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Master's Degree in Data Science

Data Science for Decision Making Program

Learn key elements from Data Science and Economics to make the correct inferences from data

9 months
full time

19,000€

Face-to-face

English

60 ECTS

Campus: Bellaterra (UAB) and Ciutadella (UPF)

Program begins in September 2025

Application deadline for 2025-2026, is July 2, 2025

Learn more

Master's Degree in Data Science

Applications for 2025-2026 Master´s Degrees are now open!

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Master's Degrees

Master's Degree in Data Science

Data Science for Decision Making Program

About this Master’s program

This Master’s program combines Data Science and Economics to train you for decision-making. You will learn skills in machine learning, econometrics, and statistical analysis using diverse real-world data.

Discover what makes this program truly exceptional

1

Integration of Data Science and Economics: Learn data science techniques with economic theory for decision-making support.

2

Real-World Data Application: Work with complex data sources to solve decision-making problems.

3

Learn from leading researchers: Professors specialized in the latest Economics, Operations, and Statistic research.

4

Solve problems submitted by private and public organizations: Work in small teams to solve real decision-making problems submitted by thought leaders in the private and public sector and present your solution to them.

5

Career Preparation: Graduates go on to work in tech, government, and international organizations.

Meet the Program Directors

Program Director

Hannes Mueller

Steering Committee

Christian Fons-Rosen

Steering Committee

Pau Milán

Ready to make a difference? This program is designed for

Students who are passionate about data and learning strong analytical skills. Here’s why it is perfect for you:

You are a recent graduate with strong analytical skills.
You want to specialize in applied data work.
You have work experience with data in enterprises, government, or international organizations.

What skills and knowledge will you learn?

The ability to extract, handle, and analyze data is a key skill in today’s job market

Data Analysis

Learn how to provide adequate data analysis for decision-making problems.

Solve Decision-Making Problems

Learn how to analyze the decision-making problem with applied data science and economics frameworks.

Programming Skills

Develop programming skills necessary to extract data from any source.

Cutting Edge Tools

Use and program cutting-edge machine learning and econometric tools to analyze the resulting data.

Approach Problems

Learn how to approach problems from different angles.

Professors

BSE Professors are renowned researchers who are published in leading Economics Journals.

Associate Professor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Argimiro Arratia

UPF and BSE

Christian Brownlees

Researcher, Artificial Intelligence Research Institute

Jesus Cerquides

Data Scientist Manager, Almirall

Anna Corretger

Director of Data Science, PepsiCo

Laura Cozma

ICREA-UPF and BSE

Ruben Enikolopov

University of California, Merced

Christian Fons-Rosen

Data Scientist, Koa Health

Roger Garriga Calleja

Post-doctoral researcher, MIGRADEMO

Laurence Go

Research Engineer, CNRS

Clement Gorin

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Maite Cabeza Gutés

ICREA Research Professor, IPEG

Caterina Calsamiglia

Freelance NLP Data Scientist

Arnault Gombert

UPF and BSE

Gianmarco León-Ciliotta

UPF and BSE

Gaël Le Mens

Director of Data, Kannact

Javier Mas Adell

MOVE, UAB and BSE

Pau Milán

IAE-CSIC and BSE

Hannes Mueller

UPF and BSE

Daniel Navarro-Martínez

Lead Geospatial Data Scientist at BeZero Carbon

Edoardo Nemni

ICREA-UPF and BSE

Maria Petrova

Former Head of Data Science at La Vanguardia, SCRM, and Onna

Aleix Ruiz de Villa

UAB and BSE (on leave)

Hanna Wang

Research Economist, Banco de España

Florens Odendahl

IAE-CSIC and BSE

Joan Llull

Besim Bilalli

Petar Jovanovic

IAE-CSIC and BSE

Laura Mayoral

BSE

Elena Bortolato

UPF and BSE

Bruno Conte

Program Schedule

In September, students are required to take a brush-up course in Mathematics and Statistics.

Students who can provide evidence of sufficient past coursework may be exempt: An Intermediate Course in Mathematics and Statistics.

Instructor: Sophie Brochet.

Term 1 (September-December)

Course title	Credits	Professor(s)
Mandatory
Economics for Data-driven Decision Making	6	Laurence Go , Caterina Calsamiglia
Foundations of Econometrics	6	Maite Cabeza Gutés , Joan Llull
Computational Machine Learning	3	Anna Corretger
Computing for Data Science	3	Roger Garriga Calleja
Electives
Data Management	3	Petar Jovanovic , Besim Bilalli

Term 2 (January-March)

*Courses offered by the MRes-UPF (Subject to specific course requirements and schedules permiting)

Course title	Credits	Professor(s)
Mandatory
Computational Learning and Deep Learning	3	Elena Bortolato
Machine Learning and Causal Inference	3	Aleix Ruiz de Villa , Laura Mayoral
Introduction to Text Mining and Natural Language Processing	3	Hannes Mueller
Electives
Geospatial Data Science and Economic Spatial Models	3	Bruno Conte
Data Visualization	3	Ioannis Arapakis
Networks: Concepts and Algorithms	3	Pau Milán
Development Economics*	6	Gianmarco León-Ciliotta , Vasily Korovkin
Political Economy*	6	Ruben Enikolopov , Maria Petrova
Financial Econometrics	6	Christian Brownlees
Behavioral Decision Making I: Attention, Experience and Influence*	6	Gaël Le Mens

Term 3 (April-June)

*Course requires authorization by the program director as it is shared with other Master’s program at BSE.

Course title	Credits	Professor(s)
Mandatory
Master Project	6	Hannes Mueller , Christian Brownlees , Jesus Cerquides
Advanced Methods in Natural Language Processing	3	Arnault Gombert
Electives
Forecasting and Nowcasting with Text as Data	3	Hannes Mueller , Florens Odendahl
Intelligent Data Development	3	Laura Cozma , Javier Mas Adell
Machine Learning for Finance	3	Argimiro Arratia
Applications of Deep Learning in High Dimensional Data Analysis and Image Processing	3	Edoardo Nemni , Clement Gorin
Big Data Management for Data Science	3	Besim Bilalli , Petar Jovanovic
Behavioral Decision Making II: The Psychology of Economics Decisions*	6	Daniel Navarro-Martínez
Extra Workshop
Text to Speech	0	Alexander von Oppenbach

Master’s Projects

Students use the tools and knowledge they've acquired during the Master’s to explore a topic of their choice for the Master’s project. It can be carried out individually or in groups.

Examples of Master's Projects

Class of 2023:

Harnessing Big Data News Media for Conflict Prediction and Anticipatory Decision-Making by Giovanna Chaves, Margherita Philipp, and Luis Quiñones.
Corpus Construction and Social Media Analysis about Immigration in Chile by Andrés Antonio Couble, Mathias Schindler, and Kalliope Stassinos.
Forecasting Global Refugee Flows: A Machine Learning Approach using Non-conventional Data by Daniela de los Santos, Eric Frey, and Renato Vassallo.

Students in this Master’s program can use problems submitted by organizations and turn them into a Master’s project. Here are some recent examples:

Glovo, Analyzing the Impact of Stock-Outs on Sales of Products in an Online Delivery Application.
Novartis, Comparative Analysis of Modeling Approaches for Value-at-Risk Forecasting in the Pharmaceutical Sector: An econometric and ML approach.
Oxera, Automated Feature Extraction from EU Merger Documents: Novel Approaches using LLMs.
UNDP / UNICEF, Harnessing Big Data News Media For Conflict Prediction and Anticipatory Decision-Making.
UNHCR, Forecasting Global Refugee Flows: A Machine Learning approach using non-conventional data.

Master’s degree awarded by UAB and UPF

Upon successful completion of the BSE Data Science for Decision Making Program, students will receive a Master’s Degree in Data Science awarded jointly with Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).

BSE Institutional Accreditations

Quality accreditations

All Barcelona School of Economics Master’s degrees have been recognized by the Catalan and Spanish Education authorities within the framework of the Bologna Process (in Spanish, “Master Universitario o Master Oficial”).

Quality indicators for this Master’s degree

BSE commitment to quality

Placement rate

98%

Job titles: Analyst, Data Scientist, Research Assistant.
Industries: Research and Academic Institutions, Technology, International Organizations and non-profit.
Higher Education: 5% go on to a PhD or further education.
Companies: Glovo, NTT Data, OECD, The World Bank, UNDP.

Work Internationally

Cities with the most alumni

Barcelona

Paris

London

Washington DC

New York

Testimonials

Luke Atazona

The highlight of this program has been the amazing professors, who are reputable in the world in their area. The program offers a good balance of theory and application which are very useful for today’s labor market. I have learned a lot of data science theories and been able to apply them in numerous case studies. I have also been able to broaden my knowledge in programming.

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Why study a Master’s at BSE

1

Ranked among the top institutions for economics research in the world by RePEc.

2

Prestigious economists including Nobel Laureates guide the development of BSE Master’s.

3

Learn from well-renowned faculty.

4

Study in vibrant Barcelona.

Admissions and entry requirements

At BSE, we look for excellence. Key elements of a strong application are a high GPA, a sound statement of purpose, and standout reference letters. Strong knowledge of Economics and good quantitative skills are also recommended.

Master’s program starts: September 2025

Application deadline: July 2, 2025

Requirements:

An undergraduate/bachelor/grado/laurea, or equivalent degree from an accredited college or university (for Bologna degrees, a minimum of 180 ECTS are required).
University diploma in Economics, Finance, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or Business Administration. Students with academic backgrounds in other subjects will be considered.
An advanced level of English language skills: TOEFL score of 90 or above; IELTS Academic Test score of 6.5 or above, Duolingo English Test 120 points.

Candidates will also be evaluated on the following admission criteria:

Outstanding academic record.
Quantitative skills.
Reference letters.

Apply now

FAQs

Below you will find our most frequently asked questions but do not hesitate to contact the BSE Admissions Team to learn more about our Master’s programs.