Entry requirements

To be admitted as a Master’s student at Uppsala University, applicants must meet the general and programme-specific entry requirements.

General entry requirements include:

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent from an internationally recognised university.
• Sufficient knowledge of written and spoken English.

Programme-specific entry requirements for each Master’s programme are found under the section "Admissions" on each programme page. It is very important that you as an applicant read through this information carefully to ensure you meet all entry requirements before applying.

Along with submitting an online application, you must submit a number of supporting documents that show that you meet both the general and programme-specific entry requirements.

Submit your application at universityadmissions.se.

A Bachelor’s degree

To meet the entry requirements for Master’s level studies at Uppsala University, you must have been awarded a Bachelor’s degree from an internationally recognised university.

Students in their final year of Bachelor’s studies

If you have not been awarded a Bachelor’s degree yet but are in your final year of studies, you may be conditionally admitted to a Master’s programme at Uppsala University. When applying, an official transcript of records and a document stating that you are likely to be awarded the degree by the start of the Master's programme must also be provided. These documents must be issued through and certified by a member of the Academic Registrar’s Office, the Examinations Office, or the equivalent department at your institution. We do not accept certification from other staff members, such as faculty or college staff members.

Students who are conditionally admitted must provide their Bachelor’s degree certificate when their Master’s studies start, to be registered in courses. 

How are Bachelor’s studies registered?

When University Admissions has assessed your supporting documents, your Bachelor’s degree will be registered to your account at universityadmissions.se. It will be registered in accordance with a “Swedish kandidatexamen” (Bachelor’s degree), i.e. 180 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits.

No matter how many previous degrees you need to present to fulfil the general entry requirements for Master’s studies in Sweden, these degrees altogether will be registered as 180 ECTS. This is also regardless of the actual length of your studies. This way of translating your previous studies has to do with the different education systems throughout the world. It is impracticable to make an exact conversion of the actual credits that match the ECTS system.

There are a few programmes that consider credit ranking as a selection criterion. When you meet the entry requirements, you will receive the ranking number 180. The only exception is if your credits are originally issued in the ECTS system, then your ranking number will be the number of credits stated in your degree. Similarly, if you have additional academic credits that are issued in the ECTS system, they may be added to your base ranking number.

Your previous PhD or Master’s degrees are normally not registered for the general entry requirements, but can still be relevant for the assessment of programme-specific entry requirements.

English language proficiency

To be eligible for Master’s level programmes and courses, you must demonstrate your proficiency in English. For most programmes, the requirement is equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6. This is usually done through an internationally recognised test such as TOEFL, IELTS or equivalent.

Meet the English language requirements through a language test. Required test scores:

• IELTS ACADEMIC: an overall mark of 6.5 and no section below 5.5
• TOEFL: Internet-based: Score of 20 (scale 0–30) in written test and a total score of 90, or
• Cambridge: CAE, CPE

Note! Applicants to the Master’s Programme in English: The Master’s Programme in English at Uppsala University requires a higher English language proficiency, equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 7. The requirement of English 7 can generally not be met with a past degree taught in English.  The requirement can be met by achieving the required score on an internationally recognised test, such as IELTS or TOEFL. Students with a Swedish Kandidatexamen in English (as the main field of study) also fulfil this requirement.

Meet the English language requirements through other ways:

In some cases, you may fulfil the English language requirements through previous high school or university studies. Find out more on how you can meet the English requirements.

Note! Applicants from Pakistan: Students with a degree from Pakistan applying to Uppsala University must meet the requirements in English through

• an internationally recognised English test or
• university studies taught in English only if the university is listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools.

That means that a formal university transcript or degree certificate stating that the language of instruction for the programme was English, will not be sufficient. Nor is a degree from a university where English is the only language of instruction sufficient.

Almost all Master's programmes have programme-specific entry requirements. Usually, you need a certain amount of credits in specific subjects in your previous university studies. Check the specific entry requirements under the section "Admissions" on each programme page.

How to calculate ECTS credits?

In our requirements and selection criteria, you can see that we have instructions regarding credits. The credits refer to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits. If your previous university uses a different credit system and does not provide a conversion between your local credits and ECTS credits, we will convert your local credits to the ECTS credits. 

60 ECTS credits correspond to one full-time academic year. Knowing the total number of credits needed to get a degree in your local credit system and the duration of the degree (the number of years), we can estimate the conversion factor (CF) as follows:
CF = (the number of years × 60) / the total number of credits

For example, if your 3-year Bachelor’s degree corresponds to a total of 120 credits in your system, then:
CF = (3×60) / 120 = 1.5

This means that a 4-credit course in your system corresponds to 4×CF = 6 ECTS credits.

When the number of eligible applicants exceeds the number of places on offer in a programme, a selection process takes place between applicants. Students are normally ranked on the basis of their qualifications; however, the mode of selection can vary from one programme to another. For more information, please view the individual programme page under the section "Admissions".

There are two types of supporting documents: general supporting documents and programme-specific documents.

No matter which Master's programme you want to apply for, you must submit the general supporting documents at universityadmissions.se on time. Many programmes also require some programme-specific documents that you may need to submit either at universityadmissions.se together with your general supporting documents, or send directly to the department at the University. 

Read about the supporting documents you are required to submit.

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