Setting-up and organising your programme

The Electrical Engineering master’s programme offers the student a large freedom to make choices and to setup an individual programme. See the Course Programme for general information about the programme. Some of these choices will have to be made right after the start of the programme which may not be easy. Therefore some guidelines are given below to support you. This plan is for students from any bachelor’s programme from any university (of course assuming that you have been admitted). Below, additional suggestions are given for students from the UT and from the EE-bachelor’s programme at the UT.

Getting assistance setting up your programme

Programme mentor

Each specialisation has a programme mentor who will receive new students, joining this specialisation. After having chosen your specialisation you should contact the programme mentor of this specialisation to assemble your course programme. The programme mentor decides which compulsory courses should be taken, while the student is allowed to choose the electives. However the course programme as a whole requires approval by the programme mentor.

Study advisor

For general questions and advice, not specifically related to your course programme, please contact the study advisor. See the Study Adviser Page for information about how they can help you.

Academic Calendar

The Academic Calendar shows you the main features of the academic year in Twente:

This Academic Calendar is relevant for you as long as you have to take courses.

You can plan your internship and your master’s thesis project without bothering about the education periods, but you should keep in mind holiday periods.

Roadmap for the organisation of your study

Below we give a general roadmap with a time scheme that you can use to plan your study such that you can complete it in two years (the nominal time).

Step 1: Choose your specialisation

Point of time: before the start of your study

Please, choose your specialisation before arriving in Twente. Each specialisation has its own set of compulsory technical courses. Therefore you cannot assemble a course programme if you did not choose a specialisation yet. If you are in doubt about two related specialisations you might try if a course programme is possible that satisfies the requirements for both.

Step 2: Choose the courses of the first quarter of your programme at the start of your programme

Point of time: Introduction period

During the introduction period before the start of the programme you will have a discussion with the programme mentor of the chosen specialisation. You can find your programme mentor, by consulting the page of your specialisation (from the link above). This page also mentions the compulsory courses of your specialisation. During this meeting the courses for the first quarter will be chosen. Based on the application documents the programme coordinator will send an advice to the programme mentor about possible homologation courses to be included in the programme. To select electives you can consult the list of all common courses of the Electrical Engineering programme.

Step 3: Discuss the remaining courses of your programme

Point of time: the first quarter after the start of your study

Contact (again) the programme mentor of the specialisation of your choice. With him/her you can discuss your interests and preferences that finally should lead to the full course programme:

Step 4: Register your course list

Point of time: not later than the end of the first semester of your study

You should register your course list by filling in the registration form course programme and submit it to the Educational Office (BOZ). It should be signed by your programme mentor and by yourself.

You should do this not later than six months after the start of your master programme.

If you started in September then you should register the course list not later than at the end of January. If you started in February then you should register the course list not later than the end of August

Step 5: Prepare your internship

Point of time: Half a year before the planned start of the internship

Start preparing your internship about half a year before you plan to start the internship itself. For more information see the Internship page. Twice a year, information sessions are held about the internship, in September and April. You can find them in the timetables of the master’s programmes.

Note: To start your internship you must have completed courses from your course programme for a minimum of 45EC, including the compulsory courses of your specialisation. You can prepare your internship before satisfying this requirement. The reference date for this requirement is the starting date of your internship.

Step 6: Prepare your master’s thesis project

When you know when you will get back at the UT from your internship, then you might start preparing your master’s thesis, because it is the first (and the last) subject in your programme after the internship. See the master’s thesis pages for information about the master’s thesis and the procedures for the master’s thesis and your graduation.

Time management

According to the set-up of your master’s programme it should take two years to complete it. To our regret, only few students make it to graduate within this period. Below we discuss some measures that have been taken by the programme management to stimulate students to complete courses and projects in time. This way we try to prevent that students spend more time to these programme parts then necessary.

Course programme and examinations

The programme contains 120 EC (credits) to be covered in two years. Both years consist of four quartiles. This means that you should earn 15 EC during each quartile. As most courses have a working load of 5 EC you can take three courses during each quartile. The examination is included in this estimated working load and you are supposed to take the examination directly after the last lecture at the end of the quartile. If you fail the examination or if you don’t take it then you will have to take another examination at the end of the next quartile and this will interfere with newly taken courses during that quartile.

For this reason we advise against planning too many courses during one quartile. Taking too many courses may finally lead to time loss because when you fail the examination you spend your time in a non-optimal way.

Project work during a course

Many master courses contain project work and the mark you earn for such a course will be partly or fully based on an assessment of the project. Although this way of assessment is very suitable for master courses, in the past it appeared to lead to time loss for many students because they did not finish the project in time. The reason is obviously that there was no deadline for the project.

The rules and regulation for the Electrical Engineering master programme contain an automatic deadline for project work that is part of a course: the lecturer will base an assessment of the project on the material that he has received from you at the last day of the quartile in which the course took place. So take care that you have delivered all your results at that moment!

Specifics for students completing a premaster’s programme

See the premaster’s page for more information about the premaster’s programme.

In general you can follow the guidelines above to plan your master’s study. During the first semester of the year, when you are following your premaster courses, you should choose a specialisation and contact the corresponding programme mentor. In January an information day is organised to introduce students to the specialisations. At least you should agree with your mentor about the programme of the second semester. Note that your course programme probably will contain some homologation courses that will introduce you further into the field of your specialisation.

Choosing the group for your Individual Project

The individual project can be completed at each of the chairs of the Electrical Engineering department. You can discuss with your programme mentor which one to choose. When you’ve made a choice for a chair of your interest, you can contact the secretary of the chair. She will direct you to one of the staff members who can give you information about the possible assignments.

You may think about the possibility to take the individual project and the master’s thesis assignment in the same area, to deepen your insight. Or you can choose to do them in rather different areas, to broaden your scope. They cannot be combined into one assignment.

Specifics for students completing a bachelor’s programme at the UT

If you are in a bachelor’s programme at the UT and  know that you want to continue afterwards with an Electrical Engineering master, then you can use the last semester of your bachelor’s programme to prepare the start of your master’s programme. In January an information day is organised to introduce students to the specialisations. Also the chairs organise information sessions after this information day for interested students.

Step 2: Choose the courses (of the first quarter) of your programme

It will be convenient to discuss your course programme with your programme mentor before your bachelor graduation. This way you can take your time to think about your choice.

General rules and guidelines

We repeat the following guidelines for your master’s programme: