Admission requirements - MSc Climate Studies

Purpose and reason for the admission requirements

The admission requirements for the master programme Climate Studies are defined in such a way that the students should be able to successfully complete at least one of the tracks of the programme nominally in two years. In order to comply, the student must have sufficient knowledge on either social, natural and/or life sciences and should be able to apply this knowledge to climate issues. Additionally, basic knowledge of statistics is required and students should be able to perform calculations. These admission criteria ensure that the student has a solid basis to follow the advanced studies in the master programme.

The criterion used for admission is

a WUR BSc degree in Environmental Sciences, Forest and Nature Conservation, International Land and Water Management, Landscape Architecture and Planning, Soil, Water, Atmosphere, or equivalent.

The norm for this equivalence is

an assessment of the students' expertise in at least one of the following areas:

• Environmental sciences or studies (for example environmental quality, natural resource management, human-environment interactions, environmental policy or economics)
• Earth sciences (for example applied physics and/or chemistry, hydrology, meteorology)
• Life sciences (for example ecology, agriculture)
• Social sciences (for example policy, economics, governance)

And both the following topics:

• Mathematics (calculus)
• Basics in statistics

Not all topics mentioned need to be mastered at the same level; they will be weighed by the Admission Board per individual application.

Method of assessment whether this norm is met

• Transcript of records displaying the content of previous course subjects and project work;
• Curriculum vitae displaying relevant work, internship and/or project experience on an academic level in a relevant field if applicable.

Scores attributed by the Admission Board

Admitted / not admitted / admitted under condition obtaining the BSc or MSc degree / not admitted with offer of pre-master

The Admission Board may allow and/or suggest compensation of knowledge gaps by:

• a GPA≥7.0* for the previous education for small discrepancies as new knowledge is sufficiently easily acquired;
• a GPA≥7.0* and an individual pre-master's programme for larger discrepancies that can be compensated in ≤30 ECTS and one year of study. Discuss this before application with one of our study advisers.

*Check the general admissions page for the International credentials evaluation guide for international equivalencies to a Dutch GPA>7.0. This guide includes compensating factors for a slightly lower GPA the Admission Board may include in their judgement.

Contact us through the contact button above to discuss the possibilities of a pre-master or how to mitigate knowledge gaps if you are still in the process of obtaining your degree.

Find out more about pre-master's programmes.

Please upload a personal statement in your application. This should contain information on:

• how was the required pre-knowledge acquired and how does it match with your ambitions in the programme? In case your knowledge on statistics and mathematics is not obvious from your transcript of records, please explain what and in which courses you addressed these topics.
• how will you compensate for missing knowledge?
• how come your GPA is (slightly) too low?