What minor did you do? And where?
I did the minor Management and Organizational Science at Utrecht University. This minor is a premaster too, if you want to do the master.

Why did you choose this?
I chose this minor, because I liked the master Communication, Policy and Management, but after further research this turned out to be a master for which you needed to do a premaster. I could do this premaster as a minor. It was handy, because this program was exactly 30 ects.

What courses did you take?
– Introduction to Management and Organizational Science: an introductory course, about how The Netherlands is organized with management and what forms of government there are, but also about what types of organizations we distinguish.
– Management and Policy: a course about policy making and how organizations are managed, but for example about municipalities too.
– Management of Organizations: how are organizations managed? Leadership, self-governing organizations etc.
– Qualitative Research in Management and Organizational Science: here we had to do research about how policy works in practice. For example, we went to asylum seekers centers to interview employees about the integration policy.

How did you like it?
I liked this minor a lot. I think it was a big addition to do something else than CIS for half a year.

Did you live in a dorm?
I didn’t live in a dorm for this minor.

Was it hard to switch?
At the beginning, I had to get used to the way things were organized around there. The university in Utrecht works with four periods instead of semesters. That meant that I had multiple lectures of one course during a weak and less different courses in the same period. Furthermore, the courses were bigger and more intensive: 7.5 ects, which meant that one course costs more time in Utrecht than in Tilburg. But you get used to that. Besides that, all the lectures were mandatory (I think you could miss one or two) and a lot of lectures were given in smaller groups with a maximum of 25 people. That means that it was very intensive and interactive, but the level was doable. Some courses were from the first or second year of the bachelor, so the level wasn’t a big problem. I do have the feeling that I learned a lot. Utrecht, of course, is different than Tilburg, but I really enjoyed being there for half a year.

Did you know someone else who did this minor? 
I knew one other guy that was doing this minor too and later on we met another familiar person. Of course, that is nice in the beginning, but I got to know other people too. I saw that people from very different studies were doing this minor, so a lot of people were new and alone and when you are alone you make new contacts the fastest. On top of that, you do this for yourself and you should make something great of it! Don’t be scared to go to other people and look for new contacts, because everyone is in the same position.