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Programme

The Global Studies Programme (GSP) is a critical research-oriented social science graduate programme. The primary goal of the programme is to analyze the social world we live in by research and work towards envisioning and realizing alternative futures. The programme requires a Master’s Thesis. The students are expected to reflect on their GSP education, experience, and research in the final thesis. We encourage our students to continue as researchers after GSP in academia and elsewhere. 

Partners

The programme works within a network of universities. According to the semester order, the partner universities are:

Semester 1: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Berlin/Germany)

Semester 2: FLACSO (Buenos Aires/Argentina)

Semester 2: University of Pretoria (Pretoria/South Africa)

Semester 3: Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi/India)

Semester 3: Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok/Thailand)

Semester 4: One of the above partner universities 

Degree

All of our students receive their degrees from Humboldt University (HU). Students who spend their second semester at FLACSO can opt for a double-degree (HU&FLACSO). We are working towards double-degree agreements with all partners.   

Costs

Expenses will depend on individual lifestyles. Based on the experiences of the recent GSP groups, we can only give a general overview of costs. When we take all expenses into account, the students should expect to spend between 800-1000 Euros a month for the next two years to have a relatively comfortable student life. Some months the students will invest less than the others, and there will be times when they will be expected to spend more than 2000 Euros for booking flights, paying deposits, transferring tuition fees, etc. Therefore, we advise our students to make sure that they have 2000-3000 Euros saved for these times. When you fill out the information form, you will receive the most recent cost updates from our students as well as the tuition and fee situation at the partner universities.  Please fill out MA information form for more information.

Finances

GSP cannot provide direct financial support. The students apply to external funding institutions such as DAAD. Applicants can contact local DAAD offices and ask for information. If you are accepted, there are other partial funding possibilities. GSP Berlin community support new cohorts’ funding applications.

Students

We accept applications from all parts of the world. The applications are received by HU Berlin. The core requirement is to have a Social Science degree and fluency in English. The student groups are always mixed in all possible terms such as nationality, age, disciplinary background. We are aware that this multiplicity is not free from the all-encompassing impact of global inequalities. Within existing structures and limitations, we do our best to counter-balance.  

Applications

Every year hundreds of students from all parts of the world contact us and declare interest in applying to our programme. Almost all of them register with us to receive more information on the application procedure. Up to two hundred students take the final step and start the application process. Because of application mistakes, missing documents, or other reasons, up to a hundred students do not finalize their application. The academic committee will receive more than a hundred applications to choose thirty/thirty-five students.  

Evaluation

The academic committee comprises at least three full professors and the programme coordinator. The committee members pay attention to all kinds of criteria to come up with a fair shortlist. We pay special attention to understand if the applicants worked on their application by developing a good knowledge of the programme and partner universities. Overall academic performance, international experiences, capacity for self-reliance and self-discipline are also taken into consideration. Since the outcome does depend on the application pool, up until the evaluation day, we would not know about your potential chances.

Application Dates

You can apply only for the Summer Semester of each year. There are no other application periods. Summer Semester at HU Berlin begins in the second week of April. Please check the academic calendar for each application period here. The application opens every year at the beginning of December and closes on January 15th. Please check on December 3rd if the websites are being updated. Deadlines are non-negotiable. If you miss an application deadline, you will have to apply next year. We urge potential applicants to get their application documents ready before December and apply within the first two weeks of December to have some space to tackle application problems such as missing documents.

Application Advice

Potential applicants tend to ask for advice to increase their chances. In principle, all the information you need is on this page. Additional information is provided when you register with us. GSPians organize virtual information meeting at the beginning of December each year to inform potential applicants. Please read carefully what we are offering and ask yourself if what we offer suits your experience and expectations. Following the application instructions is the best advice we can give.

More information

Potential applicants have all kinds of questions about the programme. For us to be able to give you the best answers, please fill out MA information form. You will then receive a message with interactive links. The information we provide is always based on the previous applications and will be regularly updated in the second half of the year to give you the most recent information. Please note that our most successful students show resilience to uncertainty and deal with provided information effectively.