Science and Technology Studies
Scientific and technological change present contemporary societies with some of their greatest opportunities and some of their greatest challenges. On the one hand the products of science-based industries seem to promise much in the way of economic and social well-being. On the other hand many of these products evoke popular concern. Debates about nuclear power in the 1970s and about stem-cell research today are examples. How are popular concerns translated into political action? How can governments respond, in an era of Internet and of global corporations? The fact is that science and technology are also key components of a rapidly globalising world.

Today we see citizens, political actors and commercial corporations also becoming global. With what consequences? Globalisation in the North seems to be about the crossing of boundaries, but the view from the South is different. Here, globalisation seems to contribute to a widening North-South gap, and to a sense of exploitation. Multi-national companies move their production to regions with a plentiful supply of cheap labour. The biodiversity of the South is also becoming a valuable resource for Northern pharmaceutical and bio-tech companies (as well as for researchers), with consequences that are now a matter of heated debate. Some speak of ‘biopiracy’.
Science and Technology Studies is an interdisciplinary field, integrating perspectives and findings from a number of social science disciplines as well as from history, to study such issues.

The Minor in STS
The minor in Science and Technology Studies was developed to introduce students to Science and Technology Studies. Science and Technology Studies investigates the social aspects of science and technology and the interrelations between science, technology and society. Students who have completed the 30 ECTS minor as part of their Bachelor's programme can enrol the Master's in Science and Technology Studies without extra requirements.

Student Profile
The minor in STS should appeal particularly to students wanting to understand better the place of science and technology in a globalising world. The programme is open to students with a background in any field relevant to the programme including anthropology, sociology, political science, philosophy, or one of the natural or life sciences. Admission, however, is not necessarily limited to this type of applicant. Generally, we are looking for students who are interested in analysing the complex issues in which science, technology and society interplay. Alumni had backgrounds in such diverse fields as Medicine, Philosophy, Oceanography, Political Science, Mathematics, Sociology, Astrophysics, Communication Studies, Biology, European Studies, Chemistry, Anthropology, Geology and more.

Career Prospects
The Master in Science and Technology Studies prepares students for further research on social aspects of science and technology or for a career in education, policy analysis, science-communication, public relations, science journalism, or with an NGO. 
Graduates of the programme have found work in the fields of research policy and science management, in governmental advisory boards and 'Think Tanks' such as the Rathenau Instituut in the Netherlands and the Rand Corporation in the United States, in large companies that work with science and technology (such as Shell, Unilever and more), especially those companies with large research- and development departments. A number of recent graduates have continued their academic careers internationally in PhD-positions.