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Graduate School of Humanities Graduate School of Humanities

Pre-Master's programmes Graduate School of Humanities

If your academic Bachelor’s degree or degree from a Dutch University of Applied Sciences (HBO) does not grant you (direct) access to the Master’s programme you are looking to do, in many cases you will be able to compensate for your deficiencies by doing a pre-Master’s programme. Please note that pre-Master’s programmes are only accessible to students with a Dutch or other EU nationality. Students who are doing an academic Bachelor’s programme can also gain access to the Master’s of their choosing by doing a minor.

  • Compensating for deficiencies after your Bachelor’s: pre-Master’s programme

    If you have obtained an academic Bachelor’s degree that does not grant (direct) access to the Master’s of your choosing, you can do a pre-Master’s programme in order to meet the entry requirements. Because of your academic Bachelor’s degree, you will not need to take the two Academic Skills courses (2x6 ECTS) that are normally core elements of our pre-Master’s programmes, which means that your pre-Master’s will comprise 30 ECTS (instead of 42 ECTS).

    A degree from a Dutch University of Applied Sciences (HBO) does not grant access to an academic Master’s programme. However, if you obtained an HBO Bachelor’s degree in a related field of study, you will in most cases be able to meet the Master’s entry requirements by successfully completing a pre-Master’s programme. By default, pre-Master’s programmes comprise 42 ECTS. The courses Academic Skills and Philosophy of the Humanities are core elements.

    In all cases, you will automatically meet the Master’s entry requirements as long as you successfully complete the pre-Master’s within a year.

    You will find an overview of the Faculty of Humanities’ pre-Master’s programmes below. You can also check out the Master’s of your choosing in order to see whether it offers a pre-Master’s programme.

  • Compensating for deficiencies during your Bachelor’s: minor

    Are you doing an academic Bachelor’s and would you like to do a Master’s programme to which your programme does not automatically grant you (direct) access? You can increase your options in the Master’s phase by doing a minor. In the near future, this page will present you with an overview of minors which, when combined with the completion of an academic Bachelor’s, grant direct access to a Master’s programme. Depending on your personal study plan, other options may also be open to you. Please also visit our list of all of the minors that are offered by the Faculty of Humanities.

    HBO Bachelor’s: influx programme

    In certain cases, you can do an influx programme during your HBO Bachelor’s in order to compensate for your deficiencies, so that you are directly admissible to the Master’s of your choosing after completing your Bachelor’s. This applies in the following cases:

    Please note: this list is not yet complete and may be subject to change.

Procedure: enrolment via Studielink

If you need to do a pre-Master’s programme in order to meet the entry requirements of the Master’s of your choosing, you must submit an enrolment application in Studielink for the Master’s programme rather than for the pre-Master’s. The selection committee will assess your prior education, and the Admissions Office will subsequently inform you of the further procedure regarding your enrolment in the pre-Master's. Please note that you can only start your pre-Master's if you meet the (English or Dutch) language requirements of the Master's programme.

If you successfully complete the pre-Master’s programme within a year, you will automatically be admitted to the Master’s programme. This also applies to selective Master’s programmes that offer a pre-Master’s. In this case, before starting the pre-Master’s, you must complete the entire selection procedure for the Master’s programme of your choosing and can be admitted to the Master’s on the condition that you first complete the pre-Master’s.  

The application deadline for a pre-Master’s corresponds with that of the Master’s you wish to do. Please check the Master’s of your choosing for the application deadline.

If you want to know more about the procedure, please watch the registration of the online information meeting 'How to apply to a pre-Master's programme' during the UvA Open House in November 2020.

Watch the online information meeting How to apply to a pre-Master's programme

Costs

The tuition fee rate for a pre-Master’s programme in the academic year 2021-2022 is €36.13 per ECTS, with a maximum of €2,168. This means that for a 42 ECTS pre-Master’s programme, the fee is €1,517.60; for a 30 ECTS programme, the fee is €1,084.

Overview pre-Master's programmes

The overview below shows you which pre-Master’s programmes are offered by the Faculty of Humanities, and which (English-taught) Master’s programmes they grant access to. For a complete overview of all pre-Master's programmes, including those in Dutch, check: pre-Master's programmes (in Dutch and English).

English-taught pre-Master's programmes Programmes in Dutch