Earth Sciences: VU University Amsterdam

Course Description

The Master’s degree programme in Earth Sciences at VU University Amsterdam encompasses the entire field of Earth Sciences. It focuses on their fields of expertise in research, including tectonics, paleo-climatology, sedimentology, quaternary geology and isotope-geochemistry. Programme components include a work placement, an orientation phase at a museum or science journal, or participation in a research project complete with fieldwork, laboratory work and/or computer modelling.

Study programme

Earth Sciences is a general Master’s programme which differs from the specialized Masters they offer. The programme gives you the opportunity to choose a specialization, but selecting one does not mean that you are restricted to just that one subject. You have the option of exploring every aspect of one specific area in great detail if you want to, but you are also free to choose your own subjects for up to a quarter of the required credits.

Here is a small selection of the subjects they offer:

• Sedimentary Environments: Dynamics and Climate Change Recorders
• Building Tectonic Models
• Advanced Geochronology
• Contaminant Hydrogeology
• Magmatic Processes
• Soil Vegetation Atmosphere Exchange

Career prospects

After the doctoral or master degree programmes, there are opportunities to continue your educational career in a number of PhD programmes at the Vrije Universiteit, organised within a number of research schools:

• Inter University Centre for Geo-ecological Research (ICG);
• Netherlands Research School for the Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE);
• Research School Sedimentary Geology (NSG);
• Integrated Solid Earth Sciences (ISES).

The PhD programme always consists of carrying out a research project, leading to a PhD thesis/dissertation, and of several compulsory or elective course modules.

Admission requirements

Students with a bachelor's degree in Earth Sciences from VU University Amsterdam will receive direct admission to the Master's programme in Earth Sciences.

The four different BSc variants (Variant I: Geology, hydro(geo)logy; variant II: Physical geography, Quaternary geology, geo-ecology, hydro(geo)logy; variant III: Environmental sciences, and variant IV: Geoarchaeology) warrant admission to the following specializations:

• Solid Earth: BSc variant I;
• Palaeoclimate and Geo-ecosystems: BSc variants I, II, and III;
• Archaeometry: BSc Archaeology, specialization in Geo- or Bioarchaeology;
• Landscape Archaeology: BSc Archaeology, specialization in Geo- or Bioarchaeology;
• Science Communication: all BSc variants;
• Education: all BSc variants (provided you have taken Sociale geografie I and, preferably, 12 ECTS of "Oriëntatie-CE"- courses).

Students who do not receive direct admission to a certain Master's specialization, because their BSc variant is not entirely appropriate for this specialization, may still be admitted by a decision to that effect taken by the Examination Board. The Examination Board will, in such cases, place additional requirements on the student before granting admission to the Master's programme.

Language requirements

Foreign students for whom English is not the first language are required to have adequate results in an English language proficiency test: a TOEFL score of 580 (237 in the TOEFL computer-based test) or an IELTS score of 6.5, or they must obtain one of these qualifications upon applying to VU University Amsterdam. If you have another English qualification, please enclose relevant information and, if possible, a photocopy of the diploma, so that the Examination Board can take these factors into consideration.