The Job Market

Depending on the area of specialisation, the Master's in General Linguistics provides a solid foundation for a career in such areas as clinical linguistics, curriculum development, language engineering, speech technology, language planning and artificial intelligence.

Alumni of the programme work as:

• Clinical linguists
• Language teachers at public and private schools
• Speech technologists in the field of artificial intelligence
• Language planners

Becoming a Clinical Linguist

By completing the Master’s programme in General Linguistics, you can obtain the qualification “Clinical Linguist” – as standardised by the Dutch Vereniging voor Klinische Linguïstiek.

For this qualification you should take the standard four courses in the first semester, then the course Language Assessment and specialise in with the course Language Acquisition & Disorders II. In the second semester, you will do an internship with a clinical linguist in a clinical setting (note: this requires good mastery of Dutch), during which you will obtain practical skills and carry out a research project.

The report of this clinical internship and research project will become your final thesis. The qualification allows you to work as a clinical linguist, but not as a speech and language therapist.

An academic career

Graduates who wish to pursue a PhD in the field of Linguistics and have an interest in conducting scientific research may use this programme to gain admission to the Research Master's programme Linguistics. Students with a Master's in Linguistics will be able to complete the two-year research programme in one year. Applicants must take part in a selection procedure.

Your diploma is not a farewell

After graduating, you don't have to say goodbye to the University of Amsterdam! We are happy to help you develop your career. You can join the young alumni programme, which will assist you in mapping out your career. And as an alumnus, you can also still use the Student Careers Centre.  

Do you have ambitions to start your own business? The Humanities Venture Lab is the place for the humanities entrepreneur starting out. As a student or alumnus, you can find training, coaching, inspiration sessions, and a workplace here. Watch the video’s below to see what the Humanities Venture Lab can do for you.