Course content –International Joint Master of Research in Work and Organizational Psychology

The first semester takes place at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. In the first semester, students learn basic and advanced knowledge in the areas of human resources, organizations, human cognition and performance, work psychology, and statistics.

The program proceeds with the second semester at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany. The courses there cover topics in the area of human resource management in more detail. Furthermore, the students learn about the most central as well as the latest contributions to work and organizational psychology in an intensive reading course. Methodological skills are provided in a course on research design and applied in a group research project.

In the third semester, students move to Valencia, Spain. They attend advanced courses focusing on interventions in work and organizational psychology. In-depth classes on intervention methods and another group research project are taught.

The fourth semester, in which the students write their master’s thesis, takes place at one of the three universities.

In the fourth semester, students are assigned to one of the partner universities for their ‘master’s thesis project’. The thesis project is supervised by two faculty members­­­ from two different universities. The master’s thesis is both a summative assessment of a substantial part of the program, demanding a range of competencies and a deep understanding related to the covered issues, as well as a formative assessment that allows for guidance and feedback from the supervising faculty members throughout its development. The master’s thesis project consists of two parts: the research project itself and the process of writing a master’s thesis.

Students receive an overview of topics and supervisors in Q&A sessions during the second semester at Leuphana University. After the sessions, students write a motivation letter to apply for a topic. Based on those letters, all students are assigned to a specific topic and supervisor. Due to administrative reasons, students are distributed equally across the three universities.

During the third semester at the University of Valencia, students have regular meetings with their supervisor to advance their final thesis projects. The culmination of these meetings is a research proposal that students submit by the end of February. Both the first and second supervisor review the research proposal and make a pass/fail decision. The proposal accounts for 4 ECTS and is not graded.

Writing the master’s thesis in the fourth semester includes the following steps:

• Further development and adjustment of the master’s thesis research project
• Data collection and analysis
• Finalization and submission of the master’s thesis
• Presentation of the master’s thesis

The central deadline for submission of the thesis is 1st July. Around two weeks after submitting the thesis, students present their thesis in an online meeting. The presentation will last about 15 minutes, with an additional 10 minutes allocated for questions. The presentation is not graded but is intended to showcase the work that the students have accomplished to their fellow students and professors.

Education and Examination Regulations WOP

In the course catalogue you can get an overview of the courses currently offered and their specific contents.