The introductory courses will introduce the students to disciplines in which they have had no training and which are essential for the courses in Year 1. For example, an engineering student will follow the introductory course of quantum physics. If a student does not need any introductory course, he/she may choose a specialised course.

The aim of the AIIAP programme is to train physicists and astronomers who feel well at home in the field of instrumentation and informatics. An important requisite is that this programme offers a number of high-level theoretical courses in physics and astronomy. These will provide the background that is required if one wants to exploit instrumentation and informatics to the full 100%. The main objective of this educative element is to harmonise the training level of students in fundamental physics and to provide the advanced knowledge of astronomy, atomic and subatomic physics and adjacent fields, relevant to forefront instrumentation.

These courses provide a basis of knowledge about instrumental techniques required to understand and build complex systems (earth- and space-born astronomical observatories, accelerators, satellites, reactors, intense photon sources, large-scale particle detector systems and nuclear medical devices, etc.). This educative element will make the connection to electronics engineering, signal handling, software architecture and system-control technology. Because of the fundamental character of the courses, the students need to take at least 24 ECTS of these courses, but they can be followed at several Universities. Considering that Groningen and Paris offer more basic instrumentation courses than Bochum, Cologne and Leuven do, several of these courses will be offered through Internet video. In this way AIIAP students at all participating nodes can do excellent first study years, of similar content, depth, and quality, regardless of any mobility.

Six ECTS are left free for the students to do a course of their choice. For an advanced, specialised programme it is important that the student can use his/her own creativity and follow a course which might be unrelated to the main subject, but which could be the source of his/her inspiration, or which could make life much easier. For example, the student could opt to follow courses in the local languages, e.g. Dutch, French, German, Swedish or English for Scientists or topics extending to adjacent fields like Biosensor Technology or Artificial Intelligence.

This educative element is the core of the AIIAP programme. The students can choose here between 6 different specialisation directions, some of which are unique in the world. Apart from learning in-depth about complex systems, the students will lead and develop practical projects. Two specialisations (Instrumental Techniques in Atomic and Subatomic Physics and Instrumental Techniques in Astronomy and Astrophysics) focus on the methods to push instrumentation to the highest levels of performance. One specialisation (Computational Physics) is directed towards digital techniques, programming tools, and Virtual Observatories. Two other specialisations focus more on the scientific aspects (Atomic and Subatomic Physics and Astronomy and Astrophysics), while the sixth specialisation (the Free Specialisation in Instrumentation) permits the students to choose relevant Masters courses from related science fields such as chemistry or even life sciences.

To complete the Masters study, the student will go through a research-training period of one semester. The masters-thesis research project is intended to bring the student in close contact with a multinational and multidisciplinary research environment of a research institute in or close to academia or industry. The student will be assigned a relevant research project and will work in close collaboration with PhD students, postdocs and professors. The research project is finalised with a public presentation of a Masters Thesis in two locations of the consortium.

As described above, the student will have the choice between 6 specialisation directions. These are:

• Instrumental Techniques in Atomic and Subatomic Physics (ITASAP);
• Instrumental Techniques in Astronomy and Astrophysics (ITAA);
• Computational Physics and Astronomy (CPA);
• Atomic and Subatomic Physics (ASAP);
• Astronomy and Astrophysics (AA);
• Free Specialisation (FS).

An AIIAP Master student will have a choice between many more specialisations than in a classical university. The Free Specialisation (FS) has been introduced to provide the option of a tailored training in research areas in the overlap region between Atomic/Subatomic Physics and Astronomy/Astrophysics like Astroparticle Physics. The FS furthermore generates the flexibility to choose the Masters curriculum such, that students are trained in an optimum way to apply AIIAP covered technologies in adjacent scientific fields.

While the AIIAP Masters program comprises six universities, the structure of the study program is straight and transparent. The AIIAP study program – in which year 1 is the introductory year and year 2 the specialization year – permits moving from university A to B at the change of the semester. The study programs at all consortium universities guarantee coherent Masters-paths for all AIIAP students.

Candidate students must specify their first and second choice of their first-semester University, and complete at least 30 ECTS at this university. Introductory, Basic Instrumentation and/or Informatics as well as some Advanced Physics/Astronomy Courses should make up these first 30 ECTS. Whereas it is recommended to continue the first semester study at the same university, the second-semester study may be carried out elsewhere. During that 2nd semester the students will become acquainted with other consortium universities, in particular through their participation in the AIIAP intensive program. By the end of the introductory year, they will also have developed insight in the balance between their scientific and technical skills and interests, and may decide to move to another consortium partner during the summer. That decision should primarily be based on the choice of specialisation. Different partners have different curriculum accents in advanced Astronomy and Physics and in advanced Instrumentation and Informatics. The choice of specialization (ITASAP, ITAA,... , FS) should also take the preferred location for the Master Research/Thesis into account. It would obviously be advisable to combine the specialisation course work and master research at one and the same university, but this is certainly not compulsory. A representative collection of elaborated showcase study paths will be posted on the AIIAP web page to provide students guidance in their choices.

On top of this, every year an Intensive Course will be organised. During spring, all AIIAP students from the partner Universities will meet with the faculty during a ten-days intensive course. This Intensive Course gives an important opportunity for the students to meet their fellow students, and exchange information about the different partner universities. Equally important, it allows the staff to meet and to coordinate their programmes. During the Intensive Course, groups of students following the same specialisation will work together on related topics. For first-year students information sessions will be organised to provide guidance for the planning and the choice of the specialisation in their second year. The date of the Intensive Course has further been chosen such, that it precedes the beginning of the academic year e.g. in Japan which will eventually simplify the exchange of students between international partners. The AIIAP Intensive Course has a student load of 6 ECTS and can be classified under the specialised courses.

Many different study programmes, combining pure science, applied science, instrumentation and informatics are conceivable. This large range of programmes can be guaranteed, given the variety of research interests and skills, involvements, competences, and conditions at the different consortium partner institutes. As for the balance between scientific and technical education the range of 30:70 to 70:30 is being targeted, obviously depending on the interests and qualifications of the student.