For best experience please turn on javascript and use a modern browser!
You are using a browser that is no longer supported by Microsoft. Please upgrade your browser. The site may not present itself correctly if you continue browsing.
Pre-Master’s programme

European Studies

The pre-Master’s programme European Studies is aimed at students who have a degree from a University of Applied Sciences (such as Dutch HBO) or an academic Bachelor’s degree that does not grant direct access to the tracks of the Master’s programme European Studies. This pre-Master's programme is taught in English.

Grants access to:

If you successfully complete the pre-Master’s programme within a year, you will automatically be admitted to the Master's programme you wish to pursue. However, you do need to complete the programme within one year, as you cannot start the Master's without fully meeting the entry requirements. After completing the pre-Master's programme you will not receive a diploma or certificate.

Programme

Please note: If you have obtained an academic Bachelor’s degree, you do not need to take the two Academic Skills courses (2 x 6 ECTS), which means that the programme will comprise 30 ECTS instead of 42 ECTS. Below you see the programme of the current academic year; the courses in the coming academic year may differ slightly. The Course Catalogue for the new academic year will be published in May.

You will follow one of the programmes listed below. All of them give access to all of the Master’s programmes listed above, but we strongly recommend that you choose the variant that corresponds with the Master’s you are looking to do.

Recommended for East European Studies

COURSES SEM 1 SEM 2 SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 EC
  • Academic Skills pre-Master's
    12
  • 20th Century Russian and Soviet History
    6
  • The Trials of Communism: Justice and Ideology in Central-Eastern Europe
    6
  • Russian pop culture
    6
  • Philosophy of the Humanities 2: European Studies
    6
  • Post-Cold War Geopolitics and the Emergence of New States In Europe
    6
UvA Course Catalogue : pre-Master's East European Studies

Recommended for European Policy

COURSES SEM 1 SEM 2 SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 EC
  • Academic Skills pre-Master's
    12
  • Multilevel Politics in the European Union and its Member States
    12
  • Technocracy and Democracy in the Economic and Monetary Union
    6
  • European Integration and the Rise of the Extreme Right
    6
  • Philosophy of the Humanities 2: European Studies
    6
UvA Course Catalogue: pre-Master's European Policy

Recommended for Identity and Integration

COURSES SEM 1 SEM 2 SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 EC
  • Academic Skills pre-Master's
    12
  • Articulating Europe: Cultural Histories of a Political Idea
    12
  • The global 1970s: Contestation, Disillusion and Renewal
    6
  • Philosophy of the Humanities 2: European Studies
    6
  • Understanding Antisemitism: Antisemitic Tropes in Twentieth-Century Europe
    6
UvA Course Catalogue: pre-Master's Identity and Integration

Application deadlines

Please check the deadlines below very carefully, because they are strict. Missing one of the deadlines means that your application cannot be processed. 

Application procedure

Your application to the Graduate School of Humanities always starts by submitting an enrolment request in Studielink and MyInfo application for the Master's programme you wish to pursue, even if you think you are eligible for the pre-Master’s programme.

An enrolment request in Studielink for the pre-Master’s programme alone is not sufficient and will not be taken into consideration.

Tuition fee for pre-Master's programmes

The tuition fee rate for a pre-Master’s programme in the academic year 2025-2026 is €43.35 per ECTS, with a maximum of €2,601. This means that for a 42 ECTS pre-Master’s programme, the fee is €1,820.70; for a 30 ECTS programme, the fee is €1,300.50.

Alternative routes

If you are following an academic Bachelor's programme, it may also be possible to fulfil the admission requirements for a Master's degree programme by completing a minor related to the Master's programme you wish to pursue during your Bachelor's, instead of a pre-Master's programme after finishing your Bachelor's. 

Minors in the Humanities
Facts & Figures
Mode
Full-time
Credits
30/42 ECTS, 12 months
Language of instruction
English
Conditions for admission
University of applied sciences degree (HBO)
Academic/research university degree (WO)
Starts in
September