Department of History

In order to qualify for the MA World Studies, you must have an undergraduate degree with at least three years of higher education, that is recognized in Germany as equivalent to a German bachelor’s degree. You can check how your degree is recognized in Germany in the anabin database (in German). Formal requirements are checked by the Student Office at Bielefeld University. If you have any questions regarding the formal requirements, contact the Student Office at application@uni-bielefeld.de. If you are in the last semester of your undergraduate studies and are going to receive your undergraduate degree certificate until the enrollment deadline (October 1st), you may apply for admission to the MA World Studies with your provisional transcript of records. Your transcript of records has to contain all courses you have attended so far and your preliminary final grade, if applicable. It must be evident from your transcript that you have almost completed your undergraduate studies (at least 80% of courses required for the degree must be listed in the transcript).

Your BA should stem from one of the academic fields covered by the MA World Studies, i.e.

- Law,

- Sociology or Social Sciences (incl. Global Studies),

- Political Sciences (incl. International Relations),

- History,

- Cultural and Literary Studies.

Nevertheless, we invite also degree holders from related fields (e.g. Philosophy, International Relations, European Studies, Global Studies, …) to apply.

All applications are asked to submit an academic sample paper in english or german language (f.e. an essay or BA-thesis) to demonstrate their competences in the three fields. Students coming from related fields need to prove by this the relatedness of their qualification to at least one or more of the five core fields of „World Studies“. The selection committee will base its decision on admission primarily on the uploaded sample papers.

According to the subject-specific regulations of the MA World Studies, applicants must provide proof of their English language skills. German applicants may provide their „Abiturzeugnis“, if a specific certificate is not available. For international students, accepted certificates include: TOEFL with a minimum of 87 points, telc English with a minimum grade of B2, IELTS with a minimum overall band score of 6.0, or an equivalent English language test confirming at least a B2 level of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). We only accept internationally recognized certificates, and therefore certificates from university language centres or language schools cannot be accepted. Please note that many certificates have a validity period of 2 years. If English was the language of instruction for your entire undergraduate studies, you may provide an official confirmation from your university or it has to be stated on your transcript. In this case, you don’t have to provide any other language certificates.

Please ignore if the Online Application Portal requires you to submit a German language certificate.

Due to a high number of applications, your qualifications can only be reviewed once all required documents are submitted within the application period via the application portal (see the application procedure below).

You do not have to ship hard copies of your documents. Please apply ONLY ONLINE via our application portal. You will have to submit your documents later, i.e. for enrolment, though.

You have to apply to the MA World Studies in the Online Application Portal by filling in the online questionnaire (application form) and upload all necessary documents (see the list below). You have to upload all necessary documents in the Online Application Portal.

To apply for the MA World Studies, please select “World Studies: Orders, Politics, Cultures (Master, fachwi.)” from the list of degree courses. Select “1” as the semester in which you wish to start your course of study.

The Online Application Portal opens on June 1st for applications for the following winter semester. It is not possible to apply earlier.

After completing the application online, you have to submit your application (click on “submit”) and then you will be able to print out the application form (it is already filled in with your answers) for your own convenience.

You do not have to ship hard copies of your documents. Please apply ONLY ONLINE via our application portal. You will have to submit your documents later, i.e. for enrolment, though.

You have to submit your documents and certified translations of your documents in German or English. Documents in other languages will not be considered.An Apostille is not required. The translation of certificates has to be carried out by an official authority, e.g. by the authorized department of the institution that issued the certificate, or by a sworn translator. These translations have to be certified.

The documents to be uploaded in the Online Application Portal include:

School leaving certificate (a document which certifies your secondary education – the level you have to complete before starting undergraduate studies), both the original and a certified translation to English or German;

Undergraduate degree certificate and transcript of records, both of the original and a certified translation to English or German.

If you already possess a master’s degree, please provide a degree certificate and transcript for it as well. A master’s degree completed abroad doesn’t place you at a disadvantage to other applicants.

If your transcript doesn’t contain your final grade and grade scale, please provide this information in the application form. Do not recalculate your grade into other systems (German, US, etc.).

If your university issues a Diploma Supplement or similar document, please attach it as well, although it is not mandatory.

Applicants with a degree from a „related field“ (see „Formal requirements“) must submit a work sample from their previous studies (f.e. an essay or BA-thesis), in order to prove the relatedness of their qualification to the five core fields of „World Studies“. Applicants with a degree from the core fields of "World Studies" may also submit such a document (not compulsory though), in order to allow the selection committee a better appreciation of their skills.

All applicants have to fill in a form detailing their verifiable knowledge in the methodology of one or more of the five core fields of „World Studies“ (i.e. Law, Sociology or Social Sciences, Political Sciences, History, or Cultural and Literary Studies). The form is provided by the application portal.

Proof of English language skills. (For more, see above in language requirements). You don’t have to provide a German language certificate, however if you have some previous knowledge of German you may provide such a certificate in the field “further documents”;

Curriculum vitae, maximum 2 pages long, tabulated, listing your education and work experience from present to past. You may use the Europass CV although is it not mandatory;

We don’t require any recommendation letters. Please abstain from submitting references.

• If a document contains many pages, don’t upload each page separate but instead merge them in one document (search “merge pdf” in the search engine of your choice).
• Don’t upload the same document in different fields.
• Give each document meaningful, clear names such as “Transcript”, “Motivation”, etc.
• Pay attention that your documents are readable (for instance, in resolution, contrast).
• Rotate and save your documents if necessary (search “rotate pdf” in the search engine of your choice, since usually it is not possible to save rotated document in the Adobe reader programme).

Once you have submitted your application, you can check the progress of your application any time by going to the website of the Online Application Portal, logging in and clicking “Status”.

A decision regarding your admission will be made after the application deadline, when all applications are received.

Due to the high number of applications to our MA "World Studies", the first results of the admission committee's evaluation will not be published before end of August / beginning of September 2021. Pleas be patient and abstain from individual queries via email. Resullts will be published through the online portal.

If you are admitted, Bielefeld University will provide you with an official admission document that you can present to the authorities when you apply for a student visa and enter the Federal Republic of Germany. We recommend that you set an appointment with the German consulate/embassy as soon as possible, because the visa issuance procedure usually takes between four and six weeks.

Negative admission decisions may take longer to be uploaded, since we have a waiting list.

The winter semester starts on October 1st. Courses will start approximately 1-2 weeks later and end in early February.

Applications will be received from June 1st to July 15th for the following winter semester.