Curriculum

Get support in choosing a master’s

During your Master’s in Chemical Science & Engineering (CSE), you will collect a total of 120 EC within two years. The specialisation in Molecular & Materials Engineering (MME) consists of six compulsory courses, an internship and your final master’s assignment.

In addition, you can fill up your free space with elective courses that interest you, both in and outside of the Master’s in CSE. Choosing a Capita Selecta is also an option. This is a self-study course in which you explore a specific topic of your interest, supported by a researcher of the related research group.

European Credit Transfer System

Student workload at Dutch universities is expressed in EC, also named ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System), which is widely used throughout the European Union. In the Netherlands, each credit represents 28 hours of work.

Structure

Year 1

Numer of EC


Year 2



Internship & Job Orientation Project


20 EC


In the first quartile of your second year, you will do an internship as preparation for the professional field.

Master’s thesis


45 EC

You will finish your Master’s in CSE with your master’s thesis. You will complete this assignment at one of the research groups related to this specialisation.

Total EC

120 EC


Do you want in-depth information about these courses?
Get in touch with us
or Skype with a student and gain first-hand experience!

Internship

In the second year of your Master’s, you will do an internship of approximately three months as preparation for the professional field. Within the specialisation in Molecular & Materials Engineering, there are many options open to you when it comes to choosing your internship.

A popular option is to complete your internship at a research group of a university or a renowned research institute, both in the Netherlands or abroad. For example, former students have gone to universities in Barcelona (Spain), Queensland (Australia), Aarhus (Denmark) or Hefei (China), or completed their internship at CERN in Switzerland or the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB). You could also choose to do your internship at a research & development department of a chemical company, such as ASML, AkzoNobel, Shell, Nestlé Cooperations, Cargill, Teijin Aramid, IBM or Lipocoat, to name a few examples.

Master's thesis

You will complete your Master’s in CSE with your master’s thesis. The choice of your graduation subject will be largely up to you and you can decide for yourself how fundamental or applied you want your research project to be. You could for example contribute to the research and development of materials and molecules for circularity, focus on the design of novel sensor technologies or develop coatings for various applications, from antibacterial coatings for medical applications to lubricious coating for wind turbines.

Whether you want to focus on bio-inspired and smart materials, lab-on-a-chip solutions, inorganic materials science, (bio)molecular nanofabrication or thin films, it is up to you! You will write your thesis under the supervision of a professor of one of the research groups. Under certain conditions, you could (partially) execute your research project at an external institution or organisation as well.

Your master’s thesis could involve investigating questions such as:
  • To successfully deliver therapeutics to the brain, carrier systems are needed. Single Chain Polymeric Nanoparticles are a promising nanocarrier. However, additional targeting is needed for brain entry. What kind of targeting is needed? And how can you coat such a nanocarrier?  
  • How can we gain a better understanding of the chemistry and engineering of two-dimensional nanosheet membranes on top of porous ceramic supports for molecular-based separations under demanding conditions?
  • How can you construct polymer brushes that adhere to artificial cartilage to reduce friction? What kind of polymer brushes should be used? And what properties are required and how can you combine these properties in one layer (for biomedical application)?
  • What is the effect of strain and choice of substrate for rare-earth nickelate thin films which is shown to be superconductive? And how can you investigate this, focusing on one of the key challenges in the synthesis of the thin layer phase: the reduction step?
Chat offline (info)
To use this functionality you first need to:
Accept cookies