LLM Governance and Law in Digital Society

What role does the government play in the digital society? And what impact does this have on the public sector? How should we approach issues of cybercrime from a legal and organizational perspective?

Recent advances in digitization have resulted in an increasing number of parties becoming involved in security issues. 'Security and digitization' is, after all, not restricted to cybercrime and thus affects both the police and courts of law. It is also concerned with issues of surveillance and the maintenance of law and order, including online as well as offline public order. Government agencies have to decide which strategies to adopt in order to deal with such obstacles and issues brought about by digitization.

In the job market, there is a clear demand for graduates with an interdisciplinary profile capable of interpreting developments in the digital society and responding to them accordingly. This Master's program is designed to meet this demand and prepare students for a career within this field.

In this program, you will work intensively with university partners in both the private and public sectors, to gain insight into the real-life problems that organizations encounter. You will gain practical experience in working in a public context in the field of problems related to digitization. Graduates of the program will be well equipped to discuss and tackle such problems, whether in academic research or in political or governmental organizations or the business world.

Please be advised, this program is taught at our Faculty campus in Leeuwarden (not Groningen).

Program

Year 1

This Master's program takes one year to complete. The first semester consists of an integrated set of course units on the key themes of governance, law, and security, within the overarching theme of 'security in a digital society'. The first semester focuses on becoming familiar with theoretical concepts and developing research skills.

This is in part achieved by working with practical case studies from, for instance, a safety control region, insurance companies, banks, the Dutch Traffic Violation Bureau CJIB, and governmental organizations. The second semester is aimed at deepening this knowledge.

Courses

• Policy science in the digital society (6 EC)
• Supervision & Enforcement (6 EC)
• Seminar Policy Analysis (6 EC)
• Modern Public Management (6 EC)
• Safety & Security in Digital Society (6 EC)
• Cyber Crime (5 EC)
• Governance of Safety (5 EC)
• Thesis Project (20 EC)

Study abroad

• Study abroad is optional
• For an average of 20 weeks
• Maximum of 30 EC

Entry requirements

Admission requirements

Application deadlines

Tuition fees

Job prospects

In this program, you will work intensively with partners in the private and public sectors. In this way, you will encounter real problems that public sector organizations face. You will gain practical experience in working in a public context in the field of digitization problems. As a graduate of this program, you will be well equipped to discuss and tackle such problems, whether in academic research or in political or governmental organizations or the business world.

Graduates of this program go on to work in a variety of positions in the public sector. Career opportunities lie not only with traditional authorities such as ministries or provincial and local governments but particularly also in organizations surrounding them: agencies, independent governing bodies, inter-municipal and regional organizations, European and international organizations and in the business world. Take, for example, the National Police, departments of ministries such as the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism, the Public Prosecution Service, the Special Investigative Services and private parties who work together with public organizations.

Job examples

• Researcher in a safety control region