During your Master’s in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (GEO), you will complete a total of 120 EC within two years. During the programme you will take a mixture of courses that include foundation courses, specialisation and elective courses. As part of the electives, you can gain additional work experience through an optional internship before completing your studies with your master’s thesis.
European Credit Transfer System
Student workload at Dutch universities is expressed in EC, also named ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System), widely used throughout the European Union. In the Netherlands, each credit represents 28 hours of work. The recognition of credits is at the discretion of your Master's.
Structure
YEAR 1 | NUMBER OF EC | COURSES |
Foundation courses
Required courses for all students of the Master’s. | 20 EC | - Fundamentals of GIS and Earth Observation
- Fundamental Spatial Data Engineering and Innovations
- Fundamental Programming for Geospatial Data Analysis
|
Specialisation courses
Required courses for all students of the learning pathways | 20 EC | List Urban and Land Futures specialisation courses: - Q2.1 Urban and Land Futures
- Q2.1 VGI and Geo Citizen Science
- Q3.1 Designing Urban and Land Information Systems
- Q3.1 Geospatial Database Engineering
- Q4.1 Urban and Land Futures Studio
Pathway 1: Planning for Liveable and Resilient Cities - Q2.3 Planning for Liveable Cities
- Q3.2 Urban Futures Modelling
- Q3.3 Planning for Disaster Resilient Cities
Pathway 2: Making Cities and Land SMART - Q2.3 Responsible Land Administration
- Q3.2 Land Information in Practice
- Q3.3 Geo-data Acquisition and Dissemination
|
Elective course
You can choose a course that matches your interests and career ambitions. | 15 EC | Relevant courses related to the specialisation - Qualitative Research Methodologies
- 3D Modelling for City Digital Twins
- Land Use Change Modelling
- Land Use and Transport Interaction
- Participatory Planning and GIS 1, 2
- Space for Ethics
- Spatial Analyses of Ecosystems Services
- Economics and Finance for Geosciences
|
Research courses
Required course for developing your research skills | 5 EC | Research Skills & Proposal |
YEAR 2 |
|
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Electives | 20EC | In the second year, you can personalise your study programme by doing an internship and taking elective courses including professional courses. |
Research | 40 EC | To complete your Master’s in GEO you will conduct a research project of your choice. |
TOTAL EC | 120 EC |
|
Internship
In the second year of your Master’s in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, you can apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired during your studies by doing an internship at a consultancy company, government agency, research institute, or non-governmental organisation in the Netherlands or abroad. ITC has a broad network of organisations where you can do your internship project.
Examples of internships that students have done are:
- Land and Resource Rights Internship, at World Resources Institute - WRI, the Netherlands.
- Spatial analysis of different topics related to urban planning, at Dutch Municipalities (Amsterdam, Den Bosch, Enschede etc.)
- Industrial Companies (e.g. NEO, Royal Philps, Nelen & Schuurmans, TNO, Witteveen + Bos etc.)
- Governmental organisations (e.g. Kadaster)
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. Watch the video!
Master's thesis
You will complete your studies with a Master’s thesis on a topic of your choice. You will work with a supervisory team throughout your research.
In your master’s thesis, you can undertake research projects such as:
- From Trash To Digital Treasure: Urban Digital Twining For Solid Waste Management. A Case Study In The City Of Tshwane, South Africa. (Cárdenas León, I.L., 2023)
- A Digital Twin for Ground Water Table Monitoring. (Morales Ortega, Luis Rodrigoandrés, 2023)
- Planning Support System Development for analyzing environmental performance of form-based design decisions : Case Study of Enschede. (Tripathy, Aradhana, 2024)
- Leveraging LiDAR Data and Local Digital Twins Framework for Data-Driven Traffic Simulation. Wibisana, M.I. (2024)
- Extracting cadastral boundaries from UAV images using fully convolutional networks. (Xue Xia, 2019)
- Semi-Automated Land Parcel Plotting: a Machine Learning Approach Based on Geospatial Data Matching. MSc Thesis Academic output 2024 (Ghaly, 2024)
