"The great thing about the Master’s programmes Chemistry is the high degree of independence"

After I completed the HLO Chemistry course in Leeuwarden, in 2002 I transferred to university because I wanted to learn more about organic chemistry. My Bachelor’s degree programme had a strongly analytical setup, so my knowledge of organic synthesis fell somewhat short. This made the crossover rather hard, but I soon caught up. I expected that the transfer students would remain a separate group, but we were included in the degree programme and the research group from the very beginning.

The great thing about the Master’s programme is the high degree of independence, which is much more up my street than the way I had been taught up till now.

I have learnt a lot in the past few years, in particular in the field of organic chemistry, but in other areas as well. I enjoyed doing research into how to make monolayers of fullerene derivatives.My research also included many physical measurements, so I met lots of people from the Physics department and I have significantly broadened my knowledge.

Even though I continued to live in Leeuwarden, I have made a lot of friends and acquaintances and I still enjoy the commuting. I will hopefully graduate in September, after which I will start looking for a nice job. If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely have made the same choice.

Renske Valk

Student of the Master’s degree programme in Chemistry