How to apply for our master's programme in Social Studies of Gender

Step 1: Check if you fulfil the programme-specific eligibility requirements

To be eligible for this programme, you must have a Bachelor's degree in one of the following Social Sciences majors:

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Social Work
• Social Anthropology
• Gender Studies
• Sociology of Law
• Development Studies
• Human Geography

A major is defined as a minimum of 90 ECTS credits (or equivalent to that amount) within any single one of the social sciences disciplines listed above, or within a subject area equivalent to one of these disciplines. Please note that it is not possible to combine courses in different disciplines to qualify for this programme.

Why do you need to be assigned a major?

Your major determines the department at the faculty in which you will get the opportunity to write your master’s thesis, in order to bridge your experience in the program with the field of your major/previous studies. This means that you will even be assigned a thesis supervisor from your major’s department and discipline. 

Examples of equivalent disciplines

While this is not an exhaustive list of disciplines that we consider to be equivalent to any one of our eight majors listed above, here are some examples: 

• International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies and similar disciplines are considered equivalent to Political Science.
• Women’s Studies and Feminist Studies are considered equivalent to Gender Studies.
• Cultural Anthropology courses count towards our major in Social Anthropology.
• Human Ecology is considered equivalent to Human Geography.

Please note that we do not make preliminary assessments of eligibility or major equivalency, but if you have general questions about majors, you are always welcome to contact us master [at] sam [dot] lu [dot] se (master[at]sam[dot]lu[dot]se).

Once you make sure that you fulfil the eligibility requirements, you can start your application.

Step 2: Start your application

Your application is to be submitted through University Admissions in Sweden, universityadmissions.se. You can add this programme to your application via the programme page on Lund University's international website during the application period.

You must follow the application instructions compiled by the University Admissions in Sweden. If you are still unsure about how to apply, please visit Lund University's international admissions pages to help you with the application process.

Step 3: Upload the required documents

All applicants are required to submit the following documents to University Admissions in Sweden:

• Official transcripts
• Bachelor's degree certificate or proof of expected graduation
• Passport/ID
• Proof of English proficiency

Make sure to carefully read the country-specific requirements for Master's studies on universityadmissions.se and follow the instructions to be able to submit your documents correctly.

Step 4: Submit your supporting documents

In addition to the general document requirements listed above, you must also submit an application form to help us assess your application as a whole. You can download the form and see the instructions below.

If you are in your final year of bachelor's studies, you may need to provide additional documentation about your studies. Please go to this section for more information.

Application form

Click here to download the application form.

Please note that this form does not replace the required documents listed in the previous step. The form should be submitted to University Admissions in Sweden, in addition to the general supporting documents specified above. When applying for several programmes, please fill the form and write separate statement of purpose for each programme.

Instructions

This form consists of the following parts. Please follow these instructions to fill the form correctly before you submit it.

For legibility reasons, you can only enter a certain amount of characters in each field. If the software you are using to fill this form lets you resize the fonts, please make sure that the text you enter is still legible. 

• Personal information:
  We ask you to start by filling in your first and last name, as well as your application number as stated in your application on University Admissions in Sweden, universityadmissions.se. Your application number will automatically appear on the following pages once you enter it on the first page of the form. You should also indicate whether you have previously applied for this program in this section.
   
• Previous studies in higher education:
  In this section, you must list your previous university education. You should include your studies at different levels (bachelor or master), as well as exchange studies if you have studied abroad. Indicate the institution of higher education, as well as the year you completed or are expected to complete your studies. 
   
• Major selection:
  See Step 1 on this page for information on eligible majors. 
  In this section of the form, you must select one of our eight majors based on your previous university studies. You must have at lest 90 ECTS or equivalent to this amount in the major that you select.
  If you have 90 ECTS in more than one of our eight disciplines, please select the major you would like to be assigned upon admission to the programme.
   
• List of courses in the selected major
  After selecting one of our eight majors, we also ask you to list the courses that you have previously taken only in the major that you selected, including course names in English, course codes, how many credits each course bears and the grade you received on each course. If your transcript uses ECTS as the credit system, please make sure to indicate that. Otherwise, please enter the local credits and grades, as indicated in your transcript.
  
  Additional tips for listing the correct courses:
  • Include any courses you took on social scientific methods and methodologies or theory of science, as well as credit-bearing internship courses and thesis courses that count towards your major in the list.
  • If there are cross-listed courses in your transcript (e.g. courses that you have taken within a Political Science major that are listed as History courses), you should include these courses in the form with the course codes that are listed in your official transcript of records.
  • If you have a bachelor's degree in a different discipline, but you have 90 ECTS or equivalent in one of our majors (e.g. through free-standing courses and master's studies), you may still be eligible for this program. In this case please list the courses that you believe should be equivalent to one of our majors.
     
• Grade point average (GPA)
  Under this section, you will enter your cumulative grade point average (GPA) for your entire degree. If your home institution does not provide this information in your transcript of records, we advise you to use an online tool, such as Scholaro's GPA Calculator, to calculate your GPA on a 4-point scale. If your transcript shows a GPA on a different scale, please calculate your GPA on a 4-point scale, in addition to entering both your GPA and the scale used in your transcript.
   
• English proficiency
  In this section, please specify how you fulfilled the English requirements, i.e. your English test scores or how you fulfilled the English equivalency. If you have a test score, you must indicate both the name of the test, as well as the score you have received.
  Admission to our programmes requires English Level 6, which is the equivalent of an overall IELTS score of 6.5 or a TOEFL score of 90. There are several ways to prove your English language proficiency, and you can read about how to document your proficiency in English on the University Admissions website.
   
• Statement of purpose
  In the final section of the form, you are asked to write a statement of purpose. It should not exceed 3,500 characters total, including spaces. You must answer the following questions in your statement of purpose:
  • What are your reasons for applying for this programme? In what ways do you expect to contribute to the programme?
  • Please consider the concept of gender in relation to social change. Why is it a useful concept in analyzing changes in the social and political sphere?
     

Information for students in their final year of bachelor's studies

For us to be able to correctly assess your application, in addition to your transcript of records, you must also upload a registration certificate or a similar document certified by your university that shows all of the courses that you are taking in your final year, including how many credits you will earn upon completing each course. 

You must also list the courses in the major you selected in the application form, indicating how many credits they are worth. You may leave the grade column empty for the courses you have not yet completed. This information will help us see how many credits you will have in one major upon graduation.