VU Amsterdam scholarships
International students planning to apply for the Master’s Computer Security can apply for a variety of university-wide grants and bursaries. Detailed information about scholarships and deadlines can be found on www.vu.nl/scholarships or www.grantfinder.nl.
Teaching assistantships
Non-EU/ non-EEA students who have already applied and have been admitted to the Master’s Computer Security can apply for a Teaching Assistantship (TA) to provide financial aid during their studies.
The TA position is for 0.2 FTE.
- What you do: you serve as teaching assistant for one programming or systems-oriented course in each period of the Computer Science Bachelor (BSc).
- Time commitment: around 1 day a week alongside your studies.
- Salary: approximately 500 EUR/month. Salaries are set according to the standard university scales.
- Duration: each position is renewable every 6 months and available for the entire duration of your Master’s studies (typically two years).
The position is typically concerned with helping students with practical assignments, preparing/grading assignments, etc. The tentative lineup of BSc courses for the TA position is as follows (you can check details for each course in the study guide for the Bachelor Computer Science):
- Operating Systems (Y2 - P2) / Secure Programming (Y3 - P2)
- Compiler Construction (Y3 - P3)
- Computer (Y1 - P4)
- Computer Networks (Y1 - P5)
- Systems Programming Project (Y1 - P6) / Security and Safety Engineering (Y2 - P6)
How do teaching assistantships work?
For each academic year, the department determines the maximum number of long-term Teaching Assistants (TAs) that can be hired. This means a selection may be needed among all suitable candidates. Selected candidates will be notified shortly after and invited to a welcome meeting. The welcome meeting will typically be scheduled in June. At the meeting they will be informed of the procedures and assigned to courses for the first semester.
Note: students must have completed enrolment procedures before the welcome meeting. Students must have also received their residency permit at least two months before their contract starts. Due to the processing times at the VU immigration and HR departments, the earliest possible start date of the contract is 1 October. During October, the teaching assistants will be preparing for the course they will be assigned to in period 2 (November-December).
There will be another meeting with all teaching assistants before the end of each semester (e.g., in December for the first semester) to decide whether to continue the position and assign them to courses in the next semester.
For students that cannot be hired as long-term TAs, there is the option to apply to be a TA for (one or more) individual courses, which will involve a brief selection process by the course coordinator of each individual course.
How to apply for a teaching assistantship?
If you wish to apply (only after being notified you have been admitted to the CSec Master), you need to submit a teaching statement detailing your approach and experience in teaching & support and how your experience is a good match to supervise/prepare/grade practical assignments in each one of the courses in the tentative lineup. Please explicitly (and briefly) comment on each course in the tentative lineup in your statement. You can also comment on other matching courses in the BSc curriculum (which may later require TAs). You can find the complete list of courses in the study guide.
You can send your teaching statement, along with your existing CSec application (CV, transcript, etc.), to csec-tas@vucompsys.net.
Do you have any questions? Please contact us via csec-tas@vucompsys.net.
