The EMG programme starts with an introduction module. Students meet for two weeks in September. The second module focuses on psycho-gerontology, the third on social gerontology and the fourth on health gerontology. Each of these two-month modules elaborates the basic concepts, theories, as well as recent societal and academic discussions. The first year ends with an integrative module.
Students work on a specific topic integrating knowledge they gathered throughout the first year.
The first year finishes with a summer school of two weeks in which papers are presented and the first year is summarised. During the first year special attention is paid to methodology. Methodology and statistics are not concentrated in one module but are carefully programmed throughout the year. In this way methodology is linked to basic gerontological research as presented in the basic modules. The second academic year runs from September till July and is programmed for specialisation and writing the dissertation.