Masters Degrees in Social Work, Netherlands

MSc Health and Society Specialisation

If you are interested in solving societally relevant, complex health issues, then Wageningen is the place to be! In the specialisation Health and Society students become context-sensitive experts in the domains of science and health promotion. Health and Society studies the social and behavioural aspects of health and health promotion, but also other factors that affects health, for instance the organization of the food system and the interaction between individuals and the physical environment.

Programme summary

Health is a resource that enables people to lead an individually, socially and economically productive life. For many centuries, the care for individual and population health has been the domain of medical sciences. However, it is widely acknowledged that contemporary health problems are complex and cannot be solved by simply extending existing health services. Chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes are important contributors to the burden of disease; as are communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmittable diseases.

There is no single cause to such health problems. Biological factors aside, lifestyle and the social and physical environment are major contributors in both a positive and negative way. Many diseases are related to the way in which people behave and take care of their own health, for example, substance abuse (smoking, alcohol, drugs), nutrition, physical exercise, and sexual behaviour. Lifestyles are often rooted in the social environment of family and friends, the neighbourhood, and the school and working environment. Aspects of the physical environment also affect individual and population health including housing conditions, environmental pollution, the availability of green space, and the availability and accessibility of health services. Moreover, societal changes, such as demography (e.g. aging populations, single parent families), consumption patterns, communication technology developments, globalisation and commercialisation influence the health status of individuals and populations.

Since health is influenced by such a diversity of interconnected factors, the development of cross border public health policies is essential. Within the health care system, organisations and professionals have to increasingly work together in the provision of care, prevention and health promotion. The set-up of the programme reflects its focus on societal issues in the domain of health, health promotion and health care systems. The programme covers a niche in the Netherlands by primarily taking a sociological approach to this domain, centralising the link between health and human relationships. Here, human relationships are interaction patterns and dependencies both differing in nature, scope and intensity. In conjunction with this sociological approach, anthropological and social psychological approaches are key to the social scientific analysis of health within the program.

The study programme takes a comparative perspective with respect to the empowerment of individuals, communities and populations. In other words, to what degree do people have the (financial) means to arrange their lives and are they able to use facilities for health protection and health improvement. This way, emphasis is on the societal embedding of health and activities of health promotion in relation to social processes, structures and institutions. Together with sociology, the programme combines the domains communication science and health promotion but also includes perspectives from economics, management and public policy.

Specialisation

The Health and Society programme is already a specialisation. However, depending on education background and personal interests, the programme schedule may vary.

Your future career

The Health and Society study domain is becoming more and more relevant as a consequence of changing patterns in health problems and the factors influencing health. Policymakers are becoming more aware of the impact of health policy; and recent national and international policy documents have emphasised the importance of health promotion. The improvement and sustainability of acceptable levels of health remains a major challenge. This specialisation prepares you for careers as researchers, health promoters, health policy advisors or managers of health-oriented organisations.

Student Sofia Sutherland Borja.
Sofia comes from Chile where she finished her BSc in Nutrition and Dietetics. In her MSc internship at the Standing Committee on Nutrition at the United Nations in Geneva, she worked on policies related to Public Health Nutrition. “For me, this has been a great opportunity to experience at first-hand how nutrition promotion policies are developed, and also meet influential people in the field I’m passionate about. Health and Society was the perfect complement to my background in Nutrition and Dietetics, because I can now approach nutrition problems from both a medical and social perspective.”

Related programmes:
MSc Management, Economics and Consumer Studies
MSc International Development Studies
MSc Applied Communication Science
MSc Development and Rural Innovation

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Developing an eye for the diversity in backgrounds and for the difference in treatments and policies these diversities require.
Girls discuss the same problems differently to boys. Immigrants frequently exhibit pathology different to natives. How can this be? And how do you deal with this? This Master’s specialisation focuses on the diversities in youth care. Diversities in the area of ethnicity, religion, gender and social-economic class. You will develop an eye for the diversity in backgrounds and for the difference in treatments and policies these diversities require.
The Master’s specialisation in Diversities in Youth Care challenges you to look differently at care giving and welfare policies. You will gain specific knowledge and develop a sixth sense on the health care needs of young people. You will broaden your vision. How come fewer immigrants accept (certain forms of) help? How can you make homosexuality a subject of discussion in certain cultures? You will look beyond your own values and differentiate between your own ethical beliefs and cultural values and universal beliefs.
Upon graduating you will be an expert in the area of diversities in youth care. Besides plenty of knowledge, skills and – if you want – experience abroad, you will have a dose of cultural relativism. Why do we do it like that? How could we do it differently? You can use this in your work as remedial educationalist or policy maker. After graduating you will be able to work in and outside of the Netherlands at (development) organisations and institutions in the fields of youth care, education, adoption and refugee relief.

See the website http://www.ru.nl/masters/youthcare

Why study Diversities in Youth Care at Radboud University?

- You may pick electives from different Master’s programmes like Religious Studies, Cultural Anthropology and Management Science. These electives fit in well with the programme Diversities in Youth Care. More information can be found on the programme outline page.

- There is plenty of opportunity to go abroad for an elective or an internship. Our network includes a university and relief organisations in Bangladesh, foster homes and orphanages in Romania and the Ukraine and schools in several African countries.

- Radboud University has the only education and research institute in the Netherlands within the field of social sciences which specialises in gender and sexuality: Institute for Gender Studies (IGS). This means you will have access to the latest and most relevant research.

- The programme collaborates with the knowledge centre Sekse en Diversiteit in Medisch Onderwijs (SDMO) (i.e. Gender and Diversity in Medical Education) of Radboudumc. We exchange case studies and give one another guest lectures. You will profit from this exchange of knowledge!

Change perspective

This programme will continually challenge you to adjust your point of view. To look beyond your own values. What is the dividing line between your ethical beliefs and those of the other people? And at what point have universal values been seriously affected?
You are taught to look at it from the point of view of a child growing up in poverty, of a homosexual youth, of someone with a Moroccan father and a Dutch mother, of a child living in a reconstituted family or in a family with strong religious beliefs. You are taught to continually look at issues from someone else’s perspective. In other words, to be flexible when it comes to making judgements and having expectations. Changing your perspective is the very core of this programme.

Career prospects

Upon completing this Master’s specialisation, you will be an expert in youth care concerning diverse backgrounds and personal traits. There is a large need for professionals who know how to deal with homosexual immigrants, with children who don’t speak the local language or youths that have been traumatised by war. Such knowledge and experience are gained in this programme. You will have a flexible view of diverse backgrounds and be critical of your own area of expertise. After graduating you will be a remedial educationalist or policy maker with an expertise that organisations are desperately in need of!

Job positions

As a professional in Diversities in Youth Care you can work in and outside of the Netherlands in the area of youth care and development. You can work as a policy maker or researcher in organisations as Unicef, adoption agencies, the EU, local governments or research institutions. You can also work as a remedial educationalist for mental health care organisations, refugee centres or with specific groups of children like refugees or LGBT children.

Our approach to this field

The political and media interest for problems regarding ethnicity, gender and sexuality is huge. How do you deal with it? How do you develop policies? This requires specialist knowledge. Knowledge that goes beyond the borders of a country, a culture and a set of beliefs. The Dutch have a very individualistic approach to happiness while other cultures believe that a happy family unit is more important for one’s own happiness. You will not learn what is wrong and what is right, but how things can be different. This will ensure that the policies you will develop will also be different.

The Master’s specialisation in Diversities in Youth Care will train you to become a specialised caregiver. The programme focuses on social issues in the area of diversity. You can develop a clinical or policymaking approach within youth care and diversities of youth. After graduating you will have knowledge on the role of different backgrounds. Whether it’s about culture, religion or gender, you will be flexible enough to identify various problems and to judge and treat them from the right perspective.

See the website http://www.ru.nl/masters/youthcare

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Our aim is to increase the quality of upbringing, care and education by improving policies and interventions for young people and their social and learning contexts.

Do you want to...
- Explore how interventions can improve the wellbeing of young people, their families, schools, and communities?
- Learn how to successfully implement interventions in child and youth care and education?
- Discuss the role of scientific research in improving interventions and youth policy?

Then this Master's program might be just ideal for you! Completing this program equips you with
- State-of-the-art knowledge of youth research, practices, and policy, how they are linked and how can improve eachother
- The skills to design, carry out, and evaluate youth policy and interventions using interdisciplinary and international insights
- A reflexive, critical attitude towards youth policies, practices and innovations

Our teaching approach means that students actively shape their learning and benefit from the vast expertise on youth in society and policy in our department. In addition to lectures, seminars, and in collaborative learning communities, you will gain valuable work experience during an internship and tackle a research problem in your thesis. The expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods and spectrum of research topics in our department are unique in the Netherlands and enable you to follow a program that fits your interests and prepares you for a variety of professional roles.

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The Master’s programme in Pedagogical Sciences has two English and five Dutch specialisations, each aimed at a certain development domain. Your programme will consist of a few general subjects and two courses that are specifically geared to your specialisation of choice. Coaching is an important part of the programme. The coaching skills you learn can be used in a profession where the role of remedial educationalists is becoming more and more important.

See the website http://www.ru.nl/masters/pedagogicalsciences

Why study Pedagogical Sciences at Radboud University?

- In 2014, the programme was named the best Master’s programme within this field by the Keuzegids Masters.

- You’ve got some freedom when picking your courses. You choose one of seven Master’s specialisations and can still take (additional) courses belonging to other specialisations. The schedule is geared to this: electives are never taught simultaneously.

- Teaching takes place in small groups allowing for plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion.

- Upon completing your programme, you have a broad pedagogical basis and are specialised in a certain field.

- You will be trained according to the scientist-practitioner model. This means that you will navigate between science and practice. Your actions in the field are based on academic theories and in turn you’ll test your experiences in the field to the same theories. Your teachers, all experts in their field, will help you make the link between application and research.

- In most instances, when you’ve completed your Master’s programme in Pedagogical Sciences you will also receive a diagnostic certification. This will allow you to further develop in the clinical professional within the Netherlands.

Specialisations in Pedagogical Sciences

Read more about the specialisations in Pedagogical Sciences, including comprehensive information on our approach to this field, the programme outline and career prospects. Two are offered in English and the rest are taught in Dutch.

- Diversities in Youth Care
The specialisation Diversities in Youth Care challenges you to look at care giving and welfare policies differently. You will gain specific knowledge and develop a sixth sense on the health care needs of young people.

- Gifted Education
You will learn how to identify the needs of a gifted pupil. Giftedness is more than IQ. You will study how personal characteristic abilities, and surroundings influence each other. You will investigate the conflict between stimulating talent and being fearful of doing so.

Specialisaton 1: Diversities in Youth Care

The specialisation Diversities in Youth Care challenges you to look at care giving and welfare policies differently. You will gain specific knowledge and develop a sixth sense on the health care needs of young people.
In this programme you can focus on policy, research and/or counseling. Moreover you can choose a specific target group or theme (e.g. ethnic minorities, sex, sexuality) and follow courses like ‘Gender and Diversities in Organizations', 'Poverty, Wellbeing and Social Justice', 'Migratie en Interreligieuze Studies', 'Feminist Classics', and ‘Community Outreach Project'. You are encouraged to match both the practical training and the writing of your master thesis with the subject of your interest. We will facilitate your practical training abroad in the spring semester.

Specialisation 2: Gifted Education

You will learn how to identify the needs of a gifted pupil. Giftedness is more than IQ. You will study how personal characteristic abilities, and surroundings influence each other. You will investigate the conflict between stimulating talent and being fearful of doing so.
In lectures and study groups (one of which will be in a university abroad) about learning processes and learning environment, the Master's student will gain insights in the specific characteristics and problems of students in general and gifted children, adolescents and young adults in particular. In the course ‘Educating the Gifted' you will focus on specific research and practices concerning gifted education and work on practical cases of individuals and/or groups of gifted students.
You will improve your academic research skills and learn about diagnostics and treatment of problems related to giftedness, and you will learn to apply this theoretical knowledge within a specific educational situation with gifted students. After completing the program students will be able to recognise, analyse and investigate problems concerning giftedness and be able to contribute in the solution of these problems.

See the website http://www.ru.nl/masters/pedagogicalsciences

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Local food security in a globalising world

Food security exists when everybody has access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food at all times. However, various predictable and unpredictable challenges around the globe, including changes in climate (i.e. rising/falling temperatures, droughts and floods, diseases and pests), market tendencies, insufficient access to food for households, unequal distribution of resources and opportunities and inadequate food distribution channels, prevent the realisation of this idealistic and often oversimplified term.

Despite a growing number of large-scale, high-external input farms and enough food production to feed the world, post-harvest losses result in less optimal yields and (locally) produced foods are often used for other purposes, such as animal feed or biofuel. Consequentially, 795 million1 undernourished people around the globe do not have access to this lost and wasted food.

Ensuring access to food for everyone is the key to ending hunger, which will require improved collaboration between various stakeholders - producer (organisations), the private sector, governments, traders and development organisations. Structures, policies and programmes must be continuously adapted to a variety of external factors, such as the economy, environment and current social structures. Rethinking of informal rules and habits is another essential step in attaining food security, considering even members of the same household are not guaranteed equal access to food. In light of these external factors and challenges, this specialisation presents various interventions needed to combat hunger and ensure food security for everyone.

Competences

At graduation, you will have the ability to:
• define the economic, commercial and marketing needs, constraints and opportunities of those in rural communities who produce for local and regional markets
• analyse food security at a local and global level
• apply tools for diagnosing food security
• analyse the livelihoods of farmers who produce for local and regional markets and understand farmers' coping strategies
• select, explain and design an appropriate development intervention leading to food security
• develop support programmes for farmers, producers and other groups
• mainstream food security within Agricultural and rural development programmes
• define the economic, commercoal and marketing needs, constraints and oppertunities for small-scale producers in rural communities
• formulate and recommend any organisational adjustments that are needed within service-delivery organisations.

Career opportunities

Rural Development and Food Security specialists explore effective responses to mal- and undernourishment, by defining needs, constraints, coping strategies and opportunities for small-scale producers in rural communities. In selecting appropriate context-specific interventions, which reflect understanding of the local context in its wider context, they consider stakeholder relationships and how collaboration could be organised to each stakeholder’s benefit while helping farmers to safeguard their ability to ensure local food security. In the face of globalisation, slow economic growth and political instability, specialists may design and implement responses for (non-)governmental organisations or partners in the private sector, in the form of projects, programmes, market structures or policies.

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The European Master Care and Technology is a two-year programme for professionals in health care provision. It provides students with the theoretical ability and hands-on expertise to drive innovation in their place of work.

YEAR 1

During the first year, students are introduced to the field of care and technology. They learn about methods for user-centred design and development. In addition, they gain insight in user-orientation, business and innovation. Focusing on a topic of their choice, students start working on a research and development plan. This is the groundwork for a Master’s thesis that is to be completed at the end of the programme.All practical assignments are related to the student’s own workplace. This means students acquire highly relevant knowledge and skills.

YEAR 2

During the second year, students focus on strategies and methods for implementation. These are demonstrated and used during group assignments on different subjects relevant to the student’s place of work. Students fine-tune their research and development proposal and execute their research and development plan. Next, they write their Master’s thesis. Students conclude the programme with a thesis defence in front of a committee.

THROUGHOUT THE PROGRAMME

Throughout the programme, students conduct research on a topic that is relevant and important to their own workplace. As a result, their Master’s thesis is a valuable document for their organization. It reflects the rich and varied learning environment from which the students benefit during the programme. They develop close relationships with fellow students from a wide variety of backgrounds and nationalities. They spend seven one-week periods at the campuses of partner institutions participating in the programme. This provides them with first-hand insight into the differences in the area of health and technology within Europe.

Expert in care and technology

The core theme of the European Master Care and Technology is: “Link insight in human functioning to knowledge of technological developments in an innovative and scientific approach using strategies of co-creation to develop new approaches in - long term - care.”

A student who has successfully completed the programme, qualifies as an Expert in Care and Technology. This title reflects the wide range of skills acquired in order to contribute to all phases of the product innovation cycle. Graduates are competent professionals who are able to initiate and implement innovative approaches to health care delivery. They help their organizations move forward.

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