Masters Degrees in Software Engineering, Netherlands

A solid, theoretical understanding of computer technology with plenty of attention for the wide range of ICT applications.

The enormous and rapidly growing power of ICT is the main driving force shaping our modern society. This goes beyond the technical and economical aspects. ICT is also essential in research as all sciences benefit from the raw power of software in processing huge quantities of data. But how do we manage and control the complexity of modern software? How can we make the most of the opportunities? And, not to be forgotten, how can we secure the ICT infrastructures we so heavily rely on? The Master’s programme in Computing Science covers all these aspects.

We offer specialisations in each terrain: security, software, data and the mathematics at the base of it all. These are not, however, isolated disciplines. We also look at the interesting interplay between them. For example, by taking privacy into account when dealing with big data. And by doing a thorough analysis of newly designed software to prevent security breaches later. Thanks to a large number of optional courses, you can decide where you want your focus to be.

The job opportunities in computer science are excellent: many of our students get offered jobs before they’ve even graduated and almost all have positions within six months after graduating. Many of our graduates find jobs as systems builders, ICT specialists or ICT managers and a few continue as researchers.

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

Specialisations

- Cyber Security
You’ll learn to assess the security of existing ICT solutions, and how to develop more secure solutions for the future. This specialisation is offered in collaboration with the Eindhoven University of Technology, meaning you get taught by many of the best cyber security experts in the country.

- Data Science
You’ll learn how to turn real-world data sets into tools and useful insights, with the help of software and algorithms. Radboud University and the iCIS research institute are leading in research on legal and privacy aspects of data science and on the societal and administrative impact of data science.

- Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science
You’ll come to understand the fundamental mathematical concepts of computation and information in order to stretch the boundaries of computer technology. We’re the only specialisation in the country – and one of the few in the world – to focus on the theoretical and abstract playing field linking mathematics and computer science.

- Software Science
You’ll learn how to design high-level software that guarantees safety while controlling its complexity. At Radboud University, we are specialised in model based development. In other words, writing and testing code before they are unleashed in the real world or built into an expensive prototype.

- Societal Master's specialisations
You can either follow one of the above-mentioned research Master's specialisations as a whole (2 years), or you can combine the first year of the research specialisation with an additional year of one of the societal Master’s specialisations, namely:
- Science in Society
- Science, Management and Innovation

Why study Computing Science at Radboud University?

- All of our specialisations are closely related to the research carried out within the Institute for Computing and Information Science (iCIS).
- Our approach is pragmatic as well as theoretical. As an academic, we don’t just expect you to understand and make use of the appropriate tools, but also to program and develop your own.
- There are plenty of high profile companies in the vicinity such as Philips and ASML, where you could do an internship or the research for your Master’s project.
- Exceptional students who choose the Data Science specialisation have the opportunity to do a double degree in Computing Science together with the specialisation in Web and Language Interaction (Artificial Intelligence). This will take three instead of two years.

Career prospects

There is a serious shortage of well-trained information specialists. Often students are offered a job before they have actually finished their study. About 20% of our graduates choose to go on to do a PhD but most find jobs as systems builders, ICT specialists or ICT managers in the private sector or within government.

Our research in this field

The Institute for Computing and Information Science (iCIS) is the research institute that is connected to Radboud University. Within this institute there are three research sections:
- Model Based System Development
- Digital Security
- Intelligent Systems

Within each research section there are different departments/groups that have their own research. On the websites of the research sections you will find more information about their research, publications, the departments/groups and contact information.

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

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Learning how to turn real-world data sets into tools and useful insights, with the help of software and algorithms.

Data plays a role in almost every scientific discipline, business industry or social organisation. Medical scientists sequence human genomes, astronomers generate terabytes of data per hour with huge telescopes and the police employ seismology-like data models that predict where crimes will occur. And of course, businesses like Google and Amazon are shifting user preference data to fulfil desires we don’t even know we have. There is therefore an urgent need for data scientists in whole array of fields. In the Master’s specialisation in Data Science you’ll learn how to turn data into knowledge with the help of computers and how to translate that knowledge into solutions.

Although this Master’s is an excellent stepping-stone for students with ambitions in research, most of our graduates work as data consultants and data analysts for commercial companies and governmental organisations.

Why study Data Science at Radboud University?

- This specialisation builds on the strong international reputation of the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS) in areas such as machine learning, probabilistic modelling, and information retrieval.
- We’re leading in research on legal and privacy aspects of data science and on the impact of data science on society and policy.
- Our approach is pragmatic as well as theoretical. As an academic, we don’t just expect you to understand and make use of the appropriate tools, but also to program and develop your own.
- Because of its relevance to all kinds of different disciplines, we offer our students the chance to take related courses at other departments like at language studies (information retrieval and natural language processing), artificial intelligence (machine learning for cognitive neuroscience), chemistry (pattern recognition and chemometrics) and biophysics (machine learning and optimal control).
- The job opportunities are excellent: some of our students get offered jobs before they’ve even graduated and almost all of our graduates have positions within six months after graduating.
- Exceptional students who choose this specialisation have the opportunity to study for a double degree in Computing Science together with the specialisation in Web and Language Interaction (Artificial Intelligence). This will take three instead of two years.

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

Admission requirements for international students

- A proficiency in English
In order to take part in the programme, you need to have fluency in English, both written and spoken. Non-native speakers of English without a Dutch Bachelor's degree or VWO diploma need one of the following:
- TOEFL score of >550 (paper based) or >213 (computer based) or >80 (internet based)
- IELTS score of >6.0
- Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) or Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE), with a mark of C or higher

Career prospects

A professional data scientist has fine problem-solving, analytical, programming, and communication skills. He or she applies those skills to analyse a problem in the light of the available real-world data:
- To come up with a creative and useful solution.
- To find or program the right tool to turn the data into knowledge.
- To communicate the obtained findings to others.

By combining data, computing power and human intellect, data scientists can make a real difference to help and improve our society.

The job perspective for our graduates is excellent. Industry desperately needs data science specialists at an academic level, and thus our graduates have no difficulty in find an interesting and challenging job. A few of our graduates decide to go for a PhD and stay at the university, but most of our students go for a career in industry. They then typically either find a job at a larger company as consultant or data analysis, or start up their own company in data analytics.

Examples of companies where our graduates end up include SMEs like Orikami, Media11 and FlexOne, and multinationals like ING Bank, Philips, ASML, Capgemini, Booking.com and perhaps even Google.

Our approach to this field

Data nowadays plays a role in almost every scientific discipline as well as industry and is rapidly becoming a key driver of scientific discoveries, business innovation, and solutions for societal challenges such as better healthcare. Medical scientists are sequencing and analysing human genomes to uncover clues to infections, cancer, and other diseases. With huge telescopes, astronomers generate terabytes of data per hour to study the formation of galaxies and the evolution of quasars. Businesses like Google and Amazon are sifting social networking and user preference data to fulfill desires we don't even know we have. Police employing seismology-like data models can predict where crimes will occur and prevent them from happening.

It is then with good reason that data science has been called the sexiest job of the 21st century. Many companies complain about the difficulty to find skilled data scientists and predict this to be even harder in the future. A professional data scientist has fine problem-solving, analytical, programming, and communication skills. He or she applies those skills to analyse a problem in the light of the available real-world data, to come up with a creative and useful solution, to find or program the right tool to turn the data into knowledge, and to communicate the obtained findings to others. By combining data, computing power and human intellect, data scientists can make a real difference to help and improve our society.

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

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In this Master's specialisation, mathematicians working in areas pertinent to (theoretical) computer science, like algebra and logic, and theoretical computer scientists, working in areas as formal methods and theorem proving, have joined forces to establish a specialisation in the Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science. The programme is unique in the Netherlands and will be built on the excellence of both research institutes and the successful collaborations therein.
The emphasis of the Master's is on a combination of a genuine theoretical and up-to-date foundation in the pertinent mathematical subjects combined with an equally genuine and up-to-date training in key aspects of theoretical computer science. For this reason, the mathematics courses in this curriculum concentrate on Algebra, Complexity Theory, Logic, Number Theory, and Combinatorics. The computer science courses concentrate on Formal Methods, Type Theory, Category Theory, Coalgebra and Theorem Proving.
Within both institutes, ICIS and WINST, there is a concentration of researchers working on mathematical logic and theoretical computer science with a collaboration that is unique in the Netherlands. The research topics range from work on algebra, logic and computability, to models of distributed, parallel and quantum computation, as well as mathematical abstractions to reason about programmes and programming languages.

See the website http://www.ru.nl/masters/mathematics/foundations

Admission requirements for international students

1. A completed Bachelor's degree in Mathematics or Computer Science
In order to get admission to this Master’s you will need a completed Bachelor's in mathematics or computer science that have a strong mathematical background and theoretical interests. We will select students based on their motivation and their background. Mathematical maturity is essential and basic knowledge of logic and discrete mathematics is expected.

2. A proficiency in English
In order to take part in the programme, you need to have fluency in English, both written and spoken. Non-native speakers of English without a Dutch Bachelor's degree or VWO diploma need one of the following:
- TOEFL score of ≥575 (paper based) or ≥90 (internet based)
- IELTS score of ≥6.5
- Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) or Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE), with a mark of C or higher

Career prospects

There is a serious shortage of well-trained information specialists. Often students are offered a job before they have actually finished their study. About 20% of our graduates choose to go on to do a PhD but most find jobs as systems builders, ICT specialists or ICT managers in the private sector or within government.

Our approach to this field

In this Master's specialisation, mathematicians working in areas pertinent to (theoretical) computer science, like algebra and logic, and theoretical computer scientists, working in areas as formal methods and theorem proving, have joined forces to establish a specialisation in the Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science. The programme is unique in the Netherlands and will be built on the excellence of both research institutes and the successful collaborations therein.

The emphasis of the Master's is on a combination of a genuine theoretical and up-to-date foundation in the pertinent mathematical subjects combined with an equally genuine and up-to-date training in key aspects of theoretical computer science. For this reason, the mathematics courses in this curriculum concentrate on Algebra, General Topology, Logic, Number Theory, and Combinatorics. The computer science courses concentrate on Formal Methods, Type Theory, Category Theory, Coalgebra and Theorem Proving.

Our research in this field

Within both institutes, ICIS and WINST, there is a concentration of researchers working on mathematical logic and theoretical computer science with a collaboration that is unique in the Netherlands. The research topics range from work on algebra, logic and computability, to models of distributed, parallel and quantum computation, as well as mathematical abstractions to reason about programmes and programming languages.

See the website http://www.ru.nl/masters/mathematics/foundations

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Learning how to design high-level software that guarantees safety and correctness while still being in control of its complexity.

Software plays a role in almost every aspect of our daily lives and in every organisation anywhere in the world. It can often be a crucial key to their success. Well-structured software that is attuned to an organisation’s needs and future plans can be cost effective, improve efficiency, offer better services and be innovative. Many companies, in every branch out there, are therefore looking for highly skilled software specialists. Graduates of the Master’s specialisation in Software Science will have no trouble finding a job.

Producing software is not merely a technological enterprise but a deeply scientific and creative one as well. Modern cars drive on 20 million lines of code. How do we develop all this software and control its complexity? How do we ensure correctness of software on which the lives in a speeding car literally depend on? This specialisation goes far beyond basic code writing. It’s about analysing and testing code in order to improve it as well as simplify it.

Why study Software Science at Radboud University?

- Although not the only focus, our programme puts a lot of emphasis on embedded software and functional programming.
- We teach a unique range of software analysis techniques and application down to practical/commercial use in industry.
- This specialisation builds on the strong international reputation of the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS) in areas such as model based and virtual product development, advanced programming, and domain specific languages. We also closely collaborate with the Embedded Systems Institute.
- Our approach is pragmatic as well as theoretical. As an academic, we don’t just expect you to understand and make use of the appropriate tools, but also to program and develop your own.
- For your Master’s research we have a large number of companies like Philips, ASML and NXP offering projects. There are always more projects than students.
- Thanks to free electives students can branch out to other Computing Science domain at Radboud University such as security, machine learning or more in-depth mathematical foundations of computer science.
- The job opportunities are excellent: some of our students get offered jobs before they’ve even graduated and almost all of our graduates have positions within six months after graduating.

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

Admission requirements for international students

1. A completed Bachelor's degree in Computing Science or related area
In order to get admission to this Master’s you will need a completed Bachelor’s degree in Computing Sciences or a related discipline.
2. A proficiency in English
In order to take part in the programme, you need to have fluency in English, both written and spoken. Non-native speakers of English without a Dutch Bachelor's degree or VWO diploma need one of the following:
- TOEFL score of >575 (paper based) or >232 (computer based) or >90 (internet based)
- IELTS score of >6.5
- Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) or Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE), with a mark of C or higher

Career prospects

Writing good software is a highly creative process, which requires the ability to approach problems in entirely novel ways through computational thinking. Besides creativity, a professional software scientist also has fine problem-solving, analytical, programming, and communication skills. By combining software programming, model-checking techniques and human intellect, software scientists can make a real difference to help and improve the devices that govern such a large part of our lives.

The job perspective for our graduates is excellent. Industry desperately needs software science specialists at an academic level, and thus our graduates have no difficulty in find an interesting and challenging job. Several of our graduates decide to go for a PhD and stay at a university, but most of our students go for a career in industry. They then typically either find a job at a larger company as consultant or programmer, or they start up their own software company.

Examples of companies where our graduates end up include the big Dutch high-tech companies such as Océ, ASML, Vanderlande and Philips, ICT service providers such as Topicus and Info Support and companies started by Radboud graduates, like AIA and GX.

Our research in this field

The Master’s programme in Computing Sciences is offered in close collaboration with the research Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS). Research at iCIS is organised in three different research sections:
- Model Based System Development
- Digital Security
- Intelligent Systems

The Software Science specialisation builds on the strong international reputation of iCIS in areas such model based and virtual product development, advanced programming, and domain specific languages.

Research project and internship

For your research project, you may choose to do your internship at:
- A company
---- SME, such as as Océ, Vanderlande, Clarity or GX
---- multinational, such as the Philips, ASML, NXP, Logica or Reed Business Media
- A governmental institute, such as the (Dutch) Tax Authorities or the European Space Agency.
- Any department at Radboud University or another university with issues regarding software, like studying new techniques for loop bound analysis, the relation between classical logic and computational systems, or e-mail extension for iTasks.
- One of the iCIS departments, specialising on different aspects of Software Science.
- Abroad, under supervision of researchers from other universities that we collaborate with. For instance, exploring a new technique for automata learning at Uppsala University in Sweden, or verifying the correctness of Erlang refactoring transformations at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary.

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

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Leiden University offers five different specialisations in the MSc programme in Computer Science:

- Bioinformatics
- Computer Science and Advanced Data Analytics
- Computer Science and Science Communication and Society
- Computer Science and Science-Based Business
- Data Science: Computer Science

Visit the website: http://en.mastersinleiden.nl/programmes/computer-science/en/introduction

Course detail

Leiden University offers five different specialisations in the MSc programme in Computer Science.

Three specialisations are dedicated to the research areas of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science:

- Computer Science and Advanced Data Analytics
- Bioinformatics
- Data Science for Computer Science

The other two specialisations are more broadly oriented, and combine at least one year of the computer science curriculum with training in which specific career opportunities in science-related professions can be explored:

- Computer Science and Science-Based Business.
- Computer Science and Science Communication and Society

Reasons to Choose Computer Science in Leiden:

- The programme offers stimulating, significant and innovative research in the field of Computer Science, including recent advances in Data Analytics and Natural Computing.

- Research at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) has an excellent international reputation.

- The strength of the programmes is the individual approach: an individually tailored programme will be designed for each student.

- The researchers and assistants are easily accessible. Students and staff work closely together in a research-oriented environment.

- Students with an MSc in Computer Science are admissible to a PhD programme.

- It provides students with a thorough computer science background that will allow them to pursue careers in research or industrial environments.

Careers

Masters of Science in Computer Science are not only professionally trained, they also have an analytical mind and problem-solving attitude. These qualities ensure a wide variety of career opportunities.

Master of Science students in Leiden work in a multinational environment and are being prepared to operate in international settings.

How to apply: http://en.mastersinleiden.nl/arrange/admission

Funding

For information regarding funding, please visit the website: http://prospectivestudents.leiden.edu/scholarships

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