Courses & research

During your Master’s in Environmental & Energy Management (MEEM), you will collect a total of 60 EC within one year. The curriculum consists of a set of compulsory courses for all students, which will give you a solid foundation in all three domains of environment, energy and water, as well as two personal development electives. You will focus specifically on the domain of your specialisation – energy management – in the Sustainability Challenges Lab and your master’s thesis, which take place in the second semester (February to August).

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

Curriculum	Number of EC
Compulsory courses	30 EC	Energy Management and Governance Environmental Management and Governance Water Management and Governance Policy and Law for Sustainability Rurban Commons Academic Research Skills
Specialisation Energy Management (25 EC)	7 EC 3 EC 15 EC	Sustainability Challenges Lab in Energy Research Proposal Master Thesis Energy
Personal Development Electives (choose 1)	5 EC	Digitalisation & Sustainability Network Analysis and Sustainability Transitions Critical Sustainable Futures
Academic and Professional Skills workshops		Academic Practice and Integrity Intercultural Communication & Group Work Challenge Based Learning Unlock Your Career Potential
Total EC	60 EC

or meet online with a student and gain first-hand experience!

Sustainability Challenges Lab Energy

The Sustainability Challenge Lab focuses on energy at the organisational, local, national, or regional level and follows a “Challenge-based Learning” philosophy. You develop topics based on relevant requests by actual or diffuse societal actors (e.g., municipalities, regional authorities or associations, companies, local energy cooperatives, or DSOs). In groups you develop a research strategy to tackle the challenge and execute this strategy within the constraints of the course . You work closely with stakeholders to gain insight into their needs and constraints, and translate these into academically grounded and practically relevant solution pathways.

Examples of Sustainability Challenges students worked on:

Exploring the potential contribution of energy storage to the reduction of grid congestion in the Netherlands
Mapping stakeholders for potential collaboration and opportunities in electric mobility
Analysing the role of household-level batteries for energy independence on the Dutch island of Ameland

Master’s thesis in Energy Management

You will complete MEEM by writing your master’s thesis. The choice of your thesis subject is largely up to you. You could come up with your own proposal, or you could connect with ongoing research within UT’s Section of Governance and Technology for Sustainability (CSTM), on topics such as smart grids, bioenergy, smart regions and cities, energy and regulations, energy and gender, and climate change mitigation policy, to name some examples.

In your master’s thesis, you could focus on subjects such as:

How can a functioning Dutch hydrogen economy be established from a supply chain perspective?
How do actors in the Twente energy region perceive the justness of the energy transition in the Netherlands?
How can a peer-to-peer electricity market design become a viable alternative to the current Dutch electricity market design on the community level, from a social perspective?

Career perspectives

Courses & research

European Credit Transfer System

Structure

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In your master’s thesis, you could focus on subjects such as: