Studying

The AIK is one of a total of eight departments at the IOA that together offer the bachelor’s and master's programmes in “Asian Studies”. Asian and Islamic Art History can be chosen as a focus within the context of the BA course in Asian Studies (core subject) at Bonn. The bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies, designed to take three years, provides an initial qualification in the field of Asian Studies for a subsequent professional career, as well as preparing students for further studies in the master's programme. The bachelor’s programme includes learning at least one Asian language, compulsory modules on the history and modern development of Asia and a wide range of compulsory elective modules that provide in-depth knowledge about individual countries, regions and problem areas.

Here it is also possible to select modules in which basic knowledge of economics and social sciences, history, law, and linguistics can be gained. The bachelor’s language programme covers a choice of eleven languages: Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Persian, Tibetan, Turkish and the two Indian languages of Sanskrit and Hindi. The course is made up of modules. These are teaching units of 4 to 10 hours per week per semester that conclude with an end-of-semester exam (written or oral). These course-related exam results are recorded according to the new credit system (ECTS) that is recognized Europe-wide. The final assessment of the BA course takes the form of a bachelor’s thesis. The master's programme in “Asian Studies” with the specialization in “Art History in Asia and the Orient” builds on the foundational bachelor’s programme in “Asian Studies”.
 
The master’s course is intended to facilitate self-organized academic work and ends with a master's thesis of 80 pages (total length of the master’s course = 2 years). Here, too, the studies are carried out on the basis of the credit system (ECTS). In the master's programme, broadening your linguistic and methodological skills remains a central aspect of the course.