Methodology and Statistics for the Behavioural, Biomedical and Social Sciences

This selective Master’s programme combines the research expertise of the following departments:

• Department of Methodology and Statistics (UU)
• Department of Biostatistics, University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU)
• Department of Research Methodology, Measurement and Data Analysis (University of Twente)
• Statistics Netherlands
• Cito

The cooperation between these departments provides you with an exceptionally broad range of internship opportunities and thesis topics. You will be able to specialise in the research area that interests you most. You can choose to pursue your own, free track or choose one of our predefined tracks. 

The Methodology and Statistics programme prepares you for a scientific career in academia, research institutes, government organisations, NGOs, or private enterprises. Utrecht University, University Medical Centre Utrecht, the University of Twente and Statistics Netherlands maintain strong partnerships with various non-academic institutions, such as Cito, CentERData, TNO, UMCU, LSAC, ETS, AMC, SAS, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Stichting Arq, the Dutch Inspectorate of Education, Danone, and Ex:plain, which provide excellent career prospects for our students.

After graduation, about 50% of our students continue to work in academia, for instance as PhD candidates for universities inside the Netherlands or abroad. The other half of our students pursue careers outside academia. You can find them holding positions such as data scientist, data analyst, consultant or teacher.

What students appreciate most about our Master’s programme:

• Our lecturers are excellent scientists in their fields.
• We offer small-scale education: around 20-25 students enroll in our programme each year. 
• You will get a lot of individual attention.
• Our student body is truly international. Each year around 50% of our students come from abroad.
• We offer many possibilities for relevant part time jobs. 
• Many of our students’ thesis projects lead to publications. 

This selective Master's programme is recognised as a high quality programme and has been awarded high ratings in the past years by established rankings in the Netherlands.  

In the renowned 'Master's Programme Options Guide 2021', Methodology and Statistics for the Behavioural, Biomedical and Social Sciences at Utrecht University consitently received the highest score of all research Master’s programmes in Social Sciences in the Netherlands. This signifies high above average scores in all judging categories. The programme has been recognised consistently as a high quality programme and has been awarded high scores in the past years. 

Our Master’s programme has a strong focus on the applied side of statistics. You will develop new statistical methods and techniques, learn how to evaluate their performance and how to apply them in suboptimal settings. While other Master’s programmes in Statistics have a stronger focus on the mathematical side, mathematics and programming is still an important part of our Master’s programme as well.

Our students are also equipped to start working as a data scientist in companies that normally hire students who completed a Master’s degree in Data Science. To clarify the overlap and differences between data science and statistics, we have added a series of lectures throughout the entire programme. We will teach you the different terminology used in both fields and we emphasise the differences (e.g., researchers versus data analysts, extremely large data versus limited data, or finding patterns in data versus theory-driven analyses).