For reference, I took the Structures for Space profile of the Aerospace Structures and Materials track. See the bottom of this page for details on the scoring.
An introduction to linear modelling and FEM, including assignments in Python and Abaqus. The course is really well organized, and it was really interesting to learn about the theory behind FEM. If I wasn't enrolled as a student, I would probably pay for this course (and in fact, many people do).
An introduction to fatigue in metal and composite structures. This is quite a niche topic, and this course is a bit more disorganized than FEM. It's in S tier because of the weekly assignments; the questions were (intentionally) quite broad, and I made many friends while debating over the answers.
This course covers some essential mathematical tools for electromagnetics. I had a real eureka moment where we combined several of these tools to compute the far field of a horn antenna.
The deliverables are quite intense - graded assignments, a written exam, and an oral exam. Students are only invited to the oral exam if they pass the first two, leading to a very high pass rate on paper.
A great overview of antennas, including theoretical exercises, full-wave simulations in CST, and an antenna measurement lab at the DUCAT anechoic chamber.
There is nothing I feel is missing in this course. I've come across sentences like "[concept] is often covered in graduate courses on antennas" in a few EM books. And what do you know - it was included in this course!
Neutrons, X-Rays and Positrons for for Studying Microscopic Structures and Dynamics (courses with the longest title which I took). We learn the basics of X-Ray, neutron and positron physics, as well as crystallography and scattering. A really nice course if you're interested in physics, or applied materials science. Also, includes a visit to the reactor!
A foundational course in EM; I'm sure a similar course is taught in all graduate EE programmes.
The only downside I can point out is that the course is taught by 3 different professors, and is slightly disjointed. Notably, we ended one lecture with the professor commenting "We don't look at waveguides in this course", and the very next lecture discussed waveguides.
Especially nice if you're interested in materials science. I especially liked the assignment, where we wrote a 10 page report from a list of topics; the topic was just specific enough that it wasn't vague, but still broad enough that we could go down several rabbitholes. The professor (Santiago) was also really nice.
Slightly biased, since I later TA'd for this course. Still, a very nice course on spacecraft thermal design, including the physics as well as practical considerations. Also includes ESATAN simulations, which is the standard tool for this in Europe.
The ATHENS programme is a one-week exchange between different universities in Europe. I followed this course in Mines Paris PSL, which seems to have a million different names. But the course was very detailed, and it was nice to see a different university culture. Also took the opportunity to visit Paris with students from my year.
Mandatory course from ASM. Not bad, but professor insists on having 4-hour lectures.
Mandatory course from ASM. Also taught by Santiago (and a variety of other professors), though not as fun as functional coatings.
Taught by a wide variety of professors. Overall quite fun, but some lectures were a bit underwhelming.
This one is no longer available; introduction to embedded systems & space radiation effects. Includes an arduino project. Fun, but I don't think I learnt much with my prior electronics experience in DARE/Dawn.
More so on materials science rather than application. Nice course, but was a bit disorganized the year I took it.
No longer offered (I believe). Quite a fun course and good introduction to polymer science, but no very in-depth. The professor had a chemistry background, but didn't go very far into polymer chemistry in this course, as we didn't have the necessary background knowledge.
It's fine. An entirely self-paced, online course worth 2 ECTS. The exam was a short multiple choice computer quiz. Learnt a couple small interesting things, but I wouldn't say it stands out.
Mandatory course in my profile. If you're interested in re-entry, I'm sure it's a great course, I just didn't like it much. Professor expects you to reproduce long derivations during the exam.
Similar to re-entry (note the course codes), mandatory for my profile. Again very derivation-heavy; some of the slides were just 100% equations. Also, we model all rockets as a point mass, meaning it's not very relevant for people interested in structures.
No longer offered, was taught by a professor at IDE who moved to industry. A fun course, with some interesting details and practical advice. But I don't think I got very much out of the course.
On paper, a great idea for a course; it's taught in Q4, and supposed to combine everything we learnt to this point. In practice, mixed.
Free Dutch courses offered by the university. Honestly pretty good, could be in B tier; includes two lessons a week, where you get to practice speaking with other participants. But it does take up a lot of time.
To be clear, I enjoyed my internship at SRON; this is in D tier due to the organization of the internship on the TU side. The internship office asks for a lot of paperwork with dubious utility, and will make you re-submit it if there are even small errors.
For example, I had to re-submit my internship report because the page numbers started on the table of contents, whereas they should've started on the introduction. I know of people who had to re-submit because they used too many bullet points in the text.
Mandatory course for all MSc Aerospace students. The year I took it, the course followed a student-led concept in a very literal sense; we would prepare a lecture/group activity in groups of 3/4 students, and then present the lecture to our peers. The TA's gave us the topics and helped if we have questions, but it was still an odd experience.
Content wise, it's a blend of light philosophy with some case studies and roleplay activities mixed in. I don't think I got much use out of it.
The content of this course is quite good; it is exactly what I would expect to learn in a graduate level mechanical engineering program. The teaching method is nothing special, mainly math-heavy lecture slides.
However, the assessment was outstandingly poor, and disqualifies this course from being anywhere near the top tiers. This included 3 written assignments (about 10 pages each), concluded by a 5-minute oral exam. Several months after the course, we got our grades back; everyone I spoke to got a 10/10 on the assignments, with no in-line feedback. We then learned that the oral exam was worth 60% of the grade.
I was peer pressured into following this course in my first year, despite having very little interest in astrodynamics, and having taken no courses on the subject.
The course itself was interesting, but far too much work for 2 ECTS. It was also geared towards a very narrow field of research (specifically, the control of solar sails in orbits around Lagrange points). I think this course is only useful if you specifically want to do your thesis with the professor.
The scoring is based on my opinion of the courses in hindsight. It is, of course, subjective, and a high score is not necessarily a recommendation for other students to follow the same course. Note that I took these courses in 2024/2025, not all are still being offered.
If I had no strong opinions on a given course, they are placed around the C tier. The order within each tier is random.