Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures (MA)

Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures (SDAC) is an interdisciplinary study program that allows students to acquire profound academic and methodological knowledge, as well as additional key skills regarding decision-making processes in East and South Asia. The MA degree program requires a BA degree of variable disciplinary orientation. Students may choose their academic focus by selecting accordingly from the courses offered at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg as well as organizing their own study abroad semester.

Students will acquire profound academic and methodological knowledge, as well as additional key skills regarding decision-making processes in East and South Asia. Over the course of the degree program, students receive profound insights into the processes of decision-making, e.g. in entrepreneurial, political, and cultural situations. They will develop a new cross-cultural perspective on decision-making processes, utilize their knowledge in an interdisciplinary context, learn to approach research questions from an academic perspective and to cultivate their independent thinking. These qualities will eventually enable them to delicately deal with intracultural and cross-cultural decision-making processes.

The acquired knowledge from the fields of sinology, history, philosophy, religious studies, economics, social and cultural anthropology, and the history of science will enable them to gain skills in the fields of communication and critical thinking, as well as to work in an independent, solution-oriented, critical, analytical, and application-oriented manner in various professional circumstances requiring expertise from humanities, area studies, and social sciences. The specific expertise opens job perspectives for the graduate in professions concerned with culture, politics and business, as well as in intercultural work environments where the aforementioned fields of study intersect. Graduates will be capable to take a culturally sensitive and discerning stance when participating in real world decision-making, both in an international and specifically Asian-European context. Their skills and expertise to operate in an international environment qualifies them for leadership positions.

Graduates with either a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, diploma, magister or state examination in a study that focusses on philology, social sciences, historical sciences, pedagogy, philosophy, religious studies, ethnology, economic sciences, law, psychology or medical science are eligible for the Master’s degree program.

Applicants with one of these degrees are admitted only after a successful selection interview if they have an overall grade of at least 2.00. If they have an overall grade of 2.01-2.5, they have to prove further qualifications that are relevant for the Master’s degree program, e.g. proof of passed modules on scientific or research-related work (min. 6 ECTS points), proof of having passed modules with explicitly cross-cultural topics (at least 6 ECTS credits), or proof of professional internships in a non-western or non-occidental organization (at least 3 months full-time), then they are admitted only after a successful selection interview.

English language proficiency of at least level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or comparable knowledge (UNIcert C2) must be proven if the school graduation or Bachelor’s degree has not been acquired in English.

Foreign speakers of German need to prove their German language skills with a minimum of A1 of the CEFR (can be submitted within the first year of the program). Detailed information about the requirements can be found in the degree program and examination regulations for the Master's degree program ‘Standards of Decision Making Across Cultures (SDAC) – Knowledge, Authenticity, Time' and the General Examination Regulations for the Bachelor's and Master's Degree Programs at the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology of Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg.

The program is organized into four semesters. Students must acquire a total of 120 ECTS credit points. The Master's thesis is due at the end of the fourth semester. The study plan includes lectures (including the IKGF lecture series), seminars and tutorials. All courses are held in English.

The programme consists of the following modules:

The program consists of the following modules:
• Module 1: Theories of Decision-Making Across Cultural Contexts
• Module 2: Concepts of Chinese Cultural Orientations and Decision-Making
• Module 3: Comparative Philosophy / Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication I
• Module 4: Influences of Cultural-Religious Variances on Decision- Making Processes / Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication II
• Module 5: Specific Approaches of Selected Academic Disciplines - Europe
• Module 6: Rationalities of Decision-Making
• Module 7: Contexts of Decision-Making in China
• Module 8: Specific Approaches of Selected Academic Disciplines - East Asia
• Module 9: Developing Transcultural Sensitivities
• Module 10: Master Thesis