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Admission criteria

In order to be admitted to the programme:

  • You must have obtained an internationally recognised BA degree in Philosophy or in a related discipline. In the latter case, you must have acquired at least 60 EC in philosophical disciplines.
  • Your weighted grade-point average in philosophy in the second and third year of your Bachelor's degree studies must be the equivalent of at least 7.5 (on the Dutch scale of 10).
  • You must be able to demonstrate to the Examination Board that you have serious research interests and skills. Your application dossier needs to include a letter of motivation as well as a writing sample, such as a philosophical essay or a chapter from your Bachelor thesis.
  • Your oral and written command of English must be sufficiently high to allow for academic work. If you do not have a Dutch Bachelor's degree, you must have obtained a higher diploma from an English-teaching institution and/or be in possession of one of the following certificates: TOEFL, with a minimum score of 577 (paper based), 233 (computer based) or 90 (internet based); IELTS, with a minimum score of 6.5; Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) or Proficiency in English (CPE) with a mark of C or higher. If you are in possession of a Dutch Bachelor's degree you can either pass one of the above mentioned tests or take an Oxford Placement test. In the latter case, your overall score must correspond to the C1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Under certain circumstances, the Examination Board will permit you to enrol in the courses of the Research Master programme (but not admit you to the programme itself) even before you have obtained your Bachelor's degree. Such exceptions are possible if:

  • You lack less than 21 EC and are able to obtain these credits within the first semester of your Research Master programme.
  • You have already submitted your bachelor thesis but are yet to receive a grade.

We strongly advise you not to attempt to finish your Bachelor thesis during the first semester of the Research Master programme, as the study load of the Research Master is considerable. Note that it is not possible under any circumstances to obtain a MA degree without having first obtained the BA degree.

If you possess a Master degree in philosophy:

  • You must have obtained a weighted grade-point average of at least 7.5 (on the Dutch scale of 10) for the philosophical components of your Master's study.
  • You must be able to demonstrate to the Examination Board that you have serious research interests and skills. Your application dossier needs to include a letter of motivation as well as a writing sample, such as a philosophical essay or a chapter from your Master thesis.
  • Your oral and written command of English must be sufficiently high to allow for academic work. If you do not have a Dutch Bachelor's degree, you must have obtained a higher diploma from an English-teaching institution and/or be in possession of one of the following certificates: TOEFL, with a minimum score of 577 (paper based), 233 (computer based) or 90 (internet based); IELTS, with a minimum score of 6.5; Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) or Proficiency in English (CPE) with a mark of C or higher. If you are in possession of a Dutch Bachelor's degree, you can either pass one of the above mentioned tests or take an Oxford Placement test. In the latter case, your overall score must correspond to the C1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

If you have a Master's degree in Philosophy, you will receive a waiver for some programme components.