The master programme 'Language Science and Technology' aims at basic, applied, and cognitive research on written and spoken language that combines with state-of-the-art facilities to provide students with a rich and stimulating environment. Saarland University is one of the world's leading centres for computational linguistics and language technology. Students can put the focus on various fields of language processing such as computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, phonetics and speech science or speech technology. The language of instruction and examination is English.
Students receive close personal supervision in small learning groups and the teaching staff introduce students to their respective fields of research early on in the programme. Graduates from the programme are therefore well prepared for a research or development role in the computational linguistics sector.
A notable feature of the M.Sc. programme in Saarbrücken is the close proximity of university institutes to a number of highly respected external research institutions that are located on campus. The department collaborates closely with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) as well as with the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPII) and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS).
The four-semester consecutive Master's programme 'Language Science and Technology' builds on the foundations established in a B.Sc. programme on computational linguistics or a closely related subject such as computer science or (theoretical) linguistics.
Students on the Master's programme must acquire 120 ECTS credits (120 CP). Students select at least four core or foundation lectures (24 CP) from the following categories:
The subsequent advanced study stage offers a range of seminars, software projects and advanced lectures from the categories listed above and also includes the compulsory Master's seminar, which prepares for the final thesis. In addition, students also need to attain between 6 and 18 CP from courses in the fields of Computer Science or Cognitive Psychology.
In the fourth and final semester, students complete their Master's thesis (30 CP). Students successfully completing the programme will be awarded a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree.