The Master’s in Spatial Engineering is not quite like any other master’s programme. Instead of serving up a curriculum that consists of several (elective) courses, this Master’s is based on the premise of challenge-based learning. Within various case studies, in your final research project, in fact, during your whole Master’s, you will choose what knowledge and skills you need to gain in order to come up with sustainable interventions for certain challenges. This self-directed learning approach will help you to develop your own learning path and prepare you for the many challenges that will come your way, during and after your studies.
The Master’s in Spatial Engineering consists of two years, in which you will collect a total of 120 EC. The first year consists of two case study projects, elective courses, a mandatory foundational knowledge subject, an international module, and thesis proposal writing. The second year allows for a more personally oriented curriculum and consists of a Master’s research, an internship project and electives.
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.
Year 1
During the first and third quartile of your Master’s, you will work on two case study projects, reflecting real-life challenges like: urban flood problems, food and water insecurity, human-induced earth movement or other human-induced (nutrition, energy) crisis. Together with your team, you will develop your own take on the problem and come up with a sustainable intervention. In the second quartile, you will gain mandatory core knowledge; including data mastery on a core knowledge area that was not included in your prior education. You will gain specialist knowledge by choosing a course that will help you prepare for your final research project in the second year of your Master’s
Within the case study projects, you and your team will try to tackle actual challenges currently faced by society. These two case studies will increase in levels of wickedness. The degree of wickedness is defined by the knowledge that is available on the processes and the level of consensus that can be created among stakeholders.
Teamwork is key when it comes to the case study projects. You will develop your own role within the team and make sure to gain the knowledge and skills needed to contribute to possible solutions and designing an intervention. In order to do so, you can choose from choice topics within a case study project or gain knowledge from other sources. For example, one team member might delve deeper into remote sensing, while another focuses on stakeholder analysis.
The choice topics will help you lay the foundation in certain fields of study, and through self-study and applying what you learned in the group project, you will deepen your knowledge and skills. You can be sure of the support and guidance of your personal mentor and the tutor that guides your team during the project. For example, they could help you in choosing the right choice topic or connect you to professors who can help you further in the self-study process.
The international module at the start of the fourth quartile consists of a (virtual) field trip along a series of institutes and agencies in Europe to see how they deal with wicked problems in their work. The types of organisations you will visit vary from governmental to private organisations to research institutions. This module serves as a preparation for the professional field and will provide you with valuable contacts for finding an internship and for your future career.
Core knowledge development In the first year, you will be able to choose some courses to start off on your individual profile in the second year’s MSc Research and Internship project.
The last quartile of your first year revolves around preparing for your Master’s research project. During the case study projects, you might have already found a research topic of your interest.
Year 2
Choose a course, also known as an elective, related to your internship project or MSc research.
Master’s research project The largest part of your second year will be dedicated to your master’s research project. You could focus on subjects such as urban development, climate change, (natural) disasters, resource extraction, agriculture, and the list continues. You also have the opportunity to participate in (large) international research projects, for example of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) or EU, or capacity development projects. You could for example contribute to water management projects in Kenya and Ethiopia, urban development research in Rwanda, disaster management research in the Caribbean, Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal, but also agricultural research in Spain or dike strength research in the Netherlands.
Your Master’s thesis could involve undertaking projects such as:
You will complete your Master’s in Spatial Engineering with an internship of (at least) 10 weeks, at e.g. a consultancy company, government agency, research institute, intergovernmental organisation or an NGO either in the Netherlands or abroad.
Discover the exciting internship options at ITC!
Join us on a journey as we follow two Master students, Carolina Pereira Marghidan and John Ifejube, during their internships at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente. Get ready to witness the impactful work they're doing in their respective placements and gain a glimpse into the future that awaits you as a prospective student. Watch the video!
Examples of internships our students:
- Designing a prototype for a support resource for distributing Shelter Strengthening Kits for alleviating the impact on houses in anticipation of a Tropical Cyclone, a project of the Red Cross Climate Centre;
- Evaluating and improving a sustainable urban transport project for the Capital City of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, a project of the World Bank;
- Assessing (the usability of) communication tools and contributing to the content of the website of the SERVIR-Mekong project, a hub maintained by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).
Curriculum overview
Find out more
Are you interested in this Master’s and do you want to know more about your study programme and how to compose it? For example, are you curious about the choice topics, or the learning outcomes? You can find out all about it in our Online Study Guide*.
* You are looking at the Study Guide of the current academic year. We always have the desire to strive for improvement. Therefore the course structure is subject to change.
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