Exactly ten years ago, in 2014, Denis Yukhnenko started the Master’s programme in Forensic Psychology. Thanks to a scholarship provided by the Prof. dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund, Denis was able to study at Maastricht University. A decision that changed the course of his life for good. An unforgettable, yet challenging journey started in a new city, culture and learning system, completely different from what he was used to back in Russia.
Denis studied at Moscow State University at the Department of Psychology to become a clinical psychologist. During his semester abroad in Denmark, he was introduced to the international educational and scientific scene, and was able to practice his English. At the end of his studies, he attended summer school on Crime Law and Psychology in Prague. Denis: ‘For me, the summer school sparked the flame of interest in forensic psychology. My mother is a police officer; I have always been interested in the topic of law enforcement. During the summer school, I took a deeper dive into the world of criminal psychology. It was fascinating. After working as a first response emergency psychologist for a couple of years, I decided to pursue my dreams and I applied for the scholarship.’
Transitioning to Problem Based Learning
Denis recalls his first months at the university. ‘The first semester was challenging: I came from a university with a very different learning structure. A semester-long course ending with an oral exam was the norm. In the beginning, I had some difficulties transitioning to a module system with frequent written exams and getting adjusted to the Problem Based Learning education. My advice to upcoming scholarship students in the same position as me would be: go to the library after seminars and prioritize maintaining a consistent learning pace. Consistency beats intensity. In my opinion, that is the key to achieving good grades at UM and ensuring that the obtained knowledge lasts.’
Despite the challenging start, the learning system at Maastricht University turned out to be a great fit. ‘With Problem Based Learning, you always feel like there is not one single right answer to the questions you have. You have to investigate ambiguous, complex problems from different angles and, through discussion, come to a consensus. This mirrors the real-world approach to scientific inquiry and translates well to any work that relies on scientific evidence. During the weekly tutorials, we tackled different detective stories, moral dilemmas, and complicated cases that required deep thinking. Two of my favorite courses within the master’s programme were Eyewitness Testimony and Experts and Their Decisions. The main appeal for me was that, while studying a new domain of forensic psychology, we were also learning quite a bit about generalizable experimental designs and decision-making methods. The curriculum was challenging yet enjoyable, and really taught me to be a critical thinker.’
Future perspectives
It has been eight years since Denis graduated from Maastricht University. After finishing his Master’s, he started his PhD at the University of Oxford. Currently, Denis is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Psychiatric Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, again in the forensic psychiatric lab where he also conducted his PhD research. Furthermore, he is working as Research Fellow in Statistics and Epidemiology at University College London. ‘After completing the MSc, I felt fully prepared and confident to pursue a doctoral degree. The Master’s gave me the appropriate skills and domain knowledge. It taught me to tackle any ambiguous problem from an evidence-based perspective, communicate uncertainty, and make confident arguments. These are skills that are highly valued in most qualified jobs, especially those dealing with data.’
Where Denis sees himself in the coming five to ten years? ‘I might transition to data science work outside academia, within the healthcare or public policy sectors. Someday I might return to academia to become a professor, after gaining more experience in the industry, I am looking forward to what the future holds, and I look back at my time at Maastricht University with great joy and fulfillment.’
About Prof. dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund
The Prof. dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund supports the two-year master’s programme in Forensic Psychology at Maastricht University, particularly by making research and education projects possible that encourage quality and by awarding study grants. The Prof. dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund was established on 17 January 2013. Willem Albert Wagenaar (1941–2011) was a Dutch psychologist and expert in the field of human memory. He was a professor in Experimental Psychology at Leiden University and became widely known as an expert witness in the trial of John Demjanjuk and the Eper incest case. He has many critical articles and books to his name on subjects within forensic psychology. In the period from 1997–2001, Wagenaar was rector magnificus of Leiden University. He was also rector of the University College Utrecht for a short time, after which he worked as an associate professor in Utrecht, a position he held until his retirement. By naming the fund after him, the initiators of the Prof. dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund would like to show their great respect to this inspiring academic.