Follow the steps below to apply for this degree programme. Only complete applications are taken into consideration when submitted before or on the day of the deadline. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
A complete application includes:
Start your application procedure on time!
You need to submit your enrolment request via Studielink, activate your UvAnetID, pay the application fee (if applicable) AND submit your complete application request via MyInfo before the relevant deadline stated below. It may take several days to complete all these steps. We recommend you register in Studielink at least one week before the deadline.
Application Deadline for intake per September 2025
Application Deadline for intake per February 2026
Students with a Bachelor's degree in Communication Science from the University of Amsterdam are granted direct admission to the Master's programme in Communication Science (this does not apply to the Research Master's). Please make sure to submit an enrolment request in Studielink at least two weeks prior to the course registration (the course registration periods are in June and December). Direct admission also applies to students with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Science obtained at the University of Nijmegen, University of Twente, VU Amsterdam, and the International Bachelor Communication and Media at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Please note: You may apply before finishing your Bachelor's programme. However, you must obtain your Bachelor's degree and show us valid proof of graduation before the following ultimate deadlines:
To guarantee the quality of the education within the Graduate School, you will have to meet all entry requirements specified below.
When you have the relevant undergraduate qualifications (academic level and background) but not enough knowledge and experience in required areas, it is possible that you may be conditionally admitted based on completing the pre-Master's programme or online course first. Please note, you cannot apply for the pre-Master’s programme directly. You have to submit a full application for the Master’s programme first and the admissions board will decide whether you are directly admissible or whether you might qualify for a pre-Master’s programme.
The admissions board will evaluate every applicant individually, based on:
Each of these points is further explained below.
If you obtained a Dutch academic Bachelor’s degree at a research university (wo), you are eligible to apply for one of our Master’s programmes. This means that if you have a non-Dutch degree, you need to meet the same qualifications. The minimum level of your diploma should therefore be at least equivalent to or comparable to three years of a Dutch research-oriented university. To establish whether your non-Dutch degree is equivalent to this level, we will need to assess it first. This will be done by professional diploma evaluators based on the guidelines of the Nuffic (an independent organisation for internationalisation in education). Please find an overview of the descriptions of different international education systems on the Nuffic website.
If you obtained a Bachelor’s degree at a university of applied sciences (hbo) or equivalent, you cannot be admitted to the (pre-)Master’s. You may opt for taking the short-track Bachelor's programme at the College of Communication first to meet the criteria and then re-apply. This short-track Bachelor’s (verkorte bachelor) is taught in Dutch only.
Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) required for applicants who obtained their Bachelor’s degree in a non-EU/EEA country
As part of the assessment of the undergraduate qualification, applicants with a Bachelor’s degree obtained in a non-EU/EEA country are required to submit a GRE score as part of their application. This allows us to better assess the background of applicants to determine whether they are sufficiently prepared for our graduate programme. The Communication Science Master’s degree programme at the University of Amsterdam is an empirically focused programme that places a high value on student autonomy and relies on small teacher-student ratios. Our focus on student autonomy means that students must enter our Master's classroom ready to learn in a self-directed manner. Students who have studied in our three-year Communication Science Bachelor programme (or other similar programmes in the Netherlands) have spent several years developing verbal, analytic, and quantitative thinking abilities that are critical for success in our programme. These students are offered direct admittance to our Master's programme. For applicants who have studied in other programmes in the EU/EEA, our experience shows that we can evaluate an applicant’s academic background and sufficiently determine if they are aptly prepared for study success in our Master's programme. For applicants with a Bachelor’s degree obtained outside the EU/EEA, however, it is more difficult to assess this student’s academic preparation. For this reason, we ask applicants with a Bachelor’s degree obtained outside the EU/EEA to also include a GRE score in their application dossier. This provides us with a more robust indicator of an applicant’s preparedness. For all applicants who obtained their Bachelor’s degree in a non-EU/EEA country, the GRE is required for finalising your application. A list of EU/EEA countries can be found here. If you have obtained or are going to obtain your Bachelor’s degree in a country that is not identified as an EU/EEA country, you are required to submit a GRE score (Graduate Record Examination) as part of your application. If you do not submit a GRE score, your dossier will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed. Please be aware that home tests are not accepted.
Please keep in mind, while there is no minimum GRE score required, we encourage applicants to perform their best on this test.
Admission (conditionally) is usually realistic for students who at least hold an academic Bachelor's degree in Communication Science or a related discipline (e.g., Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, Communication & Information Studies, Media Studies, Journalism with a research emphasis, International Relations). However, these students will likely have to complete some extra coursework (pre-Master's or online course) prior to the Master’s programme, depending on their knowledge of theories in Communication Science and (quantitative) social science methods and statistics.
If you have a different Bachelor’s background, without direct links to the field of Communication Science, you are most likely not eligible for the (pre-)Master’s programme.
About Massive Online Courses. The Graduate School of Communication is an advocate of massive online courses (MOOCs) due to our belief that these can greatly contribute to the dissemination of knowledge and the accessibility of education for people across the world. That is why we among others offer the MOOC-courses Introduction to Communication Science and Media Ethics and Governance on the Coursera platform. You are more than welcome to participate in our Coursera-offer. However, you should take into account that the certificates from Coursera or other online education platforms do not replace certified transcripts and degree certificates from accredited institutes of higher education in the admission process. This is because education through MOOCs is not a part of the necessary principles of surveillance for accredited degrees.
All Communication Science courses in the Master’s programmes are taught in English. You must therefore be able to read textbooks, understand lectures, take part in classroom discussions and produce written work in English. That is why we require evidence of English language proficiency from applicants with a non-Dutch degree who are NOT considered as someone whose first language is English. Please note that if you do not meet this requirement, admission is not possible. We only accept test results from TOEFL, IELTS and Cambridge Advanced English or Cambridge Proficiency English. Other English tests are not considered valid.
Requirements regarding English language level are*:
*English language test results may not be older than 2 years.
** The IELTS One Skill Retake, IELTS General Training, IELTS Indicator and IELTS Online are NOT accepted.
*** The TOEFL ITP test (Institutional Testing Program) and the TOEFL iBT Home Edition are NOT accepted.
How to submit your language test score
You must upload your test report with sufficient scores with your application. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
English test exemptions
The following applicants are exempt from the English test requirement:
* We consider the following countries as English-speaking: Australia, Canada (except for Quebec), Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA.
Applicants who have completed secondary education located in an English-speaking country* can apply for a waiver of the test requirement. The Admissions Board will review such waiver requests on an individual basis. (NOTE: If this applies to you, make sure you apply for a waiver well in advance to leave time for an English test in case your waiver is not granted).
In all other situations, an English language test is a requirement for finalising your application.
Before you can apply to an UvA teaching programme, you will need to submit an enrolment application in Studielink. We strongly advise you to apply to our programme in Studielink at least a week before the application deadline. Studielink is the national online system for students who would like to pursue a degree programme at a Dutch university. Before starting your enrolment application in Studielink, read the 'Step-by-step plans Studielink' (see below).
Please be aware that you can only select the specific track after first choosing the Communication Science Master programme.
Note! Check your DigiD (before starting in Studielink): A DigiD (Digital Identification) is an online ID (username and password) that provides access to Dutch government administration websites. Students who do not live in the Netherlands can use Studielink without a DigiD. Students who currently live in the Netherlands will need their DigiD to use Studielink. We strongly recommend you to apply for your DigiD at least three weeks before registering in Studielink.
Note! Check the Language Settings of Studielink: If your Studielink account is set to the Dutch language, use the search term ‘Communicatiewetenschap’ to enrol for the one-year Master track. If you are planning to enrol for the Research Master’s programme, use the search term ‘Communication Science’.
It is NOT possible to directly apply for the pre-Master's. This can only be an outcome of your admission request for the Master’s programme. The Admission Board needs to invite you for the pre-Master's programme.
After submitting your enrolment application in Studielink, you will receive an email with your UvanetID. Follow the instructions in the email to activate your ID as you will need it to complete your UvA application.
If you are applying for a (Research) Master's degree programme and have an international diploma, you are required to pay a non-refundable €100,- application fee.* Only after you have paid this fee the UvA can start to process your application.
You first need to pay your application fee in SIS. You can pay your €100,- application fee by credit card (Master or Visa card), GooglePay, ApplePay, Bancontact or iDEAL.
Only after paying the fee, you can start your application in MyInfo. It is not possible to start an application without paying the non-refundable application fee. Note that it can take up to 24 hours for your fee payment to be registered in SIS, and for you to be able to submit your application in MyInfo. Make sure to pay your application fee at least 24 hours before the application deadline of your programme.
*The application fee is non-refundable. You are not entitled to a refund even if you do not submit your application form, if you submit an application form after the deadline (which will not be taken into consideration) or if you submit an incomplete application.
After enrolling and paying the application fee in Studielink, you will automatically receive an email with a link to the UvA application form (MyInfo). Please fill out this application form in order to complete your application. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
Documents should be uploaded in PDF format. Please make sure your application documents have ENGLISH* file names that include the following: Type document_your name (example: Course description research methods courses_Mary Wang). A complete application consists of the following documents:
* If you are not yet graduated, please be aware that we need to receive a certified hardcopy of your diploma or transcript before the deadlines as stated at the bottom of step 1 (if you are conditionally accepted).
*In order to verify your GRE score we need to be listed as a designated score recipient, please make sure to do this. The Graduate School of Communication institutional code is 3651.
Please note! The aid of professional services for the application process to our programme (other than translation services) may lead to a direct rejection of your application, such as at the discretion of the Admission Committee.
Once we receive your complete application it will be evaluated by our admissions committee. You will be notified about their decision by email. The complete admission process can take up to 8 weeks for students with a non-Dutch degree and 4 weeks for students with a Dutch degree.
When you receive your official (positive) admissions decision, you will also receive a separate email with a link where you can confirm or decline your participation in our Master’s programme. Please make sure that you respond within the given reaction term of 2 weeks. If you do not respond before this date, your admissions decision will be voided and you will not have a place in the programme.
If you are admitted to the Master’s programme, you can defer your offer by one or two semesters. If you wish to defer, please use this form and select ‘My online application’ and underneath ‘Deferring my application’. We will then inform you of what steps to follow. If you are accepted to the pre-Master’s, you cannot defer your offer. You will have to re-apply (a different outcome might be possible).
When you confirm your participation, you will receive more instructions on how to complete your enrolment in due time. For now, please read the steps below.
When you decline your participation you will also need to de-enroll yourself for the Master’s programme in Studielink.
By Dutch law, you must obtain your Bachelor’s (and/or Master’s) degree before the start of the (pre-)Master's programme. The Admissions Office needs to verify whether you have completed your previous education. Please send us digital copies of your final transcripts and degree certificates, so we can check them. You can find the deadline that applies to you in your conditional admission letter. Sending in certified documents is only required for non-Dutch degrees, as we can verify Dutch degrees through SIS or DUO.
What is a certified document?
A certified document is an official copy of the original document provided by an authorised department of your institution of higher education or an authorised notary.
What kind of certified documents do you need to send us?
Please note that:
Graduation statement
If your diploma will not be issued before the deadline, you can submit a graduation statement instead. In this graduation statement, your home institution needs to declare that you have met all graduation requirements and have graduated from your Bachelor's and/or Master's degree, stating your exact graduation date.
The document should be on the official letterhead of your home institution and has to contain the following information:
How to submit your certified documents?
We do not accept digital documents sent to us by students and/or from a student's email address. We also do not accept documents brought to us in person, as we need to receive them from your university directly.
What happens after we have received your documents?
Once we have received your certified documents, we aim to verify them within 3 weeks. Upon successful verification, you will promptly receive an email confirming your unconditional admission.
You will need to pay the tuition fee to finalise your enrolment for a degree programme at the UvA. Find out more about how to pay the tuition fees.
In order for you to participate in the courses of the (pre-)Master’s in Communication Science, you will have to register for your courses. The course registration periods are in June and December. Unfortunately, you will not be able to start the programme without course registration. More information on the course registration will be sent to you in May or November.
A student ID card is a personal card which serves as proof of identity for examinations or borrowing library books. You will receive instructions on how to request your student ID card.
To help you get started, the Graduate School of Communication organises a mandatory introduction day for all new (pre-)Master’s students. If you start the (pre-)Master's in September 2025 your introduction day will be on Thursday 28 August 2025, so be sure to save this date and arrive in Amsterdam well on time. The invitation and programme will be sent in mid-August.