Admission and Requirements

Completed Bachelor's degree

To prove that you are suitable to take a Master's degree at Leuphana University, you are required to hold a Bachelor's degree or at least an equivalent qualification. The equivalence of foreign degrees is determined according to the assessment proposals of the Central Office for Foreign Education and assessed by uni-assist in the application procedure. Please also be aware of the exceptions.

Incompleted Bachelor's degree

If you have not yet completed your degree at the time of application, you can still apply. To do so, you must prove that you have successfully completed at least 81% of the total required workload in your current course. Depending on the degree program, 81% applies in relation to the total course credit of 180 Credit Points = 145 Credit Points or 210 Credit Points = 170 Credit Points. Please complete this form as proof of your progress and ask the examination office at your university to verify it. Please note: The 81% rule does not refer to your GPA, but to the number of credit points that you must have completed by the time of your application!

If the Bachelor's degree certificate is not yet available when you apply for a Master's program by the application deadline of June 1st, you must submit it by March 31st of the following year at the end of your first semester. If the proof is not provided in the prescribed time, the preliminary admission will be revoked: At the same time, you will be exmatriculated from the study program.

If you are completing your Bachelor's degree at Leuphana, please submit your Transcript of Records instead of the form.

Consecutive Relevance

At Leuphana Graduate School we offer consecutive Master's programs. This means that you can only apply for a specific program if your Bachelor's degree was in that same discipline and the Master's degree program builds on and deepens your level of knowledge from your first degree. Previous knowledge of a subject required for a consecutive Master's degree program is proven by a sufficient number of credit points according to European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) in an identical or related discipline.

On the basis of the list of consecutive subjects, you can get a first impression of whether your first degree is subject-related. Please use this list of subjects and the degree program profile to independently check whether your previous academic qualifications are sufficient for an application. The selection committee decides on your academic suitability for a Master's degree program on the basis of your Transcript of Records. The committee meets at the end of the application period.

Please note: An individual assessment of your consecutivity cannot be made in advance. There is no possibility to make up credit points not achieved during the Master's program. The necessary credit points must be available at the time of application.

Does your transcript show no credit points?

If your transcript does not show any credit points, please ask your responsible examination office to provide a document clearly stating what percentage of the total study program your respective courses accounted for.

60 ECTS in modules relevant to the listed subjects / disciplines:

• Art History / Science of Art/ Visual Studies / Visual Culture
• Cultural Analysis / Cultural Studies
• Ethnology / Social Anthropology / Cultural Anthropology
• Film Studies
• Gender Studies
• Human Geography
• Literary Studies
• Media Science
• Musicology
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• Science of History
• Theater Studies

Furthermore 10 ECTS in scientific theory and scientific methods

If English is your first language or native language, you do not need to provide proof of English proficiency*. All other applicants may demonstrate their English proficiency exclusively through one of the following methods:

1. an Internet-based TOEFL test (iBT) with a total score of at least 4.0 or 72 points
2. a TOEIC Listening & Reading test with at least 785 points
3. an IELTS Academic with at least 5.5
4. a passing score on the Cambridge B2 First
5. a Pearson PTE Academic with a score of at least 59 points
6. an Oxford Test of English Advanced with a score of at least 111 points
7. a Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) with a score of at least 500 points
8. a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test or a GRE Mathematics subtest equivalent to at least 500 GMAT points
9. the English language test offered by the International Center at Leuphana University with a minimum level of B2.2
10. University-level courses totaling at least 30 ECTS credits, taught exclusively in English and completed with an English-language examination**
11. a diploma from an English-language school that qualifies the holder for university study in the respective country.

The documents listed in sections 1–9 must not be more than 5 years old. Proof may be submitted by March 31 of the following year (end of the first academic semester). Applicants who neither hold a German university entrance qualification nor have earned a German-language bachelor’s degree or an equivalent German-language degree from a German university must also demonstrate sufficient proficiency in the German language.

*Applicants whose native language is English and who are from Australia, Canada, Malta, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, or the United States are exempt from the English proficiency requirement.

**If you wish to demonstrate your English proficiency through the 30 ECTS credits from your university studies and it is not clearly indicated on your diploma or transcript of records that you studied in English, please include proof of English proficiency through modules totaling 30 CP with your application. Applicants from Leuphana should use this document.

Applicants to these degree programs who neither have a German school leaving certificate (higher education entrance qualification) nor hold their first degree from a German university must provide proof of sufficient German language skills by the time of application. The proof must not be older than 4 years. Proof of German language proficiency can be provided in one of the following ways:

• DSH 2
• TestDaF 4 *

* Only certificates issued by the TestDaF Institute itself or TestDaF-licensed institutes will be accepted.

The equivalents are the following proofs:

• Holders of a university entrance qualification which was acquired at a German-speaking school in Germany or abroad;
• successful graduates of an assessment test at a German Studienkolleg;
• Applicants who have already successfully completed a German language study program;
• Holders of the language diploma of the Kultusministerkonferenz Stufe II (DSD II) / (Beschlüsse der KMK vom 16. März 1972 und vom 05. Oktober 1973 in in their respective valid versions);
• holders of the Goethe Certificate C2;
• Applicants who have taken a language examination at another German university or at the International Study Centre Heidelberg or the Ecumenical Study Centre Bochum on the basis of the Framework Regulations for German Language Exams at German Universities.
• Holders of a certificate confirming that they have passed the examination "telc Deutsch C1 Hochschule" or telc Deutsch C2;
• Holders of other certificates that have been recognised by the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) and the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK) as proof of sufficient German language skills for admission to higher education.
• Holders of a certificate of successful completion of the German Language Test for University Admission (DSH) with the overall result DSH-1 or the Goethe-Zertifikat C1 on condition that the proof is provided by the end of the second semester at the latest. This regulation only applies if all other language requirements for admission are fulfilled at the time of application.

If you fulfil the admission requirements, you have taken the first step towards your desired Master's degree. The second step is to assess whether we can offer you a place on the programme. If there are more applicants who meet the eligibility criteria than there are places available on a Master's programme, places will be allocated on the basis of a selection procedure. You can find out more about the admission limits and selection criteria here.

If you have obtained your bachelors degree within the EU / EEA*, you can apply online directly to Leuphana via myCampus. No application documents need to be submitted by post. Here we have provided you with instructions on the registration process on myCampus.

*EU: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. EEA: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway. Additionally: Switzerland

You can apply for our Master's programmes via uni-assist if you obtained your Bachelor's degree outside the EU / EEA*.

The application is completely online, so you do not have to submit any application documents by post. If the assessment is successful, uni-assist will automatically forward your application to Leuphana. The relevant date for the application deadline is the date on which you submitted your application to uni-assist. Your application submitted within the deadline is therefore valid, even if uni-assist needs 4 - 6 weeks to check it.

*EU: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. EEA: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway. Additionally: Switzerland