During the Software Engineering Master’s degree programme, you will be confronted with the complexity of the professional field through various practical courses and group assignments. For example, you will learn to assess, systematically analyse and automatically test the quality of models, and acquire the skills you need to deal with the uncertainties and risks involved. The lecturers will also be devoting ample attention to the non-technical aspects of the profession. As a professional software engineer, you will not be operating in an isolated setting. Your area of work is dynamic, and is characterised by constantly changing applications, systems and interests. You will learn how to interpret and understand your clients’ wishes, cooperate efficiently and assess projects in terms of their feasibility and durability.

It is essential that you are willing to experiment, take risks, work with others and discard existing preconceptions.

The curriculum

The Software Engineering curriculum is based around the cyclical process of IT development.

The conceptual courses:

• Requirements Engineering
• Software Architecture
• Software Design
• Software Process

The technical courses:

• Software Construction
• Software Testing
• Software Evolution

Graduation project

Graduation projects may be based on a broad variety of subjects. If you are studying on a part-time basis, for example, you may focus on the activities of your current employer. Thanks to our close working relationship with the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science’s (CWI) Software Improvement Group, students have ample opportunities to conduct their graduation project at this leading research group. The research group specialises in software technology for DSL development and software analysis and transformation.

Lecturers

In view of the pace and intensity of the study programme, effective supervision is essential. The team of lecturers will make every effort to provide substantive analyses of the many final products and interim results. At the start of the study programme, you will spend a lot of time working in groups. As the year progresses, you will carry out more and more projects on an individual basis, with tailor-made supervision from our lecturers.

Students and study programme coordinators will meet on a weekly basis to discuss the progress of both individual students and the study programme as a whole. This can result in measures to improve or adjust facilities, or adjust the educational content of individual subjects.