Student mobility and structure

The students of the Joint Masters programme study together at each university and move between universities as a group. In the 120-ECTS's joint Masters programme, two themes are defined as specialization subjects. One has a strong emphasis on hydrocarbon exploration and management, including petrophysics and well-logging, whereas the other has a strong emphasis on environmental and engineering geophysics, including geothermal energy exploration and exploitation.

Period at TU Delft

You start your education on September 1 at TU Delft. To benefit fully from the joint Masters programme, it may be necessary for you to attend advanced undergraduate courses to bring you to the minimum required academic level in certain subject areas. You may acquire a maximum of 6 ECTS's for these courses, regardless of how many courses are needed. If you meet the minimum required academic level on entering the joint Masters programme you may acquire 6 ECTS's by taking appropriate extra courses of your choice. One possibility would be to attend a course on scientific writing and oral presentations. Appropriate convergence courses are also available at TU Delft. Fundamental geology- and reservoir-rock-oriented courses are also given together with two specialized courses on geophysical exploration methods. The TU Delft period comprises 25 ECTS's of study and the time frame fits the first two periods of the university schedule.

Period at ETH Zurich

You have two weeks to move to Zürich where your education continues at ETH Zurich with courses on modelling, processing and inversion of geophysical and hydrological data. It is during this period that you design and execute their geophysical field work. This part has 25 ECTS's and mostly falls within the summer semester of ETH Zurich. Subsequently, two options of specialised courses are offered, one for hydrocarbon-oriented students and one for environmental and engineering geophysics-oriented students. These 9 ECTS-block courses are given simultaneously at ETH Zurich.

Period at the RWTH Aachen University

After the summer break, you continue your programme at RWTH Aachen University, where you are educated in petroleum and exploration geology, petrophysics, well-logging, NMR- and IP-methods and geothermics. This part comprises 20 ECTS's of study and ends one week before Christmas with an introduction to all possible Masters thesis topics. At this stage, you must decide where to complete your thesis work.

Masters thesis

Subject to availability and an equitable distribution of active thesis projects amongst the three partner universities, every effort will be made to provide you with research themes that match your preferences and suit your knowledge, skills and experience. For most students, the 8-month thesis project will be performed at one of the three partner universities. Collaborative thesis projects may involve spending time at two of the partner universities. Some themes may involve extensive periods of closely supervised research in industry, government or other university laboratories.