Admission
In order to register, you need to apply for the MA and be accepted in one of its branches/pathways at one of its Admission periods (preinscripció, in Catalan). During the Admission period the Academic Committee will assess the candidate's transcript along with their motivation letter (see complete documentation required below) and rank the applications. The MA has 40 positions available. You do not need to have finished your BA degree in order to apply for admission. You will need to present your legal BA title once you are admitted and you begin the "Registration" process.
International students (specially, non-EU) are advised to apply in the first period of admission (see below) due to the long time that getting your BA tittle legalized in your university/home country, your VISA processing can take. Also take into account that once you have your title legalized the UB needs to certify that everything is correct and that also takes time. This means that, if admitted, you will need to present in-person or send by certified mail your Hague Apostilled tittle, your official translation or your legalised tittle before the university in July. All universities in Spain (and many ministry's offices) are closed in August.
1st period: 21 March - 15 April 2024 (Notification of admission May) [We encourage international students (non EU-titles) to apply in this period, since VISA and legalisation can take months depending on the country]
2nd period: 17 April - 31 May 2024 (Notification of admission June)
3rd period: 18 - 20 September 2024 [Only people with a BA degree obtained in Spain can apply. Additionally, registration ends the 30th, which means that only people with all the documentation ready can apply]
- A degree issued by a higher education institution within the framework of the European Higher Education Area that authorizes the holder to access university master's degree courses in the country of issue (e.g. Spain, grado) or a qualification outside the framework of the European Higher Education Area but in this case you must provide a statement of equivalence (legalization process). Be aware that if you have a 3-year BA degree you can enroll the MA, but you will not be able to apply for a PhD directly after the program. In order to enroll a PhD, you must have 5 years of university education (i.e. 300 credits ECTS).
- If your degree was not taught in English, you will need an English certificate.
Academic requirements
Ideally, CCiL applicants should have a degree in Psychology, Philosophy or Linguistics. Students holding a degree in Translation and Interpretation or Philologies are also accepted.
Depending on the courses studied in their BA and the branch in which they want to register, students will be required to take up to 2 background courses (12 credits). For example, Translation students willing to register in the Linguistics branch that did not read Linguistics during their BA, will be required to register some Linguistics background courses. The committee also takes into account the student's record, the courses taken and their qualifications to assess whether the student needs to take background courses.
People having a different degree might be accepted but required to take up to 2 background courses (12 credits).
The information on the background courses required will be sent with the acceptance communication.
Language requirements
An English certificate equivalent to B2.2 (upper end of B2 in the Common European Frame of Reference).
There is an application processing fee for the admission process. Fee is 30,21€ (please note that due to a recent change in regulations, the pre-inscription fee is not applicable towards registration fees in case of acceptance).
In order to apply for the master program students must first complete the pre-registration form available online at the Faculty's page. Once in that page, click on PREREGISTER/REGISTER and scroll down to find the REGISTER FORM.
Together with the on-line form, students must submit the documentation [see below].
IN CASE YOU EXPERIENCE ANY ISSUE UPLOADING YOUR DOCUMENTS WITH THE ONLINE APPLICATION FORM, SEND THESE DOCUMENTS TO master.ccil@ub.edu
Please note that this is for admission purposes only. If you are admitted and wish to enrol, you will need to present your original BA title (among others) in person at the Secretaria (mastersfilosofia@ub.edu) [Old UB students do not need to do that].
Once the application period closes, a the MA Committee will assess the applications. You will get the results by mail and will be asked to confirm your interest, if you do so, the MA Coordinator will issue the official acceptance letter.
[Note that this documentation is for admission (a Committee of professors willl assess this), if you are admitted, you will need to present the original documentation -assessed by the Spanish embassy, which takes time, if you are a foreigner-, see more information in the registration page.]
- an undergraduate transcript or list of courses completed for their degree (or degrees), with grades earned (specifying the maximum possible grade in each case), in either Catalan, Spanish or English. If your grading system is not 0-10, 0-100, A-D, please consider doing the "conversion" of your grades to the Spanish system, so your undergraduate grades can be taken into account for the admission. Undergraduate students not yet having completed their degree at the time of application might be provisionally admitted, but they must have satisfactorily completed their degree for final enrollment. NB: for the final registration, an official Spanish or Catalan translation will be required, if the original certificate is not in English, Spanish or Catalan. We expect that you do not have the grades for the second semester courses yet, you can apply without them.
- a general CV in Catalan, Spanish or English.
- a motivation letter in English, which must explain why the candidate is a good fit for the CCiL MA program. The letter must specify the branch (Psychology, Linguistics, Philosophy) which the student is applying for. N.B.: Selecting a branch different from the candidate's background studies may result in not getting accepted in the MA. Branches are:
- Philosophy Z0001 Lògica i Filosofia | Logic and Philosophy
- Linguistics Z0002 Teoria Gramatical i Processament Lingüístic | Grammatical Theory and Linguistic Processing
- Psychology Z0003 Models Cognitius de Processament del Llenguatge | Cognitive Models of Language Processing
- applicants who are not native speakers of English and whose undergraduate degree was not taught in English must submit evidence of their English language skills. This evidence can come in various forms, but should reliably indicate a minimum level of proficiency approximately equivalent to B2.2 (upper end of B2 in the Common European Frame of Reference). We will, for example, accept the following test results or certificates as evidence:
- IELTS: 6.5 (or at least no component below 6.0)
- TOEFL: 550 (PBT), 99 (iBT)
- University of Cambridge First Certificate in English or higher.
- Other generally used certificates can be valid upon request, specially those official in Spain, such as Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (EOI).
The Admissions Committee (Coordination Commitee of the MA) evaluates candidates on the basis of the following criteria, weighted as shown:
- Previous studies (50%)
- Higuest grades for previous studies are awarded to students having a degree on the most related topic to the branch (e.g. BA in Philosophy for the Philosophy branch; BA in Linguistics for the Linguistics branch; or BA in Psychology or Cognitive Science for the Psychology branch). When reviewing candidate's degrees in relation to the academic requirements, the Committee will assess the similarity of each degree to this master's degree as well as each candidate's academic record, and their Grade Point Average and specific grades at the courses related to our MA.
- Curriculum vitae and statement of interest (30%)
- The highest score for CVs and motivation letters is awarded to candidates who have a clear research interest aligned with the MA program and whose letters demonstrate academic maturity.
- English language skills (20%)
- Higuest score for English language is awarded to those students with a C2 (passing grade B2).
If necessary, candidates may be asked to provide samples of their academic work or to attend a personal interview.
The MA has 40 positions available. The Admissions Committee will create a priorized list of student based on the criteria above. The final resolution of the Admission Process can be: Accepted, Accepted with background courses, Waiting list or Rejected. The number of applications in previous years has been: 2018-19, 100; 2019-20, 94; 2020-21, 64;2021-22, 70; 2022-23, 103; 2023-24, 104. More information and statistics at the UB stats page.