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MASemiotics

Tuition fee €2,500 per semester
Application fee €150 one-time

The application fee is discounted for Early Bird applicants:
EUR 100 (non-refundable) between 01/11/2024 – 30/11/2024 and between 01/02/2025 – 31/03/2025;
The regular application fee is:
EUR 150 (non-refundable) between 01/04/2025-31/05/2025

Examination fee €100 one-time
More information

elte.hu/en/semiotics-ma 

Overview

Short description
Semiotics is an ancient discipline with a long history, which has gained a firm theoretical foundation during the 19th century and an ever-growing significance over the last 50 years. This discipline is now in a period of very intensive, concentrated research and self-identification on the map of contemporary science.

The interdisciplinary Semiotics MA program at ELTE trains students to become well-trained specialists in semiotics of culture with a global overview of the various fields of humanities: literary studies, linguistics, philosophy, visual arts and general art studies – including approaches to the fine arts, films, theatre and music – and also the most contemporary methods of research synthetized from a semiotic methodological point of view. At the same time, choosing the specific field for degree thesis students can gain specialized knowledge in one subfield of the semiotics of humanities (e.g., the literary, visual, musical, theoretical semiotics, and ethnosemiotics). The program is designed to be flexible to motivate students to find the best Hungarian specialists in the given field and assist them to become involved in international research and dialogues with foreign scholars and lecturers. The curriculum consists of courses on the history and theory of semiotics; language, communication, texts and translation; theory of meaning, logic, argumentation; field studies of cultural, national and special semiotic systems; various forms of applied semiotics and semiotic pragmatics in general. The program also puts emphasis on the preparation of students for PhD studies to plan their research career.

This program is recommended to applicants who wish to acquire skills for analysing processes of communication (mediation, translation) in culture and the results of these processes (texts, artefacts, events etc.) arising from the past and in the digital age, in a great variety of media and discourse representations to be described and evaluated as they constantly change through creative cultural interactivity.

This program enables students to become versatile experts on culture, having substantial knowledge and competence in understanding, analysing and influencing both general and specific cultural phenomena and the various forms of interaction and pragmatic exchange, and innovative system construction in general.

Strength of program
an interdisciplinary orientation within the humanities;
the application of the valuable research and methodological results of classical semiotics linking them to the most recent scholarly results in the discipline;
equilibrium in teaching semiotic theory and its implications in applied semiotics;
flexibility in encouraging students to find their own subfield by enabling their specialization (free option possibilities built into the curriculum);
international context for research and education;
offering perspectives for students for doctoral studies in directions not restricted to semiotics.

Programme structure

Find the detailed structure of the program on the site of the Faculty:
www.btk.elte.hu/master-programmes

Career opportunities

Career opportunities
The labour market for specialists with an MA degree in semiotics includes job opportunities for experts who are expected to have the skills of

understanding current cultural movements;
grasping and describing the developmental logic in contemporary arts and the various forms of intercultural communication both within social interaction and national and international cultural texts;
interpreting and describing different media and message transfer processes;
analysing conflict, argumentation systems and philosophical discourse in any field which can be interpreted from the point of view of sign system constructions;
building models, typologies and create system-descriptions.
Employment may also be found in the fields linked to applied semiotics (e.g. sign system translation activities; analysis of behaviour symptoms in the work-place; symptom-interpretation in various social or work groups; activities for handling situations in spheres where special sign systems are involved, etc.).

Job examples
—Researchers at universities, in museums;
—copywriters,
—journalists,
—cultural critics;
—scriptwriters for videogames;
—enterprisers;
—translators;
—IT specialists;
—PR specialists.

Apply now! September 2025/26
Application deadline
30 Nov 2024, 23:59:59
Central European Time
Studies commence
1 Sept 2025
Apply now! September 2025/26
Application start
1 Feb 2025
Application deadline
31 Mar 2025, 23:59:59
Central European Time
Studies commence
1 Sept 2025
Apply now! September 2025/26
Application start
1 Apr 2025
Application deadline
31 May 2025, 23:59:59
Central European Time
Studies commence
1 Sept 2025
Apply now! September 2025/26
Application deadline
30 Nov 2024, 23:59:59
Central European Time
Studies commence
1 Sept 2025
Apply now! September 2025/26
Application start
1 Feb 2025
Application deadline
31 Mar 2025, 23:59:59
Central European Time
Studies commence
1 Sept 2025
Apply now! September 2025/26
Application start
1 Apr 2025
Application deadline
31 May 2025, 23:59:59
Central European Time
Studies commence
1 Sept 2025
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