Jits Brouwer

I thoroughly enjoyed studying for the Master's in Brain & Cognition at Erasmus University. The Problem-Based Learning approach ensures that you have a lot of contact with your fellow master's students and the various professors. The Brain & Cognition master's programme, at least in my year, leans more towards the cognitive side, taking into account the underlying brain mechanisms.

If you expect education to involve internalising pages of information, after which the teacher checks whether you can reproduce it in a multiple-choice exam, then this master's programme is not for you. It is a master's programme based on the assumption that you will become a researcher. As a result, you are taught the skills that are essential as an academic. This includes critically reading and discussing literature to determine if the author is justified in making claims based on the research. Or critically evaluating two competing theories to identify their weaknesses and what would be needed to reach a consensus. Ultimately, you will set up a behavioural experiment and learn how to write the code necessary to analyse the resulting data.

Almost every module requires you to apply one or more of these aspects to the literature of the relevant subject in the form of a paper. As a result, you make significant progress in scientific writing during the master's programme. Additionally, the frequent writing provides practice and feedback opportunities, which support the eventual writing of your thesis.

The responsibility and choice of which information you internalise lie more with you. Since you are pursuing a master's degree, this should not be a problem. Moreover, it gives you some flexibility to follow your personal interests within the topics.

This master's programme gives you freedom and responsibility, and you will learn the essential skills to become an academic. This contributed to me completing my master's period in Rotterdam with a positive feeling.