Admission and Requirements

Completed Bachelors degree

To prove that you are suitable to take a master's degree at Leuphana University, you are required to hold a Bachelor 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 Bachelors 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 programme, 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.

If the Bachelors degree certificate is not yet available when you apply for a master's programme 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 programme.

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

Scientific Requirements

At Leuphana Graduate School we offer consecutive Masters programmes. This means that you can only apply for a specific programme if your Bachelors degree was in that same discipline and the Masters degree programme builds on and deepens your level of knowledge from your first degree. Previous knowledge of a subject required for a consecutive Masters degree programme 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 programme profile to independently check whether your previous academic qualifications are sufficient for an application. The selection committee decides on your academic suitability for a Masters degree programme 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 programme. 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 programme 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 your native language is English, then you do not need to provide proof of English proficiency. All other applicants must provide proof in one of the following ways:

• by passing the internet-based TOEFL test (iBT) with a minimum score of 85 points
• by passing the TOEIC test with a minimum of 785 points
• by passing the TOEIC Listening & Reading test with at least 785 points
• by passing the IELTS (academic or general) 5.5 test
• by passing the Cambridge C1 Advanced (formerly CAE test Cambridge Advanced Certificate of English (Grade C or better)
• by passing modules at a university (at least 30 credit points according to ECTS) with English as the exclusive language of instruction and exams taken in English*
• a successfully completed degree in the subject "English"
• School leaving exam of a school with English as the exclusive language of instruction, that qualifies for studying at a university in the respective country

English language proficiency (except for the school certificate) must not be older than 4 years. For programmes in English, proof of English proficiency must be available at the time of application. For programmes in German, the proof can be submitted later until the end of the respective winter semester (31st March).

*If you wish to prove your English language proficiency by submitting the 30 ECTS credits from your university degree and it is not clearly indicated in your bachelors certificate or transcript of records that you studied in English, please submit the document Proof of English Language Proficiency through Modules Amounting to 30 CP for the application. Applicants from Leuphana University need to use this document.

Applicants to these degree programmes 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 programme;
• 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.

Application period: 1st April - 1st June

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

Application period: 1st April - 1st May

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