Directly admissible
Important information: there is an extended deadline for this programme. The extended deadline is 1 July 2024 for international applicants who do not need visa. This means your application needs to be complete before that date.
You are admissible to the Master’s programme in Social and Cultural Anthropology (SCA) with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, Sociology, or a related field, or if you have completed a minor in Anthropology, with a curriculum including social science methods. Your bachelor must be equivalent to a Dutch academic (WO) bachelor and therefore must be completed at a research university.
NUFFIC, the Dutch organization for internationalization in education, provides information on the academic level of universities abroad in relation to the required level of academic master programmes in the Netherlands. The Admission Board uses this information provided by NUFFIC in order to assess whether your level of academic writing and methodological training is expected to be sufficient. If your level of academic writing and/or methodological training is deemed insufficient, you must complete a bridging programme which consists of courses in academic writing and/or methods and techniques. You may decide to take this course at any university. The Faculty of Social Sciences at VU Amsterdam offers courses in academic writing in the pre-master’s programme in Social and Cultural Anthropology (PM Tutorial Academic Writing SCA and PM Research Project SCA) and in methods and techniques (see below).
Conditionally admissible
If you have a Bachelor's or Master's degree in a field other than anthropology or sociology, you may be asked to complete a bridging programme of max. 30 EC before applying to the Master's in Social and Cultural Anthropology (SCA).
Depending on the discipline of your degree, this bridging programme consists of academic courses in the field of qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques of social science research with a minimum of 12 EC, and/or academic courses in the field of anthropology with a minimum of 6/12 EC.
The Admissions Committee of the Master's programme in SCA will determine which additional courses you will have to take. These courses can be taken at any university, but you can also choose to take them at FSS-VU.
At FSS-VU the following relevant courses are offered in the field of methods and techniques of social scientific research:
- Social Research Methodology (S_SRM). Introduction into the the process of social scientific research, including its key methods (qualitative and quantitative) and approaches (interpretative vs positivist).
- Ethnographic Research Methodology (S_ERM)
- Methoden en technieken van kwalitatief onderzoek (S_PMMTKOZ) to acquire knowledge and skills in the field of qualitative methodology.
FSS-VU offers the following relevant subjects in the field of anthropology:
- Core Themes in Anthropology (S_CTA)
- Development and Globalization (S_DG)
- Identity, Diversity and Inclusion (S_IDI)
- Nation and Migration (S_NM)
- History and Theory of Anthropology (S_HTA)
- Urban Studies (S_UBS)
- Challenges of the 21st Century (S_C21C)
- Global Religion (S_GR)
*Please be aware that international students should not apply for the pre-master’s programme directly.
In case you are not directly eligible for the Master’s programme, the Admissions Committee will refer you to the pre-master’s programme in Social and Cultural Anthropology or a certain selection of the courses.
English language requirements
If you are applying for one of our English-taught Master's degree programmes you will have to demonstrate sufficient English language proficiency by submitting English test results.
Although complete applications are preferred, you can begin your application before you have completed the test and then submit your passing score once you have been conditionally admitted.
You can find an overview of all accepted tests and scores that can be used to demonstrate your English language proficiency on the language requirement page.