Overview & Structure

The curricula of the three masters programs comprise some 55 different neuroscience courses, all taught in English and offered periodically every academic year. The courses range from broadly-based neuroscience topics to demanding, specialized courses, as well as two longer-lasting laboratory rotations and a final masters thesis.

The masters programs have an explicit ‘research orientation’ with the goal of optimally preparing graduate students for demanding doctoral projects. This goal is achieved by two means: first, by recruiting active researchers as instructors who incorporate state-of-the-art neuroscientific questions and methods in their courses and, secondly, by implementing extensive periods of laboratory training where students engage in current research projects. The same is true for the experimental masters thesis of 6 months, which often serves as ‘seed crystal’ for a subsequent doctoral dissertation.

Each fo our programs offers great flexibility and individual freedom. Our students can choose their individual courses for 24 of 60 ECTS in the first two semesters and choose individual lab rotations and thesis projects. You can find more detailed information on the respective program’s pages.

The masters programs of the three graduate schools are basically designed alike regarding the overall requirements, the curricular and semester structure, the format of the study regulations and the ECTS-credits and degree earned (for details, see ‘Module Handbooks’). However, regarding the course content they differ considerably.

The masters programs consist of four semesters (2 years). The 1st year covers the theoretical training that provides the required competences needed in the 2nd year of study, which comprises the practical training: