Master's guide: UU's atmosphere is a plus

Master's, research master's specialisations, tracks... It's easy to get lost in Master's land. Keuzegids Masters is a Dutch publication that ranks 1,250 Master's programmes offered by research universities and universities of applied sciences. The latest edition is based on the evaluations provided by students in the National Student Survey of 2023. Unlike the version of the publication dedicated to Bachelor's programmes, dropout rates and study pace are not part of the grade. In addition, experts no longer say which courses excel on accreditation, which is why its makers stopped ranking the best institutions for a Master's degree in 2020. Keuzegids aims to base its rankings on at least two sources.

Anyone with a Bachelor's degree is eligible for a Master's degree in the Netherlands. Most students used to predominantly choose a Master's degree in the same field as their bachelor's, but that is becoming less common. The offer has grown so much in the past few years that students now look for Master's both inside and outside the university where they obtained their first degree.

Master's Open Day. Photo: DUB's archive 

Sham
Formally, all Master's programmes are selective. But, according to Keuzegids, that selection isn't always strict. In some cases, it could even be called a sham. Some programmes say on their websites that they have strict requirements but, in practice, they do not enforce them rigorously. Students are often asked to submit a CV, a motivation letter and references, which implies that they may be rejected, but anyone with a suitable bachelor's degree is admitted. Utrecht University usually tells candidates they will be "considered for admission", but that doesn't always mean there will be a selection. Sometimes, meeting the "normal" requirements is enough.

UU's Master's
Eighty-one of UU's 156 Master's programmes are featured on this year's list. That's because a Master's can contain several programmes or specialisations. Keuzegids only used the official name of the programmes, as stated in the diploma. Many Master's were not evaluated because the number of students who took the national survey was not representative.

Nice atmosphere
Several of UU's research master's in Humanities scored high on this year's guide. Dutch language and History for instance scored many points, as well as the Master History & Philosophy of Science from The Faculty of Science. The atmosphere and safety in the classroom are the most appreciated aspects of these programmes, which also goes for Master's in the Humanities, such as Linguistics, Translation and Medical Humanities. However, programmes from the Faculty of Humanities tend to get a lower score when it comes to preparing students for the labour market.

The Research Master's in Public Administration has the highest score among the programmes offered by the Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance, but Law & Economics does pretty well too, especially in terms of atmosphere.

Bad scores
Some of UU's Master's programmes got a bad score in this year's Keuzegids, especially those from the Faculty of Social Sciences. Pedagogy, Education Sciences and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences didn't do well in aspects like content. The scores obtained by Pharmacy, Computer Science and Applied Data Science are relatively bad. Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science got a terrible score when it comes to preparing students for the labour market, even though professionals in these areas are in high demand.

Best scores nationwide
Nationally, fourteen Master's degrees at the research university level and three Master's degrees at the university of applied sciences level stand out above the rest. At research universities, degrees in Economics & Business Economics and Law & Administration are popular Tias School for Business & Society did particularly well: last year, the institution had three "excellent" courses on the list and now it has five.