Forensic Science
Curriculum
Forensic Science (MSc)
Introduction
Students spend most of the first year of this two-year programme learning the basics of forensics. In the second year, students specialise in individual areas of interest via a required literature thesis on a selected topic, electives in which students study a particular discipline in greater depth and a six-month research project. Students can also choose to take additional optional courses related to their specific interests.
Programme outline first year
The program starts with two courses introducing important, more general forensic topics. Criminalistics deals with basic forensic issues like the forensic process from crime scene to court room, Locard's principle of trace transfer applied to the crime scene, the formulation of hypothesis, trace analysis and evaluation of evidence. Forensic Statistics focuses on the quantification of the evidential power of findings, which is a fundamental problem in forensics.
Further on, two more specific courses are taught, Forensic Biology and Chemical Analysis of Forensic Evidence, dealing with methods used to analyse DNA (the most important forensic trace) and chemical traces.
The first semester ends with the course Complex Crime Scenes. In this course a wide range of forensic fields is introduced by lecturers from the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), the Dutch Police Force, the Gemeentelijke Gezondsheidsdienst (GGD) and the University of Amsterdam. The lectures are focused on the discovery, excavation and documentation of outdoor crime scenes, establishing of a natural versus unnatural death and the management of the crime scene.
In the 2nd semester of the 1st year courses are given in which the acquired knowledge can be applied and evaluated in a broader context. During the course Reasoning and formal modeling for Forensic Science students are confronted with reasoning and false reasoning. Students are taught the basics of argumentation theory, the use of formal languages for reasoning, and finally students obtain some skills in the use of formal models of procedures and processes. The course in Criminal Law and Expert Evidence educates students about the position of forensic experts in the criminal justice system and their contribution to judicial fact finding. The course will take a more general perspective on legal systems and also looks at the influence of the European Court of Human Rights.
Everything that has been dealt with up to that point will come together in the casework offered in the course Chain of Evidence. This course allows students to work through a simulated case, beginning with practical forensic research - e.g. the collection and analysis of traces - then providing interpretations of the data obtained and concluding with a written and oral defence of the expert opinion in a moot court, complete with prosecutor, defence lawyer, judge and counter-expert.
The first year ends with training professional skills as well as English writing and speaking skills. Also, the individual projects of the 2nd years program are prepared with the course Research Methods.
Second year
The 2nd year is mostly reserved for individual development of the student's interest and skills. Besides the course Policy, Ethics and Media, students have to write a Literature Thesis and conduct a Research Project of 6 months.
Students supplement the compulsory program with a number of electives designed to expand on their Bachelor's programme. Students can choose elective courses from any of the UvA's range of Master's programmes within the Faculty of Science, or from courses offered by other Dutch or foreign universities (subject to approval by the examination board).
The program offers also a range of forensic elective courses, as Observer based teachniques, Geographical information systems for forensic science and Physical and forensic anthropology.
Research training
Students also complete a thesis based on a literature study and a final research project culminating in a Master's thesis, both of which serve to expand their scientific and forensic knowledge. This research can be done in the Netherlands or abroad, within or outside the university, a Dutch or foreign forensic institute, a police department or with other organisations in which forensics play a role.