Study programme
Four types of courses
Computational Science spans many disciplines and the master’s programme is designed with this in mind. At its core, the programme focuses on the development of models and simulations to understand natural systems. Within the programme there are 4 course types: compulsory core courses, restricted-choice elective courses, restricted-choice professional skills elective courses and free-choice elective courses. A standard study plan consists of 13 courses (78 EC - 6 EC per course) and a graduation project (42 EC, 7-9 months).
- The core compulsory courses cover the central body of knowledge in Computational Science.
- The restricted-choice courses offer breadth and depth, allowing you to either deepen your knowledge in core topics or broaden your scope into new areas.
- The free-choice elective courses offer the option to take courses in application domains — ideal if you want to specialise your graduation project in a particular field.
- The restricted-choice professional skills elective courses strengthen competences required by the professional field, such as academic writing, research methodology, and scientific communication.
Please note that the number of courses in the curriculum may deviate depending on the chosen elective courses. For detailed information regarding the curriculum and courses, please see the UvA Course Catalogue.
A study plan may differ per student and students are allowed to design their own study plan with the condition that the CLS Examinations Board must approve the study plan in question.
Course information
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The first year
The first year is dedicated to core Computational Science courses covering computing and algorithms, modelling and simulation, large-scale data processing and multidisciplinary collaboration. Alongside these, you choose restricted-choice and free-choice elective courses from an extensive list spanning both universities.
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The second year
The restricted-choice courses let you deepen your knowledge in central concepts of Computational Science, in either computing or modelling and simulation.
Free-choice elective courses help you prepare for your Master’s Thesis, which will be conducted in a scientific group at one of the universities in Amsterdam, or at partner institutes at the Science Park (such as CWI, NIKHEF, AMOLF, AMC and the NKI), or externally in industry, at another institution, or abroad. Students in the Finance & Economics application domain often carry out their Master's thesis at a financial institute such as 'de Nederlandse Bank'.
Computational Science thesis projects are scientific projects with the potential to complement the existing body of knowledge in Computational Science. These projects often result in a publication in a scientific journal. Here you can download a list of publications of our Master's students.
Good to know: the annual UvA Thesis Fair connects experts from industry with students of informatics, resulting in innovative graduation thesis projects. Find out more about the UvA Thesis Fair.
Master Thesis Computational Science
Some example abstracts of recent of Master's theses of our graduates:
In the MSc Computational Science, you will learn to:
- translate real-world phenomena into computational models — from first-principles physics to data-driven approaches.
- develop, implement, and validate numerical methods and simulation algorithms for complex multi-scale systems.
- use machine learning and statistical techniques as tools to enhance, accelerate, or complement your models.
- scale computations to run on supercomputers and modern HPC infrastructure.
- analyse, visualise, and communicate results to both scientific peers and domain experts.
To achieve these goals, you will have access to some of the most advanced computing, networking, storage and visualisation facilities in the world.
Graduation in different application domains
You graduate with deep knowledge of core computational science concepts — complex systems modelling, multi-scale simulation, numerical analysis — and you can specialise in an application domain such as Computational Biology, Computational Finance, Computational Medicine, or others. You can use the elective courses to take specific courses in application domains and perform your research in helping solving domain-specific problems in collaboration with domain experts.
Pre-Master's programme
The Admissions Board may decide that you do not meet the entry requirements for admission to the Master’s programme. In some cases, they might advise to complete a Pre-Master’s programme first. Students can submit a request for admission to the Minor Computational Science (30 EC) at the UvA. This minor programme is the Pre-Master’s programme and will train you in mathematics and programming in preparation for the Master's programme. The minor programme runs from September to January. Students who successfully complete the minor programme are admitted to the Master’s programme in the subsequent academic year.
Accreditation and academic title
Degree requirements
A Master of Science in Computational Science is awarded upon successful completion of all the core courses in the curriculum and a written Master's thesis based on an independent research project. This translates into a total of 120 EC credits.
Accreditation
The Master's programme in Computational Science has been legally accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). This means that upon successful completion of the programme, you will receive a legally accredited Master's degree in Computational Science and the title of Master of Science (MSc).
Bring your own device
All students enrolled in Computational Science are requested to bring their own laptop due to the nature of the programme. More information on specific system requirements can be found here.