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Master's structure

Become a high-skilled geospatial professional
Choose your Master's

YOU HAVE A LOT OF FREEDOM TO CUSTOMISE YOUR MASTER’S IN GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION.

Within the Master’s in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, you build expertise in either general spatial data science or a specific thematic application area, centred around technologies (Geo-AI), the natural environment (Resource Security), or society (Urban Futures and Disaster Resilience). In addition, you can tailor your Master’s to your interests and ambitions by choosing elective courses. The freedom to customise your programme will ensure you become the geo-information specialist you want to be.

The choice of Chamidu Gunaratne

“In my home country, Sri Lanka, there is an erosion problem on the coast and the government has implemented a lot of projects to save the coast. In my research, I used satellite imagery to investigate if these projects were effective. This specialisation is a good fit for me because I love geology and want to learn to use the latest remote sensing technologies.”

  • Specialisation: Resources Security
  • Learning Pathway: Geological Remote Sensing
  • Elective courses in: Impact Analyses; Python Solutions
The choice of Carolina Ferman Carral

“I love that we not only use geo-information but also learn to apply it to real-life cases. For example, I learned to use databases of landslides and data about the characteristics of a given geographic area to predict where landslide could occur and what the effects would be for the community there.”

  • Specialisation: Disaster Resilience
  • Learning Pathway: Disaster Resilience Modeler
  • Elective courses in: Python Solutions; Statistics for Spatial and Spatio-temporal Data
The choice of Ali Surojaya

“I am interested in the application of AI for geo-information science and Earth observation. I have taken courses in Python and R and now I can apply my programming skills by using different geo-information tools. In my master’s research, I am developing a deep-learning model that will help drones detect an opening in a building for urban search and rescue.”

  • Specialisation: GeoAI
  • Learning Pathway: Remote Sensing Specialist
  • Elective courses in: Spatio-temporal Analytics and Modelling; Advanced Image Analysis
The choice of Udipta Boro

“Cities are growing rapidly. However, not everyone can benefit from this rapid urbanisation. One example of this could be the development of slum areas. During my master's degree, I used satellite imagery to identify slums and their characteristics. Such analyses could help stakeholders make better decisions on addressing issues facing slums and slum dwellers.”

  • Specialisation: Urban & Land Futures
  • Learning pathway: Planning for Liveable and Resilient Cities
  • Elective courses in: Intra Urban Spatial Patterns and Processes; Geo-journalism
The choice of Amanda De Liz Arcari

“I chose this specialisation because I wanted to study water quality from space: to use satellite images and remote sensing data to get information about the water quality of lakes or coasts. So, in my research I have developed an index that detects waste water contamination.”

  • Specialisation: Resources Security
  • Learning pathway: Water Resources Security
  • Elective courses in: Water and Carbon Dynamics in Ecosystems; Earth Observation for Wetland Monitoring and Management
The choice of Ahmed Hemoudi

“I am trying to come up with a geo-information based solution for community leaders and members in Sudan to better document their tenure relations. Especially in cases when internally displaced people come back to their villages and claim access to their land.”

  • Specialisation: Urban & Land Futures
  • Learning pathway: Making Cities and Land SMART
  • Elective courses in: Land governance; Space for Ethics
 

Overview of the Master’s

For the Master’s programme you will need to complete a total of 120 credits in 2 years.  Each academic year is divided into four quartiles. Within each quartile, all courses run over 10 weeks according to the academic calendar of the University. The start and end dates of all courses in a quartile are therefore the same. Within each week of a quartile, the study load per course can vary. However, the average study load per week is around 42 hours.

Our courses are each 5EC with a few at 2.5EC. In brief our Master’s is broken down into 4 parts so that you develop the technical and theoretical giscience skills along with specific skills in an area of interest through the specialisations, while also further developing your professional skills needed in the workplace.

  • Foundation courses (20EC)

    During the foundation courses you will learn the essential geospatial skills. These are designed to ensure that all participants develop the necessary geospatial skills to be successful for the remainder of the programme. Even if you already have some of these skills, during these courses you will be able to dive deeper and further refine and build on the knowledge you already have. The 15 EC foundation courses in the first year are complemented with 5 EC of professional skills courses, that are taught in the second year.

  • Specialisation courses (20EC)

    Specialisation courses (20EC)

    We offer five specialisations that are centred around technologies (Geo-AI), the natural environment (Resource Security), and society (Urban and Land Futures and Disaster Resilience).

  • Electives (35EC)

    Electives (35EC)

    We offer a range of electives that will enable you to further advance your technical skills, broaden your areas of interest and develop your professional skills. The electives offered each year may change from year to year depending on availability and demand.

  • Research thesis (45EC)

    The research courses (45 EC), include the thesis research project proposal course where you develop a project proposal.  During this phase, you will be able to apply what you have learned throughout the programme to a research project of your choice.

Composing and Designing Your Master's

We provide a Master’s where you can choose a pathway suitable for your career goals and background interest where you will need to select a specialisation.

  • Specialisation: selecting a specialisation

    The master’s Geo-information Science and Earth Observation offers five specialisations. The purpose of these specialisations is to provide students with further depth into an application domain. These are centered around the research strengths and expertise of the Faculty so that you are learning from leaders in the field. These are:

    Each specialisation represents the future challenges, technologies, and solutions for the sustainability of our earth’s resources and society. Within each specialisation you are able to further refine your learning pathway.

  • Research: Selecting a topic for your master's thesis

    During the first year, you will meet many ITC faculty and be introduced to the wide-variety and ongoing research and innovations taking place here. We cannot fit everything into our curriculum, but we have integrated different topics into the courses, giving you opportunities to learn more about how geospatial information and technologies are being used as well as providing you with opportunities to start to explore potential research topics that you can develop further as part of your MSc research.  For your Master’s thesis, you are free to choose a topic of your choice. You can contribute to an ongoing research project or develop your topic that falls within a research theme at ITC. Together with your supervisors, you develop the focus of the topic of your master's thesis research.  To help you choose and be inspired we offer a Thesis Topic Fair where you can learn about different research topics and talk with potential supervisors.

  • Professional development during your master's

    To help you further develop your geospatial competencies we offer a variety of elective courses that will enable you to further advance your technical skills, broaden your areas of interest by gaining additional experience through an internship as well as enhancing your professional skills. 

    Professional Skills (5EC). We have developed a set of elective courses to help you develop professional skills that are appreciated in the work field. These courses are essential to let you meet the additional demands of the labour market that go beyond technical skills and domain knowledge. These often called ‘soft skills’ will enhance your chances of securing a job after graduation. We encourage you to take 5EC’s of these courses (2 x 2.5EC courses).

    Internship (15EC). In the second year, you can choose to do an internship where you can apply what you have learned before you graduate, gain additional work experience and explore different industries. You can do an internship at a consulting company, government agency, research institute, or a non-governmental organisation in the Netherlands or anywhere in the world. The choice is yours. To help you choose we have an internship coordinator who organises Internship Fairs and will help you with setting up an internship.

    Discover the exciting internship options at ITC!

    Join us on a journey as we follow two Master students, Carolina Pereira Marghidan and John Ifejube, during their internships at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente. Get ready to witness the impactful work they're doing in their respective placements and gain a glimpse into the future that awaits you as a prospective student.

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Find out more

Are you interested in this Master’s and do you want to know more about your study programme and how to compose it? For example, are you curious about the choice topics, or the learning outcomes? You can find out all about it in our Online Study Guide*. 

* You are looking at the Study Guide of the current academic year. We always have the desire to strive for improvement. Therefore the course structure is subject to change.

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