You can of course be a masters student at Utrecht University math department and concentrate on discrete math. Since your track is often how you get advice for what courses to take and there is currently no official masters track including discrete math and combinatorics, I am writing this as a way to provide some recommendations for what courses will help you build a broad background in combinatorics and discrete math.
At Utrecht University:
- My masters seminar in discrete math/graph theory (Spring 2027)
- Unfortunately not offered this year but Ivan Kryven has a seminar on random graphs at UU.
- Ivan is “interested in graph theory, probability, partial differential equations, stochastic analysis, and randomized algorithms. I am especially fascinated by the synergy of these fields, which often reveals fundamental connections between discrete and continuous mathematical objects”
Mastermath:
- Probabilistic and Extremal Combinatorics (Spring 2026)
- Algebraic Methods in Combinatorics (Fall 2026)
- Discrete Optimization (Fall 2026) Advanced Discrete Optimization (Spring 2027).
Local courses at other universities:
According to the mastermath site: “Besides the master courses offered under the Mastermath framework, the mathematics departments that make up Mastermath also offer a selection of local courses which are often open to students from other departments.”
A couple courses I found:
At UvA: At first glance it appears that all the discrete math courses at UvA are also listed in Mastermath except for Master Seminar in Discrete Mathematics and Quantum Information
At Eindhoven: Based on the quick look these would be the masters courses I would expect to be most interesting stories a sudden interested in discrete math and combinatorics.
| Specialization Electives | Course code | Quartile |
|---|---|---|
| Graphs and Algorithms | 2MMD30 | Q3 |
| Integer Programming | 2MMD40 | Q4 |
| Random Graphs | 2MMS60 | Q4 |
| Algebraic Combinatorics | 2MMD50 | Q4 |
Courses interfacing algorithms/theoretical computer science and discrete math:
Mastermath:
- Computability Theory (Fall 2026)
At UU:
- Courses from the Algorithms and Design and Analysis track in Utrecht CS department may also be of interest.