Grants access to:

• Archival and Information Studies
• Cultural Data & AI
• Documentaire en fictie
• Film Studies
• Journalistiek en media
• New Media and Digital Culture
• Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image
• Television and Cross-Media Culture

This pre-Master’s does not grant access to the Research Master’s Media Studies.

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 the tracks Film Studies, Documentaire en fictie, and Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image

Recommended for the tracks Cultural Data & AI, New Media and Digital Culture and Journalistiek en media

Recommended for the track Television and Cross-media Culture

Recommended for the track Archival and Information Studies

Application procedure

Your application to the Graduate School of Humanities always starts by submitting an enrolment request for the Master's programme you wish to pursue. You can only submit an enrolment request for the pre-Master's if you have been admitted to the Master's programme on the condition of successful completion of the pre-Master's programme.

1. Check the application deadline
   As you must first submit an application for the Master's programme, the application deadline for the pre-Master’s programme corresponds with that of the Master’s programme you wish to pursue. Please check the Master’s of your choosing for the application deadline.
2. Submit an enrolment request in Studielink for the Master's Media Studies 60 ECTS or Media Studies 90 ECTS
   Please complete all of the steps of the application process for the Master's in Media Studies, including the application in MyInfo and the submission of all required application documents. This will ensure that you can automatically be admitted to the Master's in the following academic year.
   
   Depending on which Master’s you are looking to do, the programme you must enrol in in Studielink is Media Studies 60 ECTS (for the tracks Film Studies, New Media and Digital Culture, and Television and Cross-Media Culture) or Media Studies 90 ECTS (for the tracks Archival and Information Studies, Documentaire en fictie, Journalistiek en media, and Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image).
3. Wait for the admission decision
   The selection committee will assess your prior education. If you are able to meet the entry requirements for the Master’s by completing the pre-Master’s programme, you will receive a rejection for the Master's and a positive decision for the pre-Master’s.
   
   Are you applying to a selective Master’s? Then you must first complete the selection procedure for that Master’s programme. The selection committee can then admit you to the Master’s on the condition that you finish the pre-Master’s within a year. If you succeed at this, you are automatically admitted and will not have to go through the selection procedure again the following year. This procedure applies to all (dual) Master’s programmes that comprise 90 ECTS. For Master’s programmes that comprise 60 ECTS, no selection procedure applies.
4. Submit an enrolment request in Studielink for the pre-Master’s Media Studies
   Only after you have been (conditionally) admitted to the pre-Master’s do you register for the pre-Master’s Media Studies in Studielink (in dutch: Media en cultuur - Schakelprogramma). You will be informed by email in more detail.

Important information for non-EEA students

If you need a visa for your stay in the Netherlands, please note that the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) only issues visas to pre-Master's students for the duration of one year. If you do not complete the programme in one year, you cannot continue your studies anywhere in the Netherlands.

Costs

The tuition fee rate for a pre-Master’s programme in the academic year 2023-2024 is €38.56 per ECTS, with a maximum of €2,314. This means that for a 42 ECTS pre-Master’s programme, the fee is €1,620; for a 30 ECTS programme, the fee is €1,157.