With specialisation in Religious Studies, Christian Studies or Study of Cultures and Intercultural Communication

The Master's Program provides students with awareness, insights and tools essential for understanding diverse cultural relations and multicultural settings in Norway, and globally. At the end of the program the students should have developed a professional appreciation of the international and intercultural challenges that affect our globalised world. The course will allow the students to develop intercultural interaction skills and personal cultural sensitivity, useful for employment in a variety of multicultural settings. International field work, internships and dialogue with organisations and businesses during the studies will enhance the possibilities for future employment. The multicultural field is expanding in Norway, and students with a Master's Degree in Global Studies will also have opportunities as teachers of different subjects requiring professional global competence.

Objective

The objective of the study is to enhance the professional competence (knowledge, skills and attitudes) of students preparing for careers that involve significant international and/or intercultural contact through professional education and research with particular reference to theology, religious studies, and intercultural communication. The study can also give students who already have been involved in international or intercultural careers an opportunity to reflect more systematically on their global experience in a scientific and methodological way, leading to the attainment of academic credits for their life experiences.

Some topics for the theses

Here is a list of what some of our former students have written about in their theses:

• Response to modernization, secularization and globalization: A case study of St Mathew’s congregation and Richards Bay’s congregation within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa
• CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION: CULTURE AS AN INDISPENSABLE FACTOR TO INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION. A CASE STUDY OF BAGANDA (KANYANYA, KAMPALA UGANDA)
• THE CHURCH IN A POVERTY STRICKEN SOCIETY: AN AGENT OF DEVELOPMENT IN RELATION TO THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN CAMEROON
• THE IMPACT AND INFLUENCE OF GLOBAL SOCIO-ECONOMY ON THE CLERICAL MINISTRY IN THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN TANZANIA (ELCT)
• CONTEXTUALIZING THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPT OF GOD AMONG THE BAGANDA IN UGANDA
• Human rights in China: Beneficial or threatening?
• STANDING SOLID – THE PLACE OF ULTRA-LOCAL NEWS IN A GLOBAL REALITY
• Causes of misunderstandings in intercultural communication - With empirical illustrations from conversations between Norwegian pulic officers and oromo refugees in southern Rogaland, Norway
• Childlessness and the church. An investigation of the tension that is to be found in the Roman Catholic church theaching on assisted reproduction and the opinions of lay people, theologians and meners of the clergy
• ”NÅR JEG ER MED EN MANN HJEM, TEGNER JEG KORSETS TEGN I DET JEG GÅR OVER DØRTERSKELEN” Religionens betydning for nigerianske kvinner i prostitusjon
• MENNESKERETTIGHETER OG OLJESELSKAP - HVA ER STATOILHYDRO SIN ROLLE SOM GLOBAL AKTØR?

Language

All lectures are given in English. The thesis may be written in English or Norwegian (Scandinavian).

Admission requirements

To be admitted to the Master's degree program the candidate must have:

• A Bachelor's degree, a three-year program in which there is a major; i.e. 80-ECTS credit group, from a recognised institution of higher education, or achieved an equivalent educational basis approved by the MHS Faculty. The degree must be within one of the following fields:

1. Bachelor in Religion and Intercultural Communications
2. Bachelor in Theology
3. Bachelor in Christian studies
4. Bachelor in Social sciences or Humanities
5. An equivalent education.
   
   
• Regarding no 4 and 5, there is an additional requirement: the degree must consist of topics that prepare the student in a relevant way for the MGS program. The student must maintain a C-grade as a minimum or equivalent in the 80-credit group.

• Proof of English language competency: All students whose first language is not English, or who have not completed the major bulk of their schooling in English, must prove their English language competency by completing the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), or by holding a passing grade from a Norwegian Upper Secondary School (videregående skole). Results should be sent directly to MHS. The MHS institution code for forwarding TOEFL test reports is 6535. A minimum TOEFL score of 500 (paper based)/ 173 (computer based)/ 61 (internet based), or a minimum IELTS score of 5.0 is normally required.

General information about the application and financing

Study program:

• Master of global studies