communications and information sciences
DESCRIPTION
Communications and Information Sciences, Tilburg University masters programmeTRANSCRIPT
Humanities
Master in Communication and Information Sciences (CIS)
Specialisations within CIS:• Business Communication and Digital Media• Communication Design• Human Aspects of Information Technology• Intercultural Communication
Master’s Programmes 2011/2012
02 www.tilburguniversity.nl/rankings 03
Why Tilburg University 03
CIS at a Glance 04
My Personal Opinion 05
Communication and Information Sciences (CIS) 06
Specialisations within CIS:
• BusinessCommunicationandDigitalMedia 06
• CommunicationDesign 06
• HumanAspectsofInformationTechnology 08
• InterculturalCommunication 08
Curriculum 09
Prospective Students 10
AfterGraduation 11
Career Opportunities 12
AdmissionsandApplication 13
Contact Us 14
Our profile and mission statementTilburg University is an inspiring university offering a stimulating and
challenging environment for students, staff, and alumni.
The university highly values authenticity, academic freedom, and
continuous development. In its top-quality education and research
programmes in the disciplines of the social sciences and the humanities,
the university is committed to addressing quality issues in society at
national and international levels. It does so by training people for
positions of responsibility in society and by contributing to socially
sustainable solutions.
Tilburg University draws on a rich tradition which nourishes reflection
and which also encourages the academic community’s awareness of its
philosophy of life in relation to academic disciplines.
Tilburg University in a nutshell•LocatedinTilburg
•Foundedin1927
•BestspecialistuniversityintheNetherlands
•With12,000students
•Internationalstudentsfrom65countries
•233fullprofessors
•1,500Master’sdegreeseachyear
•85PhDdegreeseachyear
•1,940scientificpublicationseachyear
Formoreinformationonthelatestrankingsandaccreditationsof
Tilburg University, please visit our website:
www.tilburguniversity.nl/rankings
School of HumanitiesTilburgUniversityislocatedintheSouthernpartoftheNetherlands,
oneandhalfhourfromAmsterdam.Tilburgisawarmandyoungcity
forambitiousstudentswhowouldliketocombinetheirstudieswitha
pleasant social life.
TilburgSchoolofHumanitiesisoneoftheleadingacademicbodies
within the university and is responsible for a promising teaching
programme.TheprogrammesofferedbyTilburgSchoolofHumanities
areaccreditedbytheNVAO(inDutch:Nederlands-VlaamseAccreditatie-
organisatie).NVAO,whichisestablishedbyaninternationaltreaty,
independentlyensuresthequalityofhighereducationintheNetherlands
andFlandersbyassessingandaccreditingprogrammes,andcontributes
to enhancing this quality.
We offer•Reliableservice
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Why Tilburg University, School of HumanitiesTable of Contents
Please read more about our CIS students and staff on www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/ciswww.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis04 0505
My Personal Opinion
Name Communication and Information Sciences
Specialisations •BusinessCommunicationandDigital
Media
•CommunicationDesign
•HumanAspectsofInformation
Technology
•InterculturalCommunication
Language English
Start TheendofJanuaryortheendofAugust
Duration 12 months
Title MasterofArts(MA)
Tuition fee €1672peryear(EU/EEA)
€2550peryear(NON-EU/EEA)
* The tuition fees for 2011-2012 should be confirmed yet!
Pre-master’s programme Available(inDutch)
Head of department Prof.dr.FonsMaes
Your personal contact Mr.OmidFeyli
(InternationalRelationsOffice)
CIS at a Glance
Why CIS… “The good atmosphere between teachers and students creates a perfect learning environment”
WhenIstartedwiththeCISBachelor,Iwantedtolearneverything
aboutwritingtheperfecttext.Duringthecurriculum,Isoonfound
outthatcommunicationholdssomuchmorethanwritingtexts
only. I became particularly interested in the interface between
communication and Information Technology and wanted to go
deeply into that subject. Therefore I decided to choose the CIS
MasterspecialisationHumanAspectsofInformationTechnology.
Forme,thecurriculumisavaluableexperience.Havingnoback-
ground in IT, Iknewthispartof theprogrammewouldbecome
challengingforme.Moreover,allthesubjectsarefinishedatagreat
pace:ittakesalotofeffortanddedicationtokeepup.Fortunately,
wehavehighlyqualifiedteachers,whoaremorethanonlyexperts
intheirfieldandtheyareverypassionate about their specialties.
Their enthusiasm motivates me even more to be at my best.
The best part of CIS is the good atmosphere between teachers and
students. This creates a perfect learning environment, which gives
metheopportunitytoshowinitiative,askquestionsandactively
engageandcontributetodiscussionsaboutthefieldofCIS.
CIS student Marlies Lammers
CIS is a master programme for highly talented, motivated, curious
and internationally-oriented students. CIS challenges students to
embarkinacomprehensivestudyofcommunicationandinformation.
This means that CIS covers different communicative codes, such
as language, pictorial information, and non-verbal communication,
andthatitinvitesstudentstotakedifferentdisciplinaryperspectives
on communication and information behaviour: linguistic, psycho-
linguistic, sociolinguistic, technological. Empirical study is an
importantpartofeachcourse.Recenttechnologicaldevelopments
in communication and information, ranging from social media to
data mining, are covered in different selective courses. The idea
behind this set up is communication and information experts
nowadays have to deal with the soft side of Information Technology
more than ever before.
Withinthisprogramme,studentscanfocusondifferentfieldsof
communication and information. CIS offers a range of optional
courses. That way, students can focus on different areas of study
(communication design, digital media, intercultural communication).
In sum, CIS is waiting for students who have creative and innovative
ideas about communication and society, who are eager to empirically
examinetheseideasandopinions,andwholiketoworkcooperatively
in an agreeable academic environment.
Head of Department CIS Prof.dr. Fons Maes
www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis06 07
Communication and Information Sciences offers a unique programme
in which you learn about how people inform themselves and others, and
how new means of communication can be used in a creative way.
TheapproachofTilburgSchoolofHumanitiesisuniqueinthesense
that the broad concept of communication is viewed from many
perspectives, among which linguistics, cognitive and social psychology,
computational modelling and document design.
You are most welcome to joinThis programme is intended for highly talented, motivated, curious and
internationally-oriented students. In this Master programme you will
encounter state of the art research in the broad interdisciplinary area of
communication. The point of departure is natural communication: how
do people transfer information between each other? To what purpose?
Youwillattenddiversecourseslikecommunicationstrategies,non-verbal
communication and computer vision. Through this unique multidiscipli-
naryapproachandresearchtraditions,youwillbeabletoworkasa
communicationexpert,andanswerquestionssuchas:Whatisthebest
waytopresentinformationtoanaudience?Howdopeoplecommunicate
withinanorganization?Andhowcanyouinfluencepeople’sbehaviour
through language?
Youtakeamorethanaverageinterestinlanguageandyouwanttobroaden
anddeepenyouracademicknowledge.Whatyouarecuriousaboutis
the many different aspects of communication.
You can specialise This one-year programme offers four different specialisations: ‘Business
Communication and Digital Media’, ‘Communication Design’, ‘Human
Aspects of Information Technology’ and ‘Intercultural Communication’.
Business Communication and Digital MediaIntheMaster’sspecialisationBusinessCommunicationandDigital
Media, you will focus on communication issues in the area of business
communications. You will research how people use different ways to
communicate with each other, and how they process information
throughlanguage,pictures,soundandcomputers.Forexample,you
willacquireknowledgeaboutpitfallsandmisunderstandingsinthe
exchangeofinformation,negotiationandconflictmanagementin
businesssettings.Anemphasisliesontheeffectsofdigitalcommuni-
cationonoursocietyandculture.BusinessCommunicationsand
Digitalmediaenableyoutostudytheconsequences/implicationsof
media selection for effective communication transaction.
Communication DesignOne of the essential parts of information transaction and communication
istext,verbalorwritten.Oneofthepurposesoftextsistoinformor
convince depending on the communication objectives. Communication
designersresearchdifferentfactorsthatinfluencetheeffectivenessoftexts
ascommunicationtools.Thesefactorscanbethetextcharacteristics,
such as style and structure, but also the conversation characteristics
andinfluenceofnon-verbalcommunication.Furthermore,thecontext
andpurposeofatextandhowreadersprocessinformationalsoplaya
majorroleincommunication.IntheEnglishMaster’sspecialisation
CommunicationDesign,youwillresearchhowcommunicationprocesses
workandhowyoucaneffectivelyinfluencetheseprocesses.Youwill
learntoanalysetexts,adjustthemfordifferenttargetgroupsandyou
willacquireknowledgeonhowtomeasureinpracticewhethera
texthasthedesiredeffect.
Communication and Information Sciences (CIS)
www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis08 09
Human Aspects of Information TechnologyWe live in a time when more and more automated systems provide
us with access to enormous amounts of information, through search
engines,websitesanddigitalhelpdesks.Howcanwemakesurethat
peoplegettheexactinformationor(accessto)theknowledgethatthey
require? What technologies do we have at our disposal to effectuate this?
Howcanusers’demandsandwishesbecateredformostnaturally?
Cancomputersidentifyandmimichumanbehaviour?Howcanallthis
betranslatedintosmartinformationsystems?Questionslikethese
arecentraltotheone-yearEnglishMaster’sspecialisationHuman
AspectsofInformationTechnology,aheavilyinternationally-oriented
specialisation.
In this specialisation, you will learn how to organise information systems
in such a way that they can communicate with the user in a natural way.
Asearchenginewillhaveto‘understand’whatresultsaninquireris
lookingfor;anautomatictelephoneservicehelpdeskwillhavetobe
able to enter into a dialogue with a caller through speech recognition
andartificialspeech.Bymakinguseoftheuniquecombinationof
information and language technology you actively contribute to the
accessibility and the categorisation of information.
Intercultural Communication Communication between different cultures in different languages
has become increasingly important. Interaction between people has
become more internationally oriented and therefore multicultural and
inmultilingual.IntheEnglishMaster’sspecialisationIntercultural
Communication you will learn about the influences of internationalisation
and multiculturalism on language and interaction. You will study this in
awiderangeofsocialcontexts.Youwillresearchhowlanguage,culture
andidentityarelinkedandhowtheseinfluenceeachotherandyouwill
conduct research about how people behave and interact with each other
in a multicultural society. You will study intercultural communication in
social institutions and organisations such as schools, government and
co-operationsandanswerquestionslike:Howdopeoplefromdifferent
cultural,ethnicalandnationalbackgrounds,cooperateandhowcanyou
workwithculturallydifferentteams?Youwillalsoacquireknowledge
about how governments create policies concerning multilingual and
multicultural aspects of societies.
Thecoursesinthisone-yearprogrammearetaughtinEnglishandstart
theendofJanuaryortheendofAugusteachyear.
The academic yearTheacademicyearforthisprogrammeisdividedintofourblocksofsix
weekseach.
TheloadoftheCISprogrammeis60ECTS-credits.EuropeanCredit
TransferandAccumulationSystem(ECTS)isastandardforcomparing
the study attainment and performance of students of higher education
acrosstheEuropeanUnionandothercollaboratingEuropeancountries.
Intermsoftime,thestudentsshouldstudy28hrsincludingclasstime
for1ECTS-credit.
Credit distributionTheprogrammeconsistsofsixcoursesof6ECTS,tworesearchskills
modulesof3ECTS,andaMasterthesisof18ECTS.Fromalistofelective
courses,youwillselecttwoelectivecoursesof6ECTSeachperblock.
Inaddition,youwillselectanelectiveresearchskillsmoduleof3ECTS
inthefirsttwoblocks.Inthethirdandfourthblockyouwillwriteyour
Master thesis.
When you decide to specialise in one of the specialisations, you should
chooseatleastfourrelatedelectivesinthatyear!
A selection of subjects:The programme offers a wide range of communication and information
subjectswhichevenenablesyoutospecialiseindifferentfieldsofyour
interest.
Communication Strategies •
Multimodality & Communication•
Cognition & Process •
NaturalLanguageProcessing•
ComputerVision•
Language,Culture&Identity•
NegotiationStrategies•
OnlineMarketing•
InformationSearch,Retrieval&Recommendation•
DataMining&KnowledgeDiscovery•
Culture, Communication and Computers •
DigitalCollaboration•
KnowledgeManagement•
Computer Games •
Non-verbalCommunication•
Culture & Technology •
EvolutionofLanguage•
Language&Globalization•
Social Media•
Schedule Study Load DurationFull-timeprogramme Average 12months
40-50hours/week
60ECTSor1680hours
(28hrs/ECTS)
including class time
Curriculum
Please read more about our CIS alumni on www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/ciswww.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis10 11
Students are participantsWe believe strongly that our students are participants when it comes
toknowledgeexchangethatoccurseverydayatTilburgUniversity!
Imagineexchangingideasanddevelopingsolutionswiththemost
talented and motivated students from different international schools.
This international Master’s programme offers courses to a variety of
bothDutchandinternationalstudents.Withtheirdifferentcultural
backgroundsandstrongacademicrecords,theyhavechosenTilburg
University,TilburgSchoolofHumanitiesasastartoftheirinternational
careerinthefieldofCommunicationandInformationSciences.
Many of the courses are taught in small groups, as a result of which
there is intensive contact with fellow-students and lecturers. Students
also get all the supervision they need in writing their Master’s thesis.
Are you the right candidateNowadaysinourconstantlyfastchangingworldCommunicationand
Information plays a major role in the international society. Students who
wouldliketohaveacompetitiveadvantageamongtheothersshould
notbetakenabackandactstrategicallybychoosingtherightacademic
programme. With Communication and Information Sciences in your
knowledgebaggageyouwillbeastepaheadoftheothers!
Prospective Students
MynameisGemmaSearle.IamcurrentlyworkingatAlertLife
SciencesComputingB.V.in‘s-Hertogenboschasatranslator.
ALERTisaninternationalcompanyfullycommittedtothedevelop-
ment, distribution and implementation of healthcare software,
which creates paper-free clinical environments.
MyworkinvolvescarryingoutDutchandEnglishtranslations,
proofreadingandwritingtextsindifferentareas,forexample
onlinenewsforthewebsite,marketing,commercial,development,
operationsandlegaltexts.
ItookamajorinBusinessCommunicationandDigitalMediaand
IgraduatedinDecember2009.Thiscoursedefinitelygaveme
usefulknowledgeandtaughtmevaluableskills.Ifoundthecourses
very interesting and varied which provided many opportunities.
DuringtheMaster,IfoundthecoursesInterculturalCommunication
and International Communication especially useful. Since I currently
workforaninternationalcompanyitisveryusefultobeableto
communicate with different nationalities and recognize cultural
differences.
CIS student graduated in 2009Translator at ALERT Gemma Searle
I really enjoyed being student Communication and Information
Sciences at Tilburg University, from 2001 till 2005. The study
offered me the right balance between theory and practice,
personal classes and self-study, communications classes and
moretechnicalclasses.Startinginmyfirstjobasaconsultantin
2005Itookadvantageofallaspectsoftheprogramme.
AtthemomentIworkasaCommunicationsConsultantat
WinkelmanenVanHesseninTheHague.Iadviceorganizations
abouttheirpositioninginthemarketandhelpthemtostrengthen
theircorporatecommunicationsandPRprogrammes.Ireally
lovethisbroadworkingfield;itoffersdiversity,experienceand
inspiration. In my job I get confronted with human behaviour
and media each day.
IthinkCommunicationandInformationSciencesisaninteresting
study for anyone who is interested in human communications and
readytolookahead.Itisastudythatoffersknowledgeofcommu-
nications,mediaandtechnique,practicalexperienceandanalytical
skills.CISisdefinitelyastrongbasisformanyprofessionalcareers.
CIS student graduated in 2005Corporate Communications Consultant at Winkelman en Van Hessen - Sanne Stadler
After Graduation
www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis12 13
AfterfinishingyourMAprogrammeinCommunicationandInformation
Sciences you will have a broad career path in business, research and
education in front of you. You are able to analyse and consult about
internalandexternalcommunications.WithaMaster’sdegreeyoucan
alsostartyourcareerasscientificresearcherinthisfield.Keepinmind
that these opportunities are world wide because your studies are inter-
nationally-oriented!
Career path after graduation
Internationalskills:
Improving the way people using computers•
Understanding the end-users’ perceptions (also in IT departments)•
ExpertinInterculturalCommunicationprocesses•
Team leader in multinational companies and institutions•
Managing programmers•
Analysinginternalandexternalcommunicationwithinorganisations•
Advising(local)governmentandrelatedorganisationsabout •
communication methods and tools
International careers:
Internationalscientificresearcher•
Intercultural Communication Consultant•
Intercultural Communication trainer•
InterculturalCommunicationOfficerinmultinationalorganisations•
Communicationadvisorin(non)-profitorganisations•
Communication employee of government agencies and related •
institutions
Opportunities as communication consultant•
Career Opportunities
Admissions requirementsBeforeapplying,checkthatyoumeetthefollowingrequirements:
YouhaveaBachelor’sdegreeinarelevantdiscipline•
AdequateknowledgeofEnglish.Pleasesendinatruecopyofoneof•
thefollowingEnglishproficiencytests:AcademicIELTS,TOEFL.Ifyou
areanEnglishnativespeakeroranEEAcitizenwhohasstudiedinan
Englishundergraduateprogramme,anEnglishproficiencytestis
NOTrequired.
Application deadlines
Next course Next course Deadlines Studentsbegins ends 01-10-2010 NON-EU/EEA
(requiring a visa)
21-01-2011 15-01-2012 01-11-2010 NON-EU/EEA
(NOTrequiringavisa)
01-12-2010 EU/EEA
15-04-2011 NON-EU/EEA
(requiring a visa)
30-08-2011 15-07-2012 15-05-2011 NON-EU/EEA
(NOTrequiringavisa)
01-07-2011 EU/EEA
Please consult our website for updated information concerning the
deadlines!
Application and selection procedureAllapplicantsmustgothroughanapplicationandselectionprocedure
before joining the programme. This procedure ensures all students’
backgrounds,profilesandambitionsmeetourrequirements.
Please consult our website www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis
for detailed information concerning the admissions and applications.
Admissions and Application
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Send in your application form and required
documents.
Within1weekyouwillreceive confirmationofyourdelivered
documents from the AdmissionsOfficer.
TheAdmissionsCommittee willspend4weekson
your individual application to form their decision.
Thenotificationletter willbesendtoyouwithin1week.
You will receive a letter ofnotification,stating committee’s decision.
Fromstage1onwards, the entire procedure
willtakeupto6weeks!
You can either start studying immediately or you have to meet
additional requirements.
AdmissionsCommittee will deal with
individual applications.
Research6%
1514
PleasedonothesitatetocontactourInternationalRelationsOffice(IRO),
for your personal queries about the programme, scholarships, admissions
and enrolment. You are more than welcome to contact us before, during
or even after your submission period. Our international team is glad to
answerallyourquestionsaboutstudyingatTilburgSchoolofHumanities
andprovideyouwithdetailedpracticalinformation!
Your personal contact:
Omid FeyliInternational Relations Office
IRO.humanities
Phone:+31(0)134663580
Forfurtherinformationonthelatestupdates,pleasevisitourwebsite:
www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis
Paulien StaalInternational Relations Office
IRO.humanities
Phone: +31 (0)13 466 3060
Contact Us for More Information
www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis
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Telephone +31134663580Fax +31134662892E-mail [email protected]
Skype IRO.humanities
www.tilburguniversity.nl/masters/cis