The curriculum of your study programme depends on your choice out of three methodological specialisations:

• empirical-analytical
• interpretative
• and mixed methods (with mandatory internship or mandatory fieldwork).

You will follow compulsory and elective methods courses within the chosen methods specialisation.

The first year consists of three blocks:

Block 1

During the first block, students will follow two general courses on social theory and research ethics In the first block. Students also have the opportunity to get acquainted with the programme and staff members, and to choose their (thematic and) methodological specialisation.

Block 2 and 3

In the second and third block, the methodological specialisation consists of a compulsory methods course, followed by a series of methods electives and other compulsory courses. The thematic course work consists of thematic electives and a reading course (optional).

The second year consists of two semesters.

Semester 1

In the first semester, depending on the methodological specialisation, students go on fieldwork, an internship and/or a number of methods courses.

Students go on fieldwork to gain experience in doing qualitative in-depth research. The data gathered during the fieldwork is used for the research project resulting in the thesis of the student. The aim of the internship is to gain experience in doing research in the field of social sciences in an on-going research project. The internship can be internal or external to the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research.

Semester 2

The second semester consists of independent research and thesis writing  in the form of an academic article or a monograph. All students follow three short workshops in Academic and Professional skills as well.

The Master's thesis is based on individual research by the student and will be published in the form of a monograph or manuscript for an academic article.

The programme maintains a high academic standard and is also demanding. We expect you to devote your full attention to your studies for the duration of the programme and estimate as an average a 40 hours workload a week. The programme offers a combination teaching methods: small-sized reading seminars and group discussions, supervised hands-on training during methods courses or in the field, and incidental frontal lectures.

In the research master's programme there is a strong(er) focus on methodology courses. Students also develop their own individual thesis project, and receive individual thesis supervision. The two-year research master's also offers more time to gain in depth knowledge and allows you to develop the skills necessary to carry out high quality social scientific research.

In the first year, all students have a tutor, who functions as the bridge between students and the research programmes affiliated with the departments of Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science. There are three tutors in the programme, and they have the following responsibilities:

• introducing students to relevant program groups and UvA researchers
• helping students to develop their research ideas and find a research topic
• suggesting staff members for an individual reading course
• helping students to find an internship(supervisor) and thesis supervisor(s)

Students in the Interpretative methods specialisation and Mixed Methods with mandatory Fieldwork specialisation undertake fulltime fieldwork of 24 EC, in their second year, from the beginning September until the Christmas break. You can do your fieldwork within the Netherlands or abroad. Check the student site for more information about the fieldwork.

Students in these methods specialisations can also choose to do less extensive fieldwork of 15 EC, in case they want to do an internship as well. Check the student site for more information about the internship.

Students in the Empirical-Analytical methods specialisation and Mixed Methods with Mandatory internship follow a mandatory internship of 12 EC, in the first semester of the second year. For students in the other methods specialisations the internship is optional, and smaller (9 EC). Check the student site for more information about the internship.