M.Sc. in Social Sciences for a Digital Society (Research)
Amsterdam, Netherlands
MSc
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
EUR 3 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* non-EU/EEA students: April 1 | EU/EAA students: June 1
** EU students: €2.695 per year | non-EU students: €17.480per year
Key Summary
About: This Research Master at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam teaches computational social science and mixed methods to analyze digital society challenges like polarization, cybersecurity, migration, AI governance, and healthy aging. You'll learn digital ethnography, data mining, scraping, text and network analysis, get supervision and complete an internship with organizations like Red Cross, United Nations, Kantar.
Career Outcomes: This degree prepares you for roles in academia, government, NGOs, and industry. Career opportunities include researcher, data analyst, business analyst, policy analyst, consultant, or PhD candidate. You'll gain interdisciplinary research, project management, communication and practical data skills and build an international network through internships.
Use big data to tackle society’s biggest challenges
As a social scientist you need the knowledge and skills to collect and analyze data in a digital society. Polarization, cybersecurity, international migration, artificial intelligence and healthy ageing for example are global challenges that do not keep to disciplinary and methodological boundaries.
Advances in digital technologies, such as algorithms, platforms, apps, and online social networks, create societal challenges that are highly complex and interconnected, affecting society at all levels: individuals, communities, organizations, and nations.
With experience and expertise in mixed methods and interdisciplinary research you will be able to address the global complexities of digital society.
Become the researcher of the future
This Research Master prepares you to become the researcher of the future: creative, critical, conscientious and at the cutting-edge. You will learn to use a mixed methods approach including the latest computational social science techniques to analyse and help solve tomorrow’s societal problems.
In this Master's programme, you will use computational social science to analyse complex challenges in digital society, such as diversity and inclusion, polarization, fake news, cybersecurity, governance of algorithms and artificial intelligence, and challenges in care and welfare.
In this small-scale programme, you will have a high degree of autonomy to create your own scholarly identity; you can come up with your own ideas, which contribute to your independence and personal development. Moreover, when following this programme, you will be part of our faculty’s research community. You will receive a lot of personal attention from the teaching staff and have real input on the programme. This Master's the ideal preparation for a research career in data-intensive organisations, also outside academia. You will gain practical experience through a full-time internship in an organisation or academic department. Students have interned at organisations like the Red Cross, United Nations, Kantar, and Accenture and academic departments at for example Penn State University in the USA. In addition, the alumni and research staff of VU Amsterdam has strong ties to societal stakeholders, which can boost your career.
You will master a variety of data analysis methods, such as digital ethnography, advanced data mining algorithms, scraping tools to collect data, qualitative and computational text analysis, and online network analysis. At the same time, you’ll develop communication, self-reflection and project management skills to be able to collaborate in multi-disciplinary teams, all of which will be highly valuable in the job market. Each thematic course is co-taught by senior social scientists from different backgrounds.
This Research Master offers you a unique proposition: while other computational social science programmes focus more on data methods, this Master's applies these methods to real-world problems with real-world organizations.
Open Days
Join the Online Master’s Event on Thursday, 26 November, or the International Master’s Webinar on Tuesday, 6 October, to learn more about the programme and studying at VU Amsterdam.
Summer School
Apply to VU Amsterdam Summer School and develop your academic skills in a focused and inspiring study abroad experience.
Campus Tour
Curious about the VU campus? Watch the full campus drone video on YouTube here.
1st year
In the first year of this Research Master, you will take courses in theory, methodology and skills, that will prepare you for the internship and Master's thesis in the second year. You’ll start your programme by theorizing the complexity of societal challenges, and considering mixed method designs, including computational social science, to analyse these ‘wicked problems’..
You will focus on these themes: 1. Dynamics of Polarization and Inclusion and 2. Governance and Algorithms of Care & Welfare. Towards the end of your first year, you’ll write a research proposal – good practice if you intend to apply for funding for a PhD programme in the future.
Courses
- Peer Group Learning year 1
- Big Problems
- Big Data, Small Data
- Foundations of Societal Resilience – in the upcoming academic year (2024-2025) this course will be replaced by the course Digital Society Research
- Dynamics of Polarization and Inclusion
- Governance and Algorithms in Care and Welfare
- Advanced Methods 2: Tutorials – in the upcoming academic year (2024-2025) the tutorials will be replaced by Social Networks and Mixed Methods
- Communicating Science
- Research Integrity and Responsible Scholarship
- Writing a Research Proposal
- Qualitative Data Methods
- Quantitative Data Analysis
- Advanced Methods I: Qualitative Methods
- Advanced Methods I: Data Mining & Text Analysis
2nd year
In your second year of this Research Master, the focus is on your internship and Master's thesis.
During the first half of the year, you’ll take an internship – either at a company whose work interests you or at an academic institution. In the second half of the year, you’ll write your Master's thesis, which has the potential to be published.
Subjects
- Master’s Thesis Social Sciences for a Digital Society
- Peer group Learning year 2
- Societal or Academic Internship
- Writing a Scientific Paper
Collaboration with societal partners
VU Amsterdam cooperates with societal partners to offer exciting internships and Master’s thesis opportunities. These partners include the Red Cross, Kantar, the Refugee Wellbeing & Integration Initiative, and TNO. Our partners offer you the chance to join their research projects so that you can apply your knowledge, methods and skills to real-world challenges and societal problems. For example, how can insights from big and small data help the government to better match employers with refugee talent? Can you help to develop interventions that improve the career prospects of refugee talent?
This university offers some form of financial aid to prospective students. Please always check the specific requirements and restrictions on scholarship availability.
Having studied Master in Societal Sciences for a Digital Society (Research), your career opportunities are diverse. All sorts of organizations are looking for your unique profile: a new type of researcher who combines social science theories with innovative data methods to tackle real-world challenges.
Whether it’s for the governmental sector or the business world, many large corporations are collecting vast amounts of data, but their understanding of what to do with that data is limited. There’s a clear need for business analysts with experience in mining big data for a range of purposes.
The program’s international approach lends itself well to working abroad. You can start building your international network during your Research Master’s degree. You and your fellow students will partner up with international organizations to work on societal issues. The program also offers guest lectures by speakers from the corporate world, NGOs, government departments, and more.
A Research Master in Societal Sciences for a Digital Society (Research) is also a great entry point to a Ph.D. Your research proposal and Master’s thesis will be great preparation both for your Ph.D. topic and when applying for funding.
What can you do after your Master's degree?
Start working or pursue an academic career
A Master in Societal Sciences for a Digital Society (Research) will set you up for any career that involves working in teams to analyze problems and offer solutions using data: whether that’s in academia, government policy, the non-profit sector, or the corporate world.
For example, if you’re interested in political mobilization and want to know how opposition leaders gather support in authoritarian regimes, you could become a researcher at an international NGO that measures the impact of online campaigns. Alternatively, if you aspire to a career in healthcare and you’re interested in the application of social network analysis on health, you could become a data analyst at a large consultancy firm that advises healthcare organizations on how to improve their customer support. And last but by no means least, you could become a Ph.D. candidate and work on a project that builds on your Master’s thesis.
For more information about our (upcoming) open days and webinars please visit us
Each year we organise an online session for aspiring Master's students that covers all you need to know about the application process and beyond. This year, the International Master's webinar will take place on Tuesday 15 October at 16:00 (CET).
During the webinar, you will have the opportunity to:
- Discover what it is like to study at VU Amsterdam;
- Learn everything you need to know about the admission and application process;
- Get the latest insights on scholarship opportunities;
- Hear first-hand experiences from one of our current international students about being a student in the Netherlands' dynamic capital city.
You can watch the webinar here: https://vu.nl/en/education/more-about/vu-webinar-master