The BA course "Modern East Asian Studies" (BA MOAS) combines a specialist discipline (political science, sociology, or economics) with the study of an East Asian language (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and regional studies. Due to this combination, the range of courses differs significantly from philological or cultural studies-oriented courses such as Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, and Sinology, in which, as a rule, there is no similar in-depth methodological and theoretical training. BA MOAS students spend their third year of study at a partner university in East Asia and, in the last two semesters, students take part in English-language courses in the Master’s programs offered by the Institute for East Asian Studies.
The aim in the four years of study is to train professional East Asian experts for business, politics, and science who, using disciplinary methods and approaches as well as materials in the original language, can competently analyze phenomena of contemporary societies and the economies of East Asia and apply them fruitfully in their respective areas of activity.