This Research Master prepares you to become the researcher of the future: someone who uses the latest in big data methods to analyse and help solve tomorrow’s societal problems.
In this Master's programme, you will use computational social science to analyse the social issues of today and tomorrow. It covers different themes: diversity and inclusion, polarization, fake news, governance of algorithms and challenges in care and welfare.
In this small-scale programme, you will have a high degree of autonomy; you can come up with your own ideas, which contribute to your independence and personal development. Moreover, when following this programme, you will receive a lot of personal attention from the teaching staff and have real input on n the programme. This Master's the ideal preparation for a research career in data-intensive organisations, also outside academia. You will gain practical experience through a full-time internship in an organisation or academic department. Students have interned at organisations like the Red Cross, United Nations, Kantar, and Accenture and academic departments at for example Penn State University. In addition, the research staff of VU Amsterdam has strong ties to societal stakeholders, which can boost your career.
You’ll delve into different topics using a variety of data analysis methods, such as advanced data mining algorithms, scraping tools to collect data, qualitative and computational text analysis, and online network analysis. At the same time, you’ll develop communication, self-reflection and project management skills to be able to collaborate in multi-disciplinary teams, all of which will be highly valuable in the job market. Each thematic course is co-taught by senior social scientists from different backgrounds.
This Research Master offers you a unique proposition: while other computational social science programmes focus more on data methods, this Master's applies these methods to real-world problems.
The start date of this Research Master is 1 September.
