Neuroscience and Cognition

This programme also offers some additional features: students have the opportunity to organise their own scientific symposium (Mind the Brain symposium) or to be part of the editorial board of their own journal (The Journal of Neuroscience and Cognition). In addition students meet international scientists in the neuroscience and cognition fields during Master classes, Summer schools and lectures provided by the participating institutes.

Graduates have many career opportunities, such as:

• Researcher (as a PhD student) in one of the academic hospitals (disease-oriented research);
• Researcher (as a PhD student) in a research institute, either national or international (fundamental research in the various areas of the neurosciences);
• The pharmaceutical industry provides ample opportunities (research and development);
• Policy and management functions in science, industry, and healthcare;
• Clinical settings (neuropsychologist, clinical physicist).

Over the past years, 95% of all students in the Master in Neuroscience and Cognition programme were already employed before graduating. Of these, 25% were approached for a PhD project by one of the research institutes in Utrecht.

Possible employers are:

• Teaching hospitals (disease-oriented research);
• Research institutes (fundamental research in the various areas of the neurosciences);
• Pharmaceutical industry (research and development);
• Science, industry, and healthcare sectors (policy and management positions, applied science and design);
• Clinical settings (neuropsychologist, clinical physicist).

A lot of research for the Cognitive Neuroscience students is related to the Experimental Psychology department, and focusses on perception, both at an elementary level and at a higher conscious level, in particular in the visual domain.

For the Experimental and Clinical Neuroscience students, education is often related to research in Translational Neuroscience, Neurology, and Psychiatry of the UMCU, and in the Military Hospital.

Our programme is directly linked to the PhD programmes Cognition and Behaviour and Clinical and Experimental Neuroscience of the Graduate School of Life Sciences. For more information on the Neuroscience and Cognition Master’s programme, visit our website.