The two-year basis programme
The programme is organized in semesters. Each semester contains 20 weeks, and is subdivided in quarters of 10 weeks each.
Semester | Quarter | ECs |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1A | 15 |
1 | 1B | 15 |
2 | 2A | 15 |
2 | 2B | 15 |
The unit of credit is the European Credit (EC). One EC stands for 28 hours of study load. An academic year is 60 EC. The master’s programme of Electrical Engineering takes 120 EC of study load.
Most courses have a study load of 5 EC. This means that a student can cover three courses during each quarter, or twelve courses during a year, adding up to 60 EC. Some courses have a study load of 10 EC: they count for two.
Set-up of the curriculum
The curriculum consists of the following elements:
Year | EC | Topic |
|---|---|---|
First | 20 | Compulsory specialization courses |
First | 5 or 10 | Philosophical and Societal courses |
First | 30 or 35 | Electives (Including possible homologation courses) |
Second | 20 | Traineeship/internship*) |
Second | 40 | Master’s thesis project*) |
*) As the internship and master's thesis are carried out on an individual basis you don't have to take into account the division of the year into quarters during the second year.
Courses of the first year
Philosophical and Societal courses
The course Philosophy of Engineering should be followed by all students. It consists of two parts:
- 201900007 Perspectives on Engineering Design (2.5 EC, Quarter 1B)
- 201100137 Philosophy of Engineering: Ethics (2.5 EC, Quarter 1B)
It is possible to choose a second non-technical course in your course programme.
Specialisation and compulsory courses
As stated under “goals and aims”, one of the aims of the Electrical Engineering master programme is that you will become an advanced specialist in one of the fields of Electrical Engineering. These fields or specialisations are defined by the chairs of the Electrical Engineering department. By joining a chair for your master thesis you choose to specialise in the field covered by this chair.
For each specialisation a standard set of four courses has been chosen that you normally will follow. After discussion with the student the mentor may decide to deviate from this set. Note that these compulsory courses are spread over the year: they will not all be taught at the beginning of your study programme.
Elective courses
Next to the set of four compulsory courses, chosen by the programme mentor, you will have to choose elective courses after discussion with your programme mentor. The purpose of these courses is:
- To acquire some knowledge in specialisations, adjacent to your specialisation (two courses).
- To deepen your knowledge in your own specialisation.
- To add some knowledge from outside your specialisation according to your interests.
In principle, you can choose courses from any university in the world on the condition that the academic level of the course is according to our own standards. The academic level of courses from the following programmes have been approved by the Examination Board:
- University of Twente: the master's subjects, offered by the studies in Electrical Engineering, Embedded systems, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics, Nanotechnology and Sustainable Energy Technology.
- The Technical University in Delft and the Technical University in Eindhoven: the master's subjects, as listed for the study in Electrical Engineering.
- If subjects are included that do not fulfil the above, then approval will have to be obtained from the examination board.
The second year: Internship and Master’s thesis project
The second year consists entirely of practical work. First you can carry out an internship in a company anywhere in the world. After this, your master’s programme is completed with a master’s thesis research project in the research group of your specialisation. See the pages dedicated to these subjects for more information:
Homologation courses
Students, entering the Electrical Engineering master’s programme may have missed some courses during their bachelor’s programme which are important as prior knowledge for the master’s programme. To gain this knowledge homologation or bridging courses may be included to their course programme instead of one or more elective courses. The total study load of the programme will be kept at 120 EC.
Premaster’s programme
For students from professional universities (mainly Dutch HBO-universities) a premaster’s programme has been created to add knowledge in Math and some introductory parts of Electrical Engineering.
The premaster’s programme is a separate programme. After successful completion, students are admitted to the master’s programme.
Adaptations of the master’s programme
Students from Dutch professional universities will replace their internship by an individual project (10EC). The remaining 10EC can be spent to homologation courses related to the chosen specialisation.
If a student from elsewhere has completed a premaster’s programme a decision about the internship will be taken on an individual basis.