester 2 research project for you.

The course Explainable AI (KEN4246) has prerequisites from the first semester and is not an option, you can book this course as an elective next year when you have reached the necessary prerequisites.

<a name="dsdm"></a>Master's students Data Science for Decision Making

Find all course descriptions and the full curriculum here. As a Data Science for Decision Making master's student, please choose one elective course from the following list for period 4:

Building and Mining Knowledge Graphs (KEN4256)
Dynamic Game Theory (KEN4251)
Planning and Scheduling (KEN4253)
Data Fusion (KEN4223)

and choose one elective course from the following list for Period 5:

Symbolic Computation and Control (KEN4252)
Information Retrieval and Text Mining (KEN4153)
Computer Vision (KEN4255)

The other courses you will follow are the core courses Computational Statistics (KEN4258) in period 4 and Algorithms for Big Data KEN4254 in period 5. The Student Affairs Office will also book the Semester 2 research project for you.

<a name="other"></a>Pre-master's and exchange students

Pre-master's and exchange students do not need to make a selection: the Student Affairs Office will book your personal programmes for you.

Yes, I would like to sign up for the Christmas webinar and receive a reminder before the event.

Christmas webinar 2020

Fill out the form to register for the Talk to Maastricht Science Programme students online event on 14 January 2021.

Talk to Maastricht Science Programme students - Registration

Would you like to organize activities as workshops, lectures, debates within the UM community or beyond its borders? To develop tools and facilities that help us measure and further develop diversity and inclusion? Or do you have an idea for a research project that can give useful input to UM policies?

Requirements and criteria

All applicants must adhere to the following requirements:

Funding shall only be granted for new activities or clear extensions of existing activities in alignment with the purpose of this call and in conformity with the funding criteria as described in Funding Criteria to this call text.
Teams should be diverse. Student/Staff cooperation is mandatory. Interfaculty collaboration is preferred. Collaboration with external partners is also welcome.
The maximum duration of the proposed project/activity is 12 months from the date as specified in the award (the ‘funding period’).
Only one proposal per person can be submitted.

Proposals will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:

Relation to one or more of the four core areas of UM’s D&I Strategy
Plan of execution (including budget estimate)
Relation to and added value for existing UM activities/taskforces
Impact and expected results

D&I Grants - Why you should apply

Three former D&I Grant winners share their experience and why they think the grants are a good initiative, and what they gained from the experience during their D&I Grant project.

Selection procedure, proposal form and deadlines

The selection procedure consists of two stages:

Based on the requirements and criteria lists above, the D&I Advisory Council will invite a selected number of proposals to pitch their ideas on 20 April 2021, 3pm – 5pm.
Based on the pitches, as well as the requirements and criteria listed above, we will notify successful applicants by 30 April 2021.

Please follow the link to the D&I Grants Proposal Form. All proposals have to be submitted using this form.

The deadline for handing in proposals is 15 March 2021.
Please send all proposals to diversity@maastrichtuniversity.nl with the subject line ‘UM Diversity and Inclusivity Grants’. Please ensure that at least one project participant is available to pitch on 20 April 2021 between 3pm and 5 pm. We will notify all awardees by 30 April 2021.

Here are a few of the theses written by students in the Master's programme European Public Affairs in 2019-2020. Students engage in original research that relates to, and builds, on, the three 8-week courses. The broad range of topics, cover many policy areas, actors and institutions, pieces of legislation, normative questions and stages of the policy process. Students are encouraged to choose topics that link with the research interests and expertise of the thesis supervisors. There is usually 10 members of staff supervising the thesis, the proposal of which is developed in January. The thesis itself is written during the internship in the period April, May, June.

Thesis examples
The carrot and the stick: The worlds of compliance and the first two years of GDPR enforcement
Chasing the European White Whale? The influence of soft governance in the EU - A comparative analysis of the substantive and procedural shifts in Social Protection Policies in Sweden and Spain since the creation of the OMC
The 2015 Refugee Crisis and Political Discourse: a Content Analysis of Parliamentary Questions in the European Union
Regulating under uncertainty: Unravelling cybersecurity policy A comparative study on EU and US policies
An alliance as strong as plastic? A study into the influence of business interests in the shaping of the Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment
Interest Groups as Policy Entrepreneurs in Judicial Lawmaking? Analyzing the Impact of Strategic Litigation in the Coman Case
Accredited Parliamentary Assistants: Paper-Keepers or Gate-Keepers?
Self-Regulation in the Lobbying Sector: A typology and the application of self-regulatory measures in the public affairs industry in the European Union
The Rationale Behind Compliance: why Professional Consultancies in Brussels Register and Remain in the EU’s Transparency Register
Gender Mainstreaming in Implementation: Box Ticking or Transformation? A Case Study on Gender Mainstreaming in the Implementation of the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa
European Digital Sovereignty: The Janus like digital sovereignty legacy of the Juncker Commission
Are Politics ‘Instagrammable’? An Analysis of "Youth-Friendly" Parliamentary Communications on Instagram in Austria, the United Kingdom and the European Union

Ready to study International Business? Start your application on time!

Do you want to study in one of the best International Business bachelor programmes in the Netherlands? Don't wait too long to apply, start your application on time! Last year about 1300+ applied and while we only have 875 available places. If you wait until the deadline to apply, you might be short in time to correct and/or complete your application. Our experience learns that it may take a few weeks to complete an application.

International Business is a “numerus fixus” programme. This means that you will need to take part in a selection procedure because there is a limited number of places available. As part of your application, you’ll need to submit (o.a.):

an international classroom essay
your CV*
a certified statement of grades
other supporting documents and a disclaimer, all in standard templates

Important to know

The deadline to apply via Studielink and complete your application file is 15 January 2025, 23:59 CET.

Online information sessions

Any questions? Join our staff and student ambassadors during one of our online information sessions.

Tailor the programme to your interests!

Specialisation: Emerging Markets

Most of the world’s economic growth is taking place in rising economic powers such as the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and other countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. In this specialisation, you’ll use a multi-disciplinary approach to study these emerging economies and the new business opportunities associated with their growth.

This specilisation is unique to this programme. You will learn what drives the high growth in these markets, how they are evolving, where the next business opportunities will be, and how to make responsible management and policy decisions in these rapidly changing and sometimes fragile economies!

A day in the life of an International Business student

"Learning how to conduct business in an intenational environment"

- Fabienne Fritzsching

Here are a few of the theses written by students in the Master's programme European Studies in 2019-2020. Students engage in original research related to their specialisation and work on a broad range of topics, covering many policy areas, actors and institutions, pieces of legislation, normative questions and stages of the policy process. The focus of thesis clearly differs depending on the specialisation followed.

Specialisations:

Public Policy and Administration
International Relations
Global Challenges

Public Policy and Administration
Don’t Go Breaking the Frame: Framing strategies in anti-discrimination policy by LGBTQ civil society organizations in the European Union
Analyzing the priorities of EU’s Budgetary Expenditures in the Multiannual Financial Frameworks of 2014-2020 and 2021-2027 on the Topic of Migration and Border Management
A paradigm shift in Dutch climate policy: Did neoliberalism reach a deadlock? The agenda-setting process of the Dutch climate law and agreement in December 2018
The Changing Narratives of German Governments towards European Economic and Monetary Integration: The Breakthrough of the National Interest?
EU Funding Dependencies: Putting NGOs’ Autonomy to the Test Impact of the EU Funds on the NGOs’ Lobbying Behaviour
Agenda-Setting in the European Union: The Surprising Case of the Work-Life Balance Directive
The Euro on trial: The economic policy of a monetary big-bang An assessment of the EMU twenty years later
Towards a new EU Blue Card: Enforcement of the European Blue Card in Germany and the Netherlands
From Liberalisation Towards Protectionism? Inward Foreign Investment Policy in the European Union Post-Lisbon
Is all About Framing: Problem Definition and the Practice of Surrogacy at the European Parliament

International Relations
Local ownership and perceptions in EU’s peacebuilding efforts An analysis of EULEX Kosovo
The conflict in Ukraine: the EU’s role conceptions in the Eastern neighbourhood at a crossroads?
Still Normative Power Europe? A Quantitative Analysis on Normative Interests in the EU's Foreign Policy
The German Attitude on EU-Turkey Accession Talks: Explaining Inconsistency
Chinese and European approaches to international security: An investigation of normative rapprochement at a macro-level and in the domain of peacekeeping in the DRC
Eastern Partnership states’ fragility: the influence of institutional factors on the EU cooperation with the countries in the region
EU, Lebanon and Jordan in the Syrian Refugee Crisis: A comparative study
EU Institutional Actorness in the field of nuclear non- proliferation and disarmament
A qualitative content analysis of the media in France, Germany and the UK: do they perceive the EU as a relevant actor in the JCPOA?
Emergence of a European Strategic Culture? A Qualitative Analysis of Cross-National Convergence of Norms on the Use of Force

Global Challenges
Protecting our European Way of Life’? Migration and European Identity
Looking through the spectacles of European civil society actors: an analysis of EU’s power in West-African peacebuilding activities. A framing analysis of CSDN reports
Exploring Regional Variety in the Political Language of the AfD – A Comparative Case Study of Four German Länder
Children migrants, vulnerable population or potential threat ? EU discourse about Unaccompanied Minors (UAMs) during the migration crisis
Why does the EU not practice what it preaches? The gap between policy rhetoric and action in the case of the EU-Turkey Statement
EU Actorness in Global Migration Governance: Austria's Unexpected Withdrawal from the UN Global Compact for Migration
Assessing Different Conceptualizations of European Identity Among German-Turkish People
A Gendered Perspective on the Securitisation of Migration: Female Refugees in the German and French Newspaper Coverage
The establishment of the Troika in the Eurozone crisis: An intergovernmentalist approach to explain the inclusion of the IMF in the Euro crisis management
The EU and the promotion of women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa Deconstructing Tunisian exceptionalism

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers you the following (one-year) master's programmes:

We also offer two (two-year) research master's programmes:

Find out more about each of the programmes by downloading our brochure, meet our Master ambassadors or watch some of the programme videos that were presented during the last Master's Open Day.

Our student ambassadors have their own programme Facebook and Instagram pages, so you can follow their daily lives as a master's student. You can ask them any question you may have about their experience with the programme or their life in Maastricht.