Middle Eastern Studies (MA)
Career prospects
The Middle Eastern Studies programme can open doors to you in a wide variety of industries in which the Middle East plays a prominent role, or serve as a stepping-stone to help you reach the next level of your academic education.
How successful are they in finding a job?
Acquired skills and competences
After successfully completing the Middle Eastern Studies programme you will have developed and honed a unique set of skills that will be highly relevant to a career requiring specialist language or cultural knowledge of the Middle East. Alumni careers typically include those in government, the travel industry, the diplomatic service, immigration and naturalisation and NGOs involved in development cooperation projects. This degree will also serve as an outstanding foundation for furthering your academic education with a PhD programme.
Career
Well over 60 per cent of Middle Eastern Studies graduates find a job within two months of completing the programme, with 84 per cent of them finding a position at academic level. Some of the positions found by our alumni include those in:
- research
- teaching
- governmental and semi-governmental organisations
- non-profit organisations
- business services
- banking
- miscellaneous
An academic career
If you wish to pursue an academic career, the two-year research MA in Middle Eastern Studies is an excellent preparation for a PhD programme or a career in a research agency or the research department of a company or government organisation. The programme allows you to freely combine subjects from seven focus areas: Turkish Studies; Arabic Studies; North African Studies; Persian Studies; Islam; Eastern Christianity; and Modern Middle Eastern Studies.
Learn more about the research MA Middle Eastern Studies
Alexandra Nieweg
PhD-student at Utrecht University
"I chose the MA in Middle Eastern Studies at Leiden University because I wanted to specialise further in the Turco-Persian world and its Islamic traditions, modern political ideologies and cultural production. In similar studies, these areas tend to receive little attention, but the lecturers in this programme have precisely these areas of expertise."
Researching motives, metaphors, images and narratives"After completing my MA, I immediately started as a PhD candidate in the Beyond Sharia: The Role of Sufism in Shaping Islam project at Utrecht University. Here I investigate antinomian (qalandariyyāt) motifs, metaphors, images and narratives that aimed to challenge the religious hierarchy and orthodox Islam, in Persian poetry from the 12th century onwards. More specifically, I analyse how themes in these poems influenced social, political, and religious developments in the subsequent centuries."
Advice and encouragement from lecturers"The MA in Middle Eastern Studies prepared me for this by stressing the need for independent analysis of primary sources. I was also able to improve my command of the Persian language and I learned a lot about the relationship between politics and Persian literature. This made it possible for me to independently analyse Persian-language primary sources for my thesis. In addition, I was able to count on the advice and encouragement of several of my lecturers during the application process."
In which sector do students find jobs?
- 17 % Research
- 17 % Teaching
- 13 % Government and semi-government organisations
- 13 % Non-profit (e.g. at an idealistic organisation)
- 13 % Business services
- 3 % Banking
- 23 % Miscellaneous