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Lead the way in digitalisation for a smart, sustainable society

Information Sciences

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Are you keen to guide organisations, the business world and society at large in responsible digital transformation? Then the one-year, full-time Information Sciences programme at VU Amsterdam may be the perfect choice for you.

Our Information Sciences Master’s is the number one programme of its kind in the Netherlands: it is the frontrunner when it comes to responsible, sustainable and socially aware software and data systems – the new kind of ICT that’s essential for a thriving smart society. Having completed this Master’s programme, you’ll be both an all-round ICT professional and a specialist in this future-proof approach!

The programme has a unique multidisciplinary focus on digital socio-technical systems and sustainability in a broad sense. Teaching is composed of compulsory core courses, a selection of elective courses, and a Master’s project in Information Sciences. For your project, you can choose to take a professional internship with a partner organisation or carry out cutting-edge research on a topic of your choice. Either way, the programme culminates with writing a thesis on your chosen project. 

To offer you even more professional expertise, the faculty has close contacts with local, national and international trade and industry. New developments are integrated seamlessly into the programme all the time. Faculty staff work with consultancy firms, the financial services sector, the music industry, electricity suppliers, cultural institutions and many more.

The start date of this programme is September 1st.

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Content of the programme

The Master programme Information Sciences educates a new generation of IT academic professionals who create inclusive and sustainable socio-technical systems to support the needs of modern society and organizations. Our education specializes in the creative exploration of complex multidisciplinary problems and a broad understanding of the role of IT in creating a sustainable digital society. 

The programme has a unique multidisciplinary focus on digitalization and sustainability: it addresses a modern notion of information systems as socio-technical systems that combine competencies for a digital society (in line with the VU research theme Connected World) and Digital Sustainability (in line with the VU research theme Science for Sustainability). 

Courses on offer cover topics like digitalization and sustainability, digital architecture, the disruption of eco-systems by IT, questions of ethics and privacy, and a digital transition and sustainability portfolio course.

Research is also an important component of the programme – especially when it comes to writing your Master’s thesis. You’ll therefore take an academic research course that teaches you both qualitative and quantitative methodologies for performing academic research. And you’ll apply these methods directly to the design of your thesis.

Based on your thesis design, you’ll carry out your Master Project Information Sciences, which takes the form of either an internship or a research project.

Student journeys

You can tailor the curriculum of the Information Sciences programme to meet your career goals. There are three suggested student journeys that can help you to prepare for various career paths: 

See also the study guide for a complete overview of the study programme. Or download the year schedule directly. 

Compulsory courses

  • Master Project Information Sciences
  • Digitalization and Sustainability
  • Knowledge Organization
  • Digital Architecture
  • The Social Web
  • Research Methodology and Thesis Design

You can find the complete course overview for this year in the study guide. 

Information Sciences Advisory Board

Information Sciences Advisory Board

To ensure our graduates are equipped with the right knowledge and skills needed for the current labour market, the content and exit qualifications of the programme are reviewed every year by our Professional Advisory Board. The Professional Advisory Board is composed by engaged professionals and excellent alumni of the Master Information Sciences.

Members Information Sciences Advisory Board

Jannie Minnema Managing Director European Operations at FarmTrace
Jannie looks forward to sharing her experience gained from working in private and public sector organisations at the intersection of Technology, Education and Innovation.

Bas van der Raadt enterprise architect, founder hapsah.org
Bas is an experienced enterprise architect with a broad spectrum of knowledge and skills. He knows how to connect people within the business and tech domains, and guide them from abstract concepts to concrete implementations.

Martin van den Berg researcher and lecturer at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht
At the moment his main roles are researcher and lecturer at the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht in the areas of Artificial Intelligence and Enterprise Architecture. Martin loves the combination of teaching and research. His current research topics are explainable AI, anti-fragility and digital transformation.

Floris de Jong IT Trainee at Nederlandse Spoorwegen
A recent graduate of the Information Sciences Master, Floris has just started his professional career as an IT Trainee at Nederlandse Spoorwegen. He is keen to represent a new generation's perspectives on matters such as a just sustainable transition, academic education, and professional life.

Integration within research and partnership networks

The Master in Information Sciences builds on the world-class reputation of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the areas of software and sustainability, user-centric data science and decentralized information society engineering. The programme is also actively involved in the Network Institute (NI), the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute (ASI) and the Digital Sustainability Center (DISC). The NI is a joint initiative in which the Faculty of Science, School of Business & Economics and Faculty of Social Sciences work together. The ASI provides an inclusive umbrella for sustainability-related research across all disciplines. The DISC is a center of excellence under the umbrella of the ASI. Students enrolled in the Master Information Sciences have an opportunity to conduct research projects at one of the partner institutes, which enables to combine academic excellence, relevance for practice, and societal impact.

Want to know more about the curriculum of the programme?

Please contact the pre-master coordinator

Zubaria Inayat
z.inayat@vu.nl