Master programme | Master COM study programme

The Master’s in Communication Science is a one-year programme comprising 60 EC. You will take two compulsory courses and choose elective courses to specialise in a specific domain. In the end, you will write a master’s thesis. It is possible to combine a master’s thesis with an internship, where your thesis serves as the foundation of your internship project.

Structure

You will take two compulsory courses, and you can tailor the curriculum to your interests by selecting elective courses from your preferred focus area or combining courses from multiple focus areas.

European Credit Transfer System

Study workload at Dutch universities, and in the European Union as a whole, is represented in EC, also known as ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System). In the Netherlands, each credit represents 28 hours of work.

60 EC.

Curriculum
Compulsory courses	15 EC	Essentials in Communication Science (5 EC) Societal Challenges (10 EC)
Elective courses You get to choose elective courses in any combination of the focus area's	20 EC
Focus area Organisational Communication & Reputation		Positive Organising The Public Discourse, Media and Movements Trust and Risk Work and Technology Vision, Strategy and Leadership Reputation Management
Focus area Media, Technology & Communication		Game Studies in Social Sciences Trust and Risk User-Centered Design of New Media Work and Technology User Support Social Implications of the Internet
Focus area Digital Marketing Communication & Design		Advertising and Consumer Psychology Game Studies in Social Sciences User-Centered Design of New Media Design and Service Experience Design and Behaviour Change Social Marketing and Behaviour Change
Master’s thesis	25 EC	You will complete your Master’s by writing a master’s thesis. Optionally, you can combine your master’s thesis with an internship for 30 EC.
Total EC	60 EC

Master's thesis

You will complete your Master’s by writing a master’s thesis. For example, past projects involved evaluating adults’ digital skills in the context of tax payment and their capacity to engage in today’s digital society. Another assignment centred on assessing children’s critical thinking skills: to what extent are they able to search for online information effectively? It explored whether they solely rely on the first search engine result or seek additional information. What will become of search strategies now that ChatGPT has made an entrance into our society? In another assignment, a student examined the impact of social robots on organisations, investigating how the presence of a social robot as a colleague influences company identity and employer branding.

As part of your master’s thesis, you can undertake research projects such as:

Understanding the challenges and factors influencing tablet adoption in primary education (Media, Technology & Communication focus area)
Rethinking real journalism: examining how Dutch journalists view their work, the changes their work is subject to, and the potential consequences for truth in a digitalised world (Organisational Communication & Reputation focus area)
Exploring how nature-inspired awe can promote sustainable consumption (Digital Marketing Communication & Design focus area)

Structure

Curriculum

Master's thesis