Information for students

Course overview

Courses offered by the Environmental Systems Analysis Group:

ESA-10309 Environmental Sciences and Society
ESA-11306 Environment & Tourism
ESA-11806 Tourism Geographies
ESA-20506 Introduction to Environmental Systems Analysis
ESA-20806 Principles of Environmental Sciences
ESA-22303 International Study Visits Environmental Sciences
ESA-22806 Environmental Systems Analysis: Methods and Applications
ESA-23806 Tourism Systems Analysis
ESA-31306 Regional Environmental Management
ESA-31806 Environmental Assessments of Nutrient and Pollution Management
ESA-32306 Engaging and modelling with stakeholders to solve environmental problems
ESA-60312 European Workshop Environmental Sciences and Management

Courses offered by Environmental Systems Analysis are in the Study Handbook.

Educational programmes

The Environmental Systems Analysis Group is involved in the following educational programmes:

BSc programmes

English MSc programmes

PhD programmes

General information about PhD programmes

The ESA Group offers opportunities to obtain thesis credit points within MES, MUE, MCL and MBI. The prerequisites for a thesis depend on your MSc program. In principle and for most master programmes, the prerequisites (in total 12 credits) for a thesis of 30 EC or more are:

Compulsory course for all MES, MUE and MCL students is ESA-22806 Environmental Systems Analysis: Methods and Applications, unless the student has graduated the BSc Environmental Sciences (BES) program;
MES students must also have passed one of the following three courses: ESA-31806 Nutrient and Pollution Management, ESA-31306 Regional Environmental Management or ESA-32306 Engaging & Modelling with Stakeholders;
MUE students must also have passed one of the following two courses: ESA-32306 Engaging & Modelling with Stakeholders or ESA-31306 Regional Environmental Management;
MCL students must also have passed one of the following three courses: ESA-31806 Nutrient and Pollution Management, ESA-31306 Regional Environmental Management or ESA-32306 Engaging & Modelling with Stakeholders;
MTO students following the thematic trajectories Tourism & Natural Resources and Tourism & Global Change must have passed the course ENP-31006 Governance of Tourism & Natural Resources;
Other MSc students should contact the ESA thesis coordinator.

For additional information, please consult the programme details in the study handbook and/or contact the thesis coordinator.

Students who would like to do their MSc thesis at ESA can contact one the thesis coordinators: Dr Jana Verboom (Jana.Verboom@wur.nl) or Aritta Suwarno PhD (Aritta.Suwarno@wur.nl) to plan an orientation meeting. Please do so well before the planned start-date of your thesis (i.e. preferably at least two months, also take into account that most lecturers take holidays in July or August). To prepare for this meeting you send an overview of the courses you followed, including the grades, to one of the thesis coordinators with whom you want to make an appointment. In addition, you should have taken a look at the ESA research topics and possible thesis subjects available at our website (possible thesis subjects). It is also possible to do a thesis on your own topic. However, you must already have elaborated such topic in a short one-page proposal, so that we can judge if it fits within the domain of Environmental Systems Analysis. Also keep in mind that ESA staff, who have to supervise you, do not have expertise in all topical and methodological areas. Please discuss the suitability of your proposed topic with the thesis coordinators during the orientation meeting. Depending on the outcome of this meeting, you may have a second meeting with a potential supervisor of the ESA Group before deciding on the topic of your thesis.

Once you have made contact with a potential supervisor, you will further select and specify the final research topic. Before starting your thesis work you should complete the registration form for doing a thesis and return it to the secretary in person (Ms Mathilde Witteveen, Mathilde.Witteveen@wur.nl). Please note that the secretary is normally available every working day except Wednesday. Also register for the ESA thesis ring by sending an email to the thesis ring coordinator Ir Sverre Vink (Sverre.Vink@wur.nl).

During the first meeting with your supervisor, you will obtain further information about the thesis trajectory and requirements. Together with your supervisor you will complete your thesis agreement form. To read more about how to get started on a MSc thesis at ESA, download the Information brochure for ESA students starting a thesis. See below all necessary brochures and forms.

More information

Overview of possible thesis subjects
Overview of current and past thesis subjects
General information about thesis and internship research at Wageningen University
Study abroad

Brochures and forms

Other forms you might need.

MSc internship

The internship is meant to gain experience with the potential professional environment in which you could work after your graduation.

Most of the MSc students who do a major thesis in the Environmental Systems Analysis Group will also do an internship under supervision of ESA.

There are two ways to arrange your ESA internship:

1. If you already know a host organisation where you would like to do your internship, you can make an appointment with the internship coordinator or your internship supervisor of the ESA Group to discuss whether this organisation and the activities you are going to do meet the requirements for an ESA internship. After approval by the ESA coordinator or internship supervisor of the ESA Group and the selection of your internship supervisor within the ESA Group (if you did not have a supervisor already), you can start making arrangements for your internship with your host organisation.

2. If you want to do an ESA internship, but do not yet know in which organisation, there are several places where you can look for inspiration:

Have a look at the internship opportunities at the ESA website
You can use the possible thesis subjects list to see the different research projects in which the ESA Group is involved. In that list you will probably find an interesting topic and internship provider
Search for interesting internship vacancies or interesting job vacancies at possible host organisations
Consult the Student Career Services webpages and follow them on Facebook for internship positions, information on events and companies etcetera
Consult the career platform Jobteaser for internships, vacancies, career events and information about partner organisations

Internships can be carried out at a host organisation, such as a company, public institution, consultancy firm, research organisation, another university or a nongovernmental organisation, as long as the internship at these institutions is related to environmental systems analysis. The organisation may be a Dutch organisation, an organisation in another country or an international organisation.

One major requirement that should be met by the internship provider is that there is guaranteed supervision on an academic level by at least one staff member of the organisation.

If you want to discuss the possibilities for internships, please contact our internship coordinators Wichertje Bron (wichertje.bron@wur.nl) or Keith Williams (keith.williams@wur.nl).

After you have come to an agreement with your host organisation and with the internship coordinator or the ESA internship supervisor, you will need to arrange your internship contract and internship learning agreement, see below for the downloads.

Please read our Course guide MSc Internship. Here you can find all the information you need to start, do and complete your internship. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the internship coordinator Wichertje Bron.

NB You can only start your internship after a clear approval of both the host organisation AND the internship coordinator of ESA or your ESA internship supervisor!

More information