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All students with an academic bachelor’s degree (NL: university as opposed to hbo) are eligible in principle, regardless of the discipline. Please note that your curriculum, grades, motivation letter and writing sample are also taken into account. With a Dutch hbo degree, you probably will have to do a pre-master programme (see below).

Yes, you can, but you will have to provide other concrete evidence of your motivation. We want to see that you are actively interested in the field, and we want to be confident that your choice is based on realistic expectations of what HPS means in practice. Academic courses are the easiest way to demonstrate this, but there may be other ways. You can use your motivation letter to explain.

If you are motivated and talented, but do not have enough academic background yet (for example because you have a Dutch hbo diploma), it may be possible to do a pre-master programme before you start. But please note: you cannot sign up for a pre-master. You have to apply for the master in the normal way; the admissions committee will decide whether to accept you, reject you, or assign a pre-master programme to you. That said, you can of course use your motivation letter to say that you are willing to do a pre-master. Pre-master programmes are not possible for international students; please check the conditions on the website.

Possibly. You can use your motivation letter to explain your grades (there may be a good reason why your grades are what they are). In any case, we always look at the combination of grades, experience, motivation and writing sample. That is also why we did not specify a minimum average or GPA.

Yes, you can, we have had mature students before.

Yes, you can apply. Just note that you have to finish your complete bachelor before you actually start the HPS master in September.

You will have to write a lot of papers in the programme. In our experience, writing skills are an important determinant of success in the master. That is why we ask for a writing sample as part of the admission requirements. Of course we prefer an academic paper, in English, on an HPS-related topic (for example a paper that you wrote for a course). If you do not have that, you can use other things that you wrote, or translate a few pages into English. It does not need to be long, but it should be representative of your writing skills as well as your reflective and/or analytic abilities.

Yes, all primary elective courses should be doable for all students who have been admitted to the programme. The only exception is the philosophy of physics seminar (but taking the philosophy of physics electives should be enough preparation). That said, some courses may require some extra work if your background is very different.

Of course! History or philosophy of physics can be as ‘physical’ as you like, and the same goes for other sciences. HPS in Utrecht is especially strong in foundations of physics: one level more fundamental than theoretical physics.

The field of HPS is much broader than we can cover in our courses. The programme is sufficiently flexible to pursue other topics, however, for example by including tutorials, by attending courses at other universities (esp. abroad), and by finding a specialist as supervisor for your thesis research. The membership list of the Descartes Centre gives an impression of the available expertise in Utrecht. Your thesis project can also be cosupervised by an expert from outside Utrecht if needed. Please also note that some courses are taught once every two years (esp. philosophy courses).

See ‘General Information’ on this website. 

Useful things to read are:

• James Poskett, A History of Science Handbook or Rienk Vermij, A History of Western Science
• The philosophy of science topics in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Östling and Larsson Heidenblad, The History of Knowledge
• John Norton, Einstein for Everyone
• Some of the classics, starting with Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Yes, thanks for asking. Useful things to read are, for example:

• A history of science handbook, for example by Rienk Vermij, Patricia Fara, Floris Cohen.
• The philosophy of science topics in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• John Norton's Einstein for Everyone
• Jan Golinski, Making Natural Knowledge: Constructivism and the History of Science (Chicago 1998 or later edition).
• Peter Burke, What is the History of Knowledge? (Cambridge 2016).
• Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

No, HPS is a full-time programme.

No, you can only start in September. It is important to start with the required courses.

You are welcome to try, but you must realize that HPS is a full-time programme: you are expected to devote 40 hours per week on it. Especially the required courses in the first semester are intense. It is generally recommended to do one master’s programme for at least a year before starting the second one. Also, you must make sure to finish the HPS programme within three years at most. It will require a lot of planning. There are special provisions for combinations of programmes within the Graduate School of Natural Sciences. In that case, you can request to write a combined master’s thesis. See the Education and Examinations Regulations (OER) for the specific rules.

No, sorry. In the Dutch system, PhD positions are treated more as junior staff positions than as senior student programmes. You can apply for specific PhD research projects which are advertised as academic jobs, or you can try to get external funding for your own project. The HPS programme only awards master’s degrees (MSc).

There are some scholarships, but they are highly competitive; see ‘Tuition fees and financial support’ on this website. HPS students can occasionally work as teaching assistant for specific courses. We cannot promise anything before you start though: candidates are selected from current students, based on their teaching skills and their performance in the courses.