Electives in the research master

On this page:

For whom is this page?
Elective Types
Which elective for whom?
How to apply for an elective
Monitoring Performance and Feedback
Internship? First complete the elective
Dates and Deadlines
Contact

For whom is this page?

This page is for students of the Research Master programme who started in September 2022.

Elective Types

The Research Master (RM) Electives program provides options to conduct an individualized project or follow a course outside of your own RM track. There are three types of electives: Course elective, Review elective and Research elective.

Course elective: attending regular courses
You can attend a course from an RM specialisation or a regular master’s programme at Maastricht University or a course that is organized at a different university in The Netherlands or abroad. ECTS: depends on course content, duration and workload.
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Review elective: writing a review paper
You write a critical review on a specialized topic under the supervision of a member of the scientific staff of Maastricht University. You take the initiative to locate and arrange a supervisor for the review. You may complete one review elective. ECTS: 3 per project.
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Research elective: participating in (parts of) an empirical study
You can participate in (parts of) an empirical research project that is conducted and supervised by a member of the FPN or FHML scientific staff. You can apply for an available project from a list of project descriptions, updated in December of each year. ECTS: 3 per Regular Elective project, 6 for Long Research Elective project (only available for FN or DN students).
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Which elective for whom?


Specialisation name	Maximum total ECTS	Allowed combinations	Remark
RM Cognitive Neuroscience (CN) RM Neuropsychology (NP)	3	One research/review elective or course electives up to 3 ECTS in total.	Effectively, you are limited to selecting one elective type.
RM Clinical Psychology (PP)	5	Any combination that in total amounts to 5 ECTS.
RM Fundamental Neuroscience (FN), RM Drug development and Neurohealth (DN)	6	One 6-credit Long Research Elective or a combination of electives that in total amounts to 6 ECTS.	For FN and DN students, the LAS Course Elective is offered during the 2^nd RM year.

How to apply for an Elective

To apply for a Research or Review Elective,

please contact the supervisor of the respective elective project. The email address of the supervisor is appended to the respective elective description. When the supervisor has confirmed your participation in the elective project, go to the Electives section on "Collent", select the elective of your choice and fill out the application form. You will receive an automated email of your application and the supervisor's response to it. If the elective of your choice is not (yet) listed, please contact the supervisor or the RM Electives coordinator. Apply for a Research or Review Elective one project at a time! Start by applying to your most "favourite" elective and, in case you cannot join the project, move on to the next elective on your "favourite electives" list. Do NOT "shop around and spread your chances" by sending out applications to multiple projects at once. This causes miscommunication and unnecessary frustration for both the contacted supervisors as well as you, the applying student.

To apply for a Course Elective,

send an email to the RM Electives coordinator, in which you specify your RM track, the PSY-code and title of the course, in which period it is offered and who is the course coordinator. The RM Electives coordinator, possibly in communication with the Board of Examiners and/or the scheduling department, will make a final decision of acceptance based on eligibility, course content, study load and vacancy in the course.

Monitoring Performance and Feedback

To monitor performance during the elective project and allow the supervisor to provide substantiated feedback about performance, you can use the Evaluation Form. Download and print the document and have your supervisor fill it out as assessment of your performance midway and at the end of the elective. The items on the form only cover practical performance and do not cover aspects related to grading a written document, such as a Review paper, Research report, Lab logbook, etc.

Internship? First complete the elective.

The elective must be completed and graded before the start of the internship. The importance of this statement cannot be over-stated enough. For most Course Electives, grading will follow established administrative procedures. For a Research or Review Elective, when you submitted the elective report but do not see the grade listed on your gradelist, contact the RM Electives coordinator in time. We can then figure out whether the missing grade is due to the supervisor did not yet finish grading or did not yet submit the grade on "Collent", or whether there is an unexpected error or delay in processing the grade. Do not wait until the day before you start the internship to contact the RM Electives coordinator.

You are responsible for finishing your elective in time and signalling any unexpected events about the elective. Avoid that an unfinished elective interferes with your internship work or prevents you from graduating! Finally, your RM elective grade does not count into your GPA, but the elective credits are required for final graduation.

Dates & Deadlines


Mid period 1 (October)	Get to know the RM Elective pages on AskPsy and "Collent".
At the start of period 3 (January)	You can start applying for a Research or Review elective on "Collent".
First month of your second academic year (September)	Research or Review elective is finished and graded. It is highly recommended (an understatement!) to finish your elective and have it graded at least one month prior to the start of the internship in November. You are responsible to have the elective finished and relevant materials submitted to the supervisor on time!

Contact

Contact persons for Electives in the Research Master
Coordinator		Vincent van de Ven v.vandeven maastrichtuniversity.nl 043-38 84510 Oxfordlaan 55, R. 1.020

Last modified: Tue, 26/03/2024 - 09:29

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