Career Prospects

Job prospects are excellent

This programme prepares you for a career in research in academia (PhD training), research institutes, or at governmental or commercial organisations. You will also be prepared for a non-scientific career path. Highly qualified researchers are in great demand, therefore career prospects are very good.

Academic career

As a graduate of this programme, you will be a highly trained researcher and well-qualified to work as a scientific researcher in the social and behavioral sciences. Typically, around 70% of our graduates continue as a PhD student at a university or as a researcher at a research institute.

What does your job involve?

  • PhD student: You will conduct research at a university in the Netherlands or abroad, writing scientific publications and working as a lecturer for Bachelor’s and Master’s students.
  • Researcher at a research institute: You will perform research in various areas of society and health, and will be responsible for the design, implementation, analysis of research and writing reports.

Students who complete the Master’s programme in Social and Health Psychology (Research) are eligible to participate in PhD programmes associated with the research schools in which the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences is involved:

Courses in the PhD programme are often extensions of your earlier Master’s courses, and your teachers will often be responsible for PhD-level courses as well. Our Master’s students are also invited to attend research school activities, such as colloquia and lectures presented by national and international guests. In addition, during your internship with one of the research groups, you will participate in research meetings of that group.

Professional career

The programme also prepares you for a career as an applied researcher outside of academia. Graduates typically are working in three types of profession:

  • Lecturer at colleges and universities
  • Policy officer at governmental departments at local and national level
  • Advisor at non-profit, private, and/or commercial organisations

What does your job involve?

  • Lecturer: You will engage in teaching classes and workshops on social and behavioral sciences at Bachelor's or Master's level. You will also be able to follow specific education training and acquire teaching certifications.
  • Policy officer: You will support the government in identifying, monitoring and evaluating policies and write reports and fact sheets about the results.
  • Advisor: You will advise organisations about behavioral regulation theories, research methods and statistics to solve social and/or health issues and to design or improve consumer products and marketing strategies. 

Do you regard the MSc as the terminus of your academic education? Then you can capitalise on your research experience abroad, your foreign language fluency, your analytical, research, and reporting skills and successful completion of a demanding programme.

Career development

To help you prepare for your career and familiarise yourself with the labour market, the programme, the faculty and Utrecht University offer several services and activities.