The re-accreditation of Research Master Brain and Cognitive Sciences has been reaffirmed until May 2017 and given a very positive report by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO).

Excellent standard achieved

The KNAW assessed the standard which students reached upon completing their Master's programmes as being excellent. The discipline specific requirements, academic learning requirements, the balance between structure and content and the quality of academic staff were assessed as good by the committee.

Good research environment

The KNAW review committee stated that ‘the programme is embedded in a high-quality research environment [...] with good interaction between teaching and research.' They rated the final level reached by students highly, finding them to be ‘very ambitious'. The report also noted that ‘the research theses are of a very high level; lecturers and management emanate excellence".

The committee also stated that ‘the programme stimulates integration between the different perspectives of the three study programme tracks: neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience and cognitive science.' In addition, the committee ‘noted with satisfaction that the study programme is a learning organisation'

Interdisciplinary institutes

The Research Master Brain and Cognitive Sciences is an initiative of the Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, an interdisciplinary research platform within the University of Amsterdam and lead institution of the research priority area ‘Brain and Cognition'. The organisation of the study programme has been coordinated by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies since 2004. Currently, 104 students from all over the world are enrolled in the study programme.