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Entry requirements

Graduate School of Humanities
  • Academic Bachelor’s degree obtained from a Dutch University

    Applicants should have at least obtained a Bachelor’s degree from a Dutch University in a field relevant to the Master’s programme to which they are applying. Furthermore, each programme has its specific additional entry requirements. These can be found under the 'Application an Admission' section of each Master's programme.

  • Bachelor’s degree obtained from a Dutch University of Applied Sciences (HBO)

    Applicants with a degree from a University of Applied Sciences (Dutch HBO) are not directly admissible to a Master’s programme. If the HBO degree is in a relevant field of study, you might be able to compensate for your deficiencies by doing a pre-Master’s programme.

  • Non-Dutch undergraduate qualification

    If you obtained your degree outside the Netherlands, the minimum level of your diploma should be at least equivalent to or comparable to three years of a Dutch research-oriented university. The assessment of whether your degree is considered equivalent will be completed by professional diploma evaluators according to the guidelines set forth by Nuffic, the independent organisation for internationalisation in education in the Netherlands. Please find an overview of the descriptions of different international education systems on the Nuffic website.

    Students with an academic level which is considered equivalent to a Bachelor's degree from a Dutch University of Applied Sciences (HBO), who have also completed significant coursework in a similar field of study as the prospective Master’s programme, might be eligible to participate in a pre-Master’s first (in order to compensate for deficiencies). Successful completion of the pre-Master’s within 1 year means you can start the Master’s programme consecutively.

    Background level

    In addition to the required general level of education, each programme has its specific additional entry requirements. These can be found under the 'Application an Admission' section of each programme.

    If your prior education has no direct links to the field of study of the Master’s programme you wish to pursue, you are most likely not eligible for a (pre-)Master’s programme at the Graduate School of Humanities.

Additional criteria for selective programmes

Even if you meet the minimum entry requirements, admission is not guaranteed if you are applying to a selective Master’s programme. A number of additional criteria will be taken into consideration by the Admissions Board, such as an interview component, a programme specific document, your grade point average (GPA), and how your application ranks in comparison to others. You are at least required to have a minimum overall GPA of:

  • B/3.2 (American system) for Dual Master's programmes and 3.5 for Research Master's programmes.
  • 2.1 (an upper second class degree in the British system),
  • C (ECTS-system) for Dual Master's programmes and B for Research Master's programmes.
  • 7.0 (Dutch system) for Dual Master's programmes and 7.5 for Research Master's programmes.

Note: Admission will not be granted solely on the basis of sufficient grade point average.

English language requirements

All students applying to an English-taught Master's programme are required to be proficient C1 users of academic English. To demonstrate this, you must meet the official English language requirements of the Graduate School of Humanities when you submit an application. Please see the page below for more information on which types of proficiency tests and scores we accept.