Study

Heidelberg University has a long tradition as one of the major centres of teaching on East Asia in Europe. Its Centre of East Asian Studies examines the historical and contemporary dimensions of Chinese, Japanese and Korean societies and cultures and maintains significant intellectual and institutional connections and staff and student exchanges with other important area studies centres in East Asia, Europe and the United States.

At Heidelberg University there is one three-year BA in East Asian Studies degree programme, which can be combined with a minor field in almost any other subject, that teaches the languages of East Asia and familiarizes the students with these countries from a regional perspective while exposing them to the relevant academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Although most classes in the initial year are taught in German or in East Asian languages, there are enough regular advanced offerings in English to make the program attractive even to international exchange students who are not yet fluent in either one of these languages and serves to prepare Heidelberg degree students to participate in one of many exchanges with our partner universities in East Asia and Europe. The current areas of specialization within the East Asian Studies BA degree are Chinese Studies, East Asian Art History and Japanese Studies .

Heidelberg University offers several two-year taught MA degrees relevant to East Asia. MA in Chinese Studies, MA in Japanese Studies,  MA in East Asian Art History, and an MA in Conference Interpretation (Japanese-German), which is probably the only MA with that specialization in the world. An international MA in Transcultural Studies taught in English, which includes an East Asian track prepared by the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe", began in the autumn semester of 2011.

Heidelberg University has had an impressive record in training doctoral students in East Asian Studies over the last decades. Since the foundation of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe", which is funded by the German Research Foundation, the numbers of high quality international and German Ph.D. students has grown tremendously since they receive a full scholarship for their entire three year research period and can write their dissertations in either English or German. Financial support extends to research fieldwork in Asia and Europe.

Study Programmes