Master Psychology: Legal Psychology
Maastricht, Netherlands
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 32,000 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for non EU/EER and 1 June for EU/EER students
** institutional fees top; low - EUR 13,000 per year; high - EUR 25,000 per year | statutory fees: EUR 2.601 per year
Key Summary
Introduction
In the master’s specialisation in Legal Psychology, you’ll learn how to apply principles from cognitive and – to a lesser extent – clinical psychology to issues in the legal system. Questions that are typical for Legal Psychology are: ‘How reliable are eyewitness testimonies?’ and ‘Do serious criminals have brain dysfunctions that make them permanently dangerous to society?’. Psychologists with a background in Legal Psychology ask questions that have direct relevance to the legal arena and conduct research to address these questions.
Curriculum
Programme outline
During the first semester, you will take several courses that will familiarise you with legal psychology, such as Eyewitnesses and victims; Experts and their decisions; Forensic neuropsychology; Public policy in legal psychology. The literature for these courses consists of various research papers taken from experimental, applied, and forensic psychiatric journals. During the second semester, you'll complete a research internship and write your thesis.
Research internship & thesis
The research internship gives you the opportunity to participate in the ongoing research of the faculty’s academic staff or to work with external academic or clinical institutions. You will design and pursue your own research question, which will be the foundation of your master's thesis. You can choose the subject of your research internship from a wide variety of topics, for example, lie detection; eyewitness testimonies; interrogation techniques; vulnerable suspects; false confessions; forensic psychopathology; violence risk assessment; offender treatment; malingering.
Clinical internship (addition to standard programme)
You also have the option to do a clinical internship in addition to the normal programme, which will give you the clinical experience needed to meet the requirements for a professional clinical training programme in the Netherlands (obtainment of BAPD).
Problem-Based Learning
This programme is taught using Problem-Based Learning (PBL). In small tutorial groups of 10 to 12 students, you'll seek solutions to ‘problems’ taken from real-world situations. Instructors act as facilitators, giving help as it’s needed. This allows you to build independence and develop problem-solving skills that you’ll need in the field. This active, dynamic and collaborative learning method has one of the highest knowledge retention rates of any instructional method.
International classroom
From day one of the programme, you’ll be challenged with differing viewpoints and experiences as you interact with staff and students from all over the world. Your worldview will be enhanced by this interaction, bringing you closer to the programme’s goal of teaching students not only facts and concepts but also international accessibility and understanding. Roughly 80% of the students in this master’s programme come from outside the Netherlands. Such diversity creates an international atmosphere that is strengthened by the international orientation of the programme.