MASTER OF

SCIENCE

SPATIAL
ENGINEERING
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MASTER'S PROGRAMME
SPATIAL ENGINEERING
TACKLE LARGE-SCALE, COMPLEX, SOCIETAL
CHALLENGES WITH THE USE OF SPATIAL DATA.
Natural disasters, poverty, food shortage, epidemics, climate change; the greatest challenges society is facing today
are characterised by enormous complexity. These so-called wicked problems are impossible to solve in a way that
is simple or final. The world needs socially committed engineers who won’t shy away from these complex
challenges but feel the urge to contribute to solutions that will make societies around the world more sustainable
and resilient.

In this Master’s, you will learn to address large-scale and

complex societal challenges by combining both
technical and socio-economic knowledge with a strong
basis of spatial data analysis and modelling. You will
become skilled in mapping the conflicting needs of different
stakeholders within complex societal, political, economic
and cultural contexts. The key is to structure and redefine
problems beyond the obvious frames and design solutions
based on a multidisciplinary understanding of wicked
problems.
CAREER PERSPECTIVES
With the increasing availability of spatial data and
innovations in technologies, the demand for spatial
engineers continues to grow extensively. As a graduate of
the Master’s in Spatial Engineering, your job
opportunities are nearly endless. You could work for a
broad range of (international) organisations, varying from
large NGO’s to governments and from consultancy
agencies to research institutes.

MAKING SENSE OF OUR Whether you will take on the role of a spatial engineer, a

WORLD USING SPATIAL DATA project manager, a consultant, or a researcher, you will be
able to work on large-scale projects in international,
multicultural and interdisciplinary teams.
Spatial data is essential when it comes to identifying,
understanding and defying wicked problems, especially
You could get involved in the field of water
because of the large scale on which these problems occur.
management, infrastructure and planning, the
You could use remote sensing to monitor deforestation in
development of renewable energy, environmental
areas such as the Amazon or melting sea ice around the
remote sensing, agriculture and nature
North Pole. Or you could map out the impact of natural
conservation, socio-spatial inequality, meteorology,
disasters such as tsunamis or earthquakes, by consulting
or architecture, to name just a few of the numerous
Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). This is spatial
exciting career paths you might follow after graduation. You
data provided by citizens through geo-referenced data,
could, of course, also obtain a PhD after completing your
shared via e.g. Twitter or Instagram. Within this Master’s,
Master’s. Or you might even start up your own company!
you will get familiar with these and many more spatial
analysis and modelling techniques.

"Spatial Engineering aims to create engineers that have

a helicopter view, are curious, ambitious and can help
solve problems anywhere in the world. You will learn
how to use spatial information to make a better world."
- Thomas Groen, programme director -
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| Spatial Engineering
CONTENT OF THIS MASTER'S
In Essence, this Master's is about tackling complex, large-scale challenges with spatial information.
CORE KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS
In this Master’s, you will gain knowledge in three core
domains: Spatial Information Science, Technical
Engineering and Spatial Planning &
Governance. These fields are highly intertwined. You will
need knowledge in all three domains, but throughout your
studies, you can choose your own focus. At the end of your
Master’s, you should be able to demonstrate in-depth
knowledge of at least two of the three domains, and
adequate knowledge of the third.
SPATIAL INFORMATION SCIENCE
When mapping out the implications of a wicked problem,
whether you are talking about flooding, food shortage,
deforestation or biodiversity loss, you often have to work
with massive amounts of spatial data. So how do you
process these datasets? And how can you visualise the
problem and discover patterns? You need knowledge of
Spatial Information Science to know where, when
and what is happening. In this Master’s, you will
become familiar with techniques for e.g. spatial data
visualisation, remote sensing, image classification, spatial
statistics, vegetation mapping and monitoring, 3D/temporal
visualisations and crowdsourcing.
TECHNICAL ENGINEERING
The domain of Technical Engineering is closely linked to
Spatial Information Science. Once you have collected and
processed data, you need to be able to model and
understand the physical (environmental)
processes. For example, how can you estimate which
areas are most at risk of flooding? What are the underlying
principles of seismic waves, resulting from earthquakes?
And how can you simulate ecological systems to monitor
climate change and biodiversity loss? Within this
knowledge domain, you will learn about flood modelling,
systems analysis, dynamic modelling, processing UAV
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) images, and more.
QUICK FACTS
Degree Master of Science (MSc)
Duration 2 years | 120 credits
Start 1 September 2023
Tuition € 2,209 EU |16,750 non-EU
(per year)
SPATIAL PLANNING & GOVERNANCE
No intervention can be successful without taking
into account spatial planning and governance. For
example, you need to know what stakeholders are involved
and what their (conflicting) needs are, as well as the
governance structures within the networks: who is in
charge and who is not? And, moreover, how do you plan
interventions? And does implementing an intervention in
one location actually solve a problem, or will it just shift the
problem to another location, harming other stakeholders?
This knowledge domain covers topics such as social
vulnerability, markets and value chain analysis, evidence-
based policy analysis, spatial knowledge management and
legal frameworks.
SKILL LEARNING LINES
In your future career, you cannot just rely on expert
knowledge in the field of spatial engineering. You need
general competencies as well. For example, you need to be
able to work in multicultural and multidisciplinary teams,
manage large-scale projects and you need a scientific
approach in solving problems. The skill learning lines are
embedded throughout the whole programme and will help
you gain competencies within these various fields.
For example, within the Academic and Research
Skills learning line, you will learn more about academic
writing, research methods, conceptual frameworks, data
management etc. The International and Intercultural
Competences learning line will familiarise you with e.g.
cultural theories and biases, social processes, and values. In
the Project Management and Teamwork Skills learning
line you will learn about project planning and (the basics of)
budgeting, identifying personal strengths, monitoring and
evaluating performance and becoming familiar with various
support tools for project management.
Diploma Spatial Engineering
Language English
Web utwente.nl/master/se
Faculty Geo-Information Science and Earth
Observation (ITC)
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| Spatial Engineering

THE CURRICULUM
The Master’s in Spatial Engineering is not quite like any other master’s programme. Instead of serving up a
curriculum that consists of several (elective) courses, this Master’s is based on the premise of challenge-based
learning. Within various case studies, in your final research project, in fact, during your whole Master’s, you will
choose what knowledge and skills you need to gain in order to come up with sustainable interventions for certain
challenges. This self-directed learning approach will help you to develop your own learning path and prepare
you for the many challenges that will come your way, during and after your studies.

The Master’s in Spatial Engineering consists of two years,
in which you will collect a total of 120 EC. The first year
consists of two case study projects, elective courses,
a mandatory foundational knowledge subject, an
international module, and thesis proposal writing.
The second year allows for a more personally oriented
curriculum and consists of a Master’s
research, an internship project and electives.
The choice topics will help you lay the foundation in certain
fields of study, and through self-study and applying what
you learned in the group project, you will deepen your
knowledge and skills. You can be sure of the support and
guidance of your personal mentor and the tutor that
guides your team during the project. For example, they
could help you in choosing the right choice topic or connect
you to professors who can help you further in the self-study
process.

YEAR 1 INTERNATIONAL MODULE

During the first and third quartile of your Master’s, you will
work on two case study projects, reflecting real-life
challenges like: urban flood problems, food and water
insecurity, human-induced earth movement or other
human-induced (nutrition, energy) crisis. Together
with your team, you will develop your own take on the
problem and come up with a sustainable intervention. In the
second quartile, you will gain mandatory core knowledge;
including data mastery on a core knowledge area that was
not included in your prior education. You will gain specialist
knowledge by choosing a course that will help you prepare
for your final research project in the second year of your
Master’s
The international module at the start of the fourth quartile
consists of a (virtual) field trip along a series of
institutes and agencies in Europe, to see how they
deal with wicked problems in their own work. The
types of organisations you will visit vary from governmental
organisations to private companies to research institutions.
This module serves as a preparation for the professional
field and will provide you with useful contacts for finding an
internship, and for your further career as well.
CORE KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT
In the first year, you will be able to choose some
courses to start off on your individual profile in the second
year’s MSc Research and Internship project.

CASE STUDY PROJECTS

Within the case study projects, you and your team will try to
tackle actual challenges currently faced by society. These
two case studies will increase in levels of wickedness. The
degree of wickedness is defined by the knowledge that is
available on the processes and the level of consensus that
can be created among stakeholders.
PROPOSAL WRITING
The last quartile of your first year revolves
around preparing for your Master’s research phase.
During the case study projects, you might have already
found a research topic of your interest.

Teamwork is key when it comes to the case study projects.

You will develop your own role within the team and make
sure to gain the knowledge and skills needed to contribute
to possible solutions and designing an intervention. In order
to do so, you can choose from choice topics within a case
study project or gain knowledge from other sources. For
example, one team member might delve deeper into remote
sensing, while another focuses on stakeholder analysis.
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| Spatial Engineering
YEAR 2
ELECTIVES
Choose a course, also known as an elective, related to
your internship project or MSc research.
MASTER’S RESEARCH PHASE
The largest part of your second year will be dedicated to
your master’s research. You could focus on subjects such
as urban development, climate change, (natural) disasters,
resource extraction, agriculture, and the list continues.
You also have the opportunity to participate in (large)
international research projects, for example of the Dutch
Research Council (NWO) or EU, or capacity development
projects. You could for example contribute to water
management projects in Kenya and Ethiopia, urban
development research in Rwanda, disaster management
research in the Caribbean, Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal,
but also agricultural research in Spain or dike strength
research in the Netherlands.
Your Master’s thesis could involve undertaking
projects such as:
● Developing a worst-case tropical cyclone rainfall
scenario for flood on Dominica;
● Evaluating social justice and equity in climate
adaptation plans in Medellin, Colombia through
social vulnerability assessments;
● Assessing the risk of a bark beetle outbreak in the
Schwarzwald national park in Germany.
INTERNSHIP PROJECT
You will complete your Master’s in Spatial Engineering
with an internship project of (at least) 10 weeks, at e.g. a
consultancy company, government agency, research
institute, intergovernmental organisation or an NGO either
in the Netherlands or abroad.
Examples of student internship projects:
● Designing a prototype for a support resource for
distributing Shelter Strengthening Kits for alleviating
the impact on houses in anticipation of a Tropical
Cyclone, a project of the Red Cross Climate Centre;
● Evaluating and improving a sustainable urban transport
project for the Capital City of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia,
a project of the World Bank;
● Assessing (the usability of) communication tools and
contributing to the content of the website of the
SERVIR-Mekong project, a hub maintained by
the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).
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| Spatial Engineering
YUNYA GOA'S
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
"Spatial Engineering graduates may be suitable to become coordinators between policymakers and technical
experts."
DECISION TO APPLY FOR THIS MASTER’S
"The introduction of Spatial Engineering is very attractive for
me because it aims to help students cultivate the ability to
solve real-world problems. I was very interested in how to
apply the knowledge I learnt before into reality at that time.
So, I chose this programme.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE MASTER’S
Spatial Engineering is different from many other master's.
One of its most important ideas is “learn by doing”. So, we
do not have time to dig out some deeper knowledge but
learn how to pick up the information and knowledge we
need for the projects quickly. It is helpful to improve our
capability of learning and adaptation when stepping into
new areas. It includes a lot of group work. There is a lot of
discussion and disagreements during group work. The
process helps me improve my ability to coordinate and
cooperate. Overall, it is an excellent master's programme
which can not only help you enhance your professional
knowledge but also the ability to manage many aspects.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE WAY OF TEACHING
There are a lot of types of teaching approaches such as
group work, case studies, lectures, practicals and much
discussion. Teachers are willing to help students and guide
them to find solutions by themselves. Most teaching
contents are beneficial, and I have learnt a lot from them.
"I learn quite a lot about how to live better and treat
people better here."
- Yunya Gao -
THE SOCIAL RELEVANCE 
At present, from what I understand about the learning
outcomes, Spatial Engineering tries to help students learn
how to deal with wicked problems by reaching a consensus
or filling a knowledge gap. Spatial Engineering graduates
may be suitable to become coordinators between
policymakers and technical experts. There are many wicked
problems in the world. Many institutions like the United
Nations and governmental departments, try to solve these
issues. Thus, there is a very high social relevance of Spatial
Engineering to the real world.
STUDY AT ITC, THE NETHERLANDS
At ITC people are very open to mistakes. So, it makes me
braver to make mistakes and learn from them and thus
improve myself.
In the Netherlands, I feel that I understand the meaning of
“well-being” more deeply than before. Almost everything
here is well organized. The study should not only include
studying in school but also include many things in life. I
learn quite a lot about how to live better and treat people
better here.
EFFORTS TO OBTAIN A SCHOLARSHIP
I applied for a (partial) scholarship from the ITC Foundation
and got it successfully. The process of applying for the
scholarship is not very complicated. Just follow the steps
acquired on the application website. The convenient
process reduces quite a lot of burden for students.
SOME WORDS TO FUTURE PROGRAMME PARTICIPANTS
Do hope that you can learn a lot, keep growing, trust
yourself and stay open to different ideas. At the same time,
you can still have fun when surrounded by many types of
“wickedness”."
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| Spatial Engineering

NEED AND NICE-TO-KNOW

STUDENT INFORMATION
There are a couple of things you should know before you apply for the Master in  Spatial Engineering. In addition,
you will find some nice-to-know information about this Master's. For example, the promising career prospects.

CAREER PERSPECTIVES
As a graduate of the Master’s in Spatial Engineering, you
will most likely launch a career working on large-scale
projects in international, multicultural and interdisciplinary
teams. You could find employment as a spatial
engineer, project manager, consultant, or researcher,
to name a few of your options. You could also continue
with a PhD programme after graduation. Are you a real
entrepreneur? You could start up your own business,
like some of our former students did!
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
With a Master’s degree in Spatial Engineering, your job
opportunities are nearly endless. With the increasing
availability of spatial data and innovations in
technologies for spatial data collection and analysis, the
demand for spatial engineers continues to grow extensively.
Your expert knowledge and skills as well as creativity and
ability to think outside the box makes you
exceedingly versatile and adaptive. In your future career,
you could get involved in water management, infrastructure
and planning, the development of renewable energy,
environmental remote sensing, agriculture and
nature conservation, socio-spatial inequality,
meteorology, architecture and many other exciting
fields.
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| Spatial Engineering

YOU START YOUR STUDIES IN SEPTEMBER . IN CASE YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THE PRE-MASTER’S FIRST, YOU
CAN ONLY START IN SEPTEMBER AND CONTINUE WITH YOUR MASTER'S NEXT SEPTEMBER. 

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS Additional requirements

Applicants for the Master's in Spatial Engineering should
have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification from a
recognised university or accredited academic institution in
a discipline related to the Master's. If you hold a
bachelor’s degree in one of the following fields you can
be directly admissible: Civil engineering, Geo-
engineering, Geographical sciences, Earth sciences, Water
and agriculture sciences, Geographical information
systems
International students: English-language test results.
● Academic IELTS (not older than two years) minimum
overall score: 6.5, minimum score on each
section: 6.0
● TOEFL-iBT (not older than two years) minimum overall
score: 90, minimum score on each section: 21
● Cambridge (CAE) (CPE): minimum overall score: 176,
minimum score on each section: 169

Also, students from broad engineering bachelors (such as

Advanced Technology or Creative Technology), students
from urban (spatial) planning and governance and
(technical) University Colleges and students with a
relevant bachelor’s degree from a university of applied
sciences are invited to put in their application.
REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE
To allow students to meet the final qualifications of the
Spatial Engineering programme it is necessary that
incoming students have knowledge at bachelor's level of a
research university in at least three of the following topics:
DUTCH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
Depending on your previous education and your grades,
you may need to complete a pre-master’s first. The
starting date of the pre-master’s is in September. After
finishing your pre-master’s successfully, you can directly
enter the Master’s. It is also possible to complete the pre-
master’s as a minor during your Bachelor’s degree. Minor
students can enter the Master’s in  September after
finishing the pre-master’s. For more specific admission
requirements, please visit our website:
utwente.nl/master/se

DO THE ONLINE ELIGIBILITY CHECK

● Water, weather and climate (hydrology, meteorology)
Our eligibility check is designed to assist you as a student
● Earth sciences (geo-engineering, geology, earth surface holding a non-Dutch diploma. This online test gives
processes) you an indication of your eligibility to be admitted to the
● Civil engineering (infrastructure, building, hydraulics, master's of your interest and takes about five minutes to
hard interventions) complete. Start the check!
● Spatial planning and governance (urban and or rural
environments)
● Spatial information and visualization (GIS, Remote
Sensing)
● Software engineering

Your application will be judged on the basis of an

individual educational curriculum/portfolio and
motivation letter. The admission board will review your
application and decide based on the bachelor’s education
(technical focus) if you are directly admissible, admissible
under conditions (pre-masters) or not admissible.

GET IN TOUCH University of Twente

Drienerlolaan 5

Questions about a study programme of your 7522 NB Enschede

interest? Whatever your question is, we will be
happy to help you. Phone:+31 (0)53 489 5489

Mail: study@utwente.nl

Whatsapp: +31 (0)6 51842633

 FACTS & FIGURES
WHY CHOOSE TO STUDY AT UT?
As a UT student, you will learn how to use innovative technologies to influence today's societal
challenges in a meaningful way. We call it High Tech Human Touch. 

You will benefit from excellent, highly personalised education and research in fields ranging from social sciences to
engineering and natural sciences to life sciences. You will learn to work with experts from other disciplines
and cultures. In doing so, you will develop in-depth professional knowledge and intensive personal growth.

Your study location is our campus: a dynamic community for young people to work, live and socialise. It's a breeding
ground for brilliant ideas, where you follow academic education and apply your new skills in the various state-of-
the-art labs. This is also where you meet up with friends, play sports or visit the theatre. You can even go for
groceries or catch up in the bar.

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