Prospectus

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First year

Course EC Semester 1 Semester 2

First semester (Fall semester)
Introduction to Asian Studies 10
Advanced Korean Reading 10

Elective (select 10 EC):
Cultural Heritage in East Asia: Dealing with the Past in Present and Future 10
Comparative Asian Linguistics 10
Lives on the Margins: Korean Peninsula Migration and Identity (10 EC) 10
Lives on the Margins: Korean Peninsula Migration and Identity (5 EC) 5
Material Culture, Memory and Commemoration along the Silk Roads in Central Asia 10
Critical Approaches to Heritage Studies 5
Urban Ecology of Asian Cities 10
Pure Land Buddhism 5
Pilgrimage and Holy Places 10
Taiwan MA Seminar 10
Art and Environment in East Asia 10

Second semester (Spring semester)
Study in Korea A 30

Second year

Course EC Semester 1 Semester 2

First semester (Fall semester)
Study in Korea B 30

Second semester (Spring semester)
MA Thesis Asian Studies (120 EC) 15
Topical Readings in Korean (5 EC) 5
Topical Readings in Korean (10 EC) 10

Elective (select 10 EC):
Approaches to East Asian Cinema (10 EC) 10
Approaches to East Asian Cinema (5 EC) 5
Culture and Conquest: the Impact of the Mongols and their Descendants 10
The Politics of Destruction: Targeting World Heritage 10
Forgery as Historiography in Korean and East Asian History 10
Buddhism seminar 10

more info year in Korea

due to the current COVID-19 outbreak this part of the programme may be cancelled or modified

Students will spend a year in South Korea at one of Leiden’s partner universities. The precise destination of each student will be determined early in the first semester, taking into consideration his/her research interests and the profile of each university. At present, Leiden’s partner universities in South Korea include: Yonsei University, Seoul National University, Korea University, HUFS and SKKU.

It is the responsibility of the student to maintain contact with his/her Leiden supervisor throughout their stay in Korea. Furthermore, all students are required to earn 30 ECTS in Korea by following Korean language courses OR content courses conducted in the Korean language. This translates into approximately 12 credits in the Korean system of grade registration. Students should specify which courses they intend to follow during their stay in Korea with their supervisor and the Examinations Committee before they leave for Korea.

Career Preparation

Important events and sites to develop future career skills

Master’s Open Day (Leiden University)

Skills that improve your employability are also known as:

Transferable skills

Future employers are interested not only in the subject-related knowledge that you acquired during your study programme, but also in ‘transferable skills’. These include cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, reasoning and argumentation and innovation; intrapersonal skills, such as flexibility, initiative, appreciating diversity and metacognition; and interpersonal skills, such as communication, accountability and conflict resolution. In short, they are skills that all professionals need in order to perform well.
It is therefore important that during your study programme you not only acquire as much knowledge as possible about your subject, but also are aware of the skills you have gained and the further skills you still want to learn. The course descriptions in the Prospectus of MA Asian Studies include, in addition to the courses’ learning objectives, a list of the skills that they aim to develop.

The skills we want you to acquire and that you may encounter in the various courses, perhaps in different terms, are:

  • Collaboration

  • Persuasion

  • Research

  • Self-directed learning

  • Creative thinking