MSc Transport & Supply Chain Management en MSc Digital Business

Why did you choose this study?

To broaden myself a bit and pursue my interest in digital business and data-driven decision making. At the University of Amsterdam, I learn about topics like; data science for business, business-IT alignment, operational excellence, people analytics, etc. At the Free University of Amsterdam, I am learning about topics like; data analytics, network analysis, airline business, transport economics, operations performance benchmarking, etc. Here, I am also performing data analysis and programming in R.

Could you progress directly from the Aviation Academy or did you need a pre-master's degree, for example

You cannot start these masters without having done a pre-master's degree. I started with a pre-master's in Business Administration at the University of Amsterdam. Here you take a pre-master's course of 30 ECTS (6 courses). I then decided to do a second master's at the same time, for which I applied for admission at the Free University of Amsterdam. They then decided that I had to take two additional courses before I could start the MSc. I completed these in the period after my pre-master's at the UvA. These subjects were: procurement and supply management and managing and improving quality.

Are there any points you can focus on during your studies at the Aviation Academy that will benefit you in your subsequent studies

It is important to think early on about whether or not you want to continue your studies. After all, this ensures that you can prepare yourself optimally. For example, I specifically chose the honours route to further develop my research skills (among other things) in preparation for the transition to university. In addition, almost all universities require an average of 7.5 to be eligible to follow a pre-MSc programme and the subsequent MSc programme. Should you not achieve the 7.5 average, some universities also offer admission opportunities with a certain score on a GMAT test.

Why would you recommend this study?

I would recommend both MSc programmes to anyone. If you are more interested in transport management, aviation, but at the same time managing supply chains and generating data-driven insights and forecasts, I would recommend the MSc Transport & Supply Chain Management. If you are more interested in (digital) business issues, business-IT alignment, introduction to data science and operational excellence, I recommend the MSc Digital Business. Should you, like me, be unable to choose, both is also an option, here there are also several options in terms of following MSc programmes simultaneously or one after the other.

What would you possibly do differently?

If I had known everything in advance, I would have liked to look into the possibilities of using the pre-master's programmes as a fill-in for my minor. I also found out during my masters that my interests lie both in business and in operations research/data science. I would have liked to specialise even further in this through an MSc programme, but this was not possible with my pre-master's degree at the time.

Are there any critical points on your subsequent studies?

A WO study can sometimes be a bit theoretical. This is sometimes unfortunate, because you are trained from HBO to combine theory and practice right away. However, I think it can also be a challenge to explore this yourself through extra curricular internships or a (side) job.