Netherlands

This course is an introduction to environmental systems analysis. The course focuses on its analytical tools to assess climate change impacts and adaptation and apply these tools to a climate change impact problem. This course teaches through an environmental systems approach for analyzing complex environmental problems such as climate change. This approach provides a general framework to consider multiple aspects in exploring alternative solutions for complex environmental problems. Different analytical tools exist that can be used in environmental systems analysis, but the focus is on the tool conceptual model, regression model, and scenario analysis that together can be used to assess climate change impacts and adaptation. The systems approach, climate change impact, and adaptation assessment are taught in lectures, practiced in a practical, and applied in an assignment. In the assignment, students study a selected climate change impact problem linked to the study fields of the environmental systems analysis groups, for example, health, tourism, ecosystem services, biofuels, and nutrients. Datasets are provided and students set up a conceptual model, develop a statistical regression model, apply a scenario analysis, study adaptation options, and communicate results.

This course examines theoretical concepts and approaches to genre, with an emphasis on the relationship between concept/theory and associated analysis method/approach. In the tutorials, the considerations discussed in the lectures are deepened. Close reading of literature helps to elaborate further on classical approaches to genre, and different ways of textual analysis (formal analysis, narrative analysis). Discourse analysis is also practiced in the tutorials. This course also works on repertoire knowledge: several television programs are shown as examples of specific genres and genre developments. The acquired knowledge and skills are used in an individually and independently performed genre analysis.

This course introduces students to recent breakthroughs in the physical and biological sciences that are now being explored for biomedical applications. The topics come directly from the research expertise of the lecturers, all of whom are young principal investigators in the new research institutes at the University of Maastricht: MERLN and M4I. The course covers a broad range of topics, including nanomaterials for regenerative medicine, supramolecular biomaterials, big data and computer learning, electron microscopy, imaging and diagnostic mass spectrometry, and structural biology of tuberculosis. Each of these fields has the potential to address some of society's greatest challenges, including the health and vitality of our aging population, and this is discussed in both the lectures and the tasks. Students gain firsthand experience of scientific research taking place at the University of Maastricht and have the opportunity to visit research laboratories as part of a demonstration of some of the topics discussed in the lectures. Students experience unrestricted access to a firsthand account of a new generation of research lines with a new generation of labs. In addition to a final content-based oral exam, there are two papers for evaluation. For their midterm, students choose a recent discovery reported in the press and investigate the scientific claims and integrity of the reporting. In the final paper, the student acts as the reporter, and writes an opinion piece on a topic of research in either MERLN or M4I; this report is informed by an interview with one of the lecturers. This course is designed for top students with a concentration in the sciences who wish to advance their learning to the next level, beyond textbooks. Students benefit from close contact with young scientists from diverse fields and are expected to read scientific literature to enhance their learning. Skills learned within this course are highly applicable for more advanced degrees (Master's, PhD) within the sciences, and within the competitive job market.

This course examines the historical origins and development of welfare states. In addition, the course analyzes the principles and values underlying the welfare state such such as (different conceptions) equality, personal responsibility, and exploitation; and different philosophical proposals about how trade-offs between different principles and values should be made. The course interprets the welfare state as an idea, practice, and set of institutions in a historical and philosophical context; analyzes contemporary debates about the welfare state from a historical and philosophical perspective; and discusses crucial social and political themes related to the welfare state from an interdisciplinary perspective.