Programme objectives and prospective careers

The aim of the EST master's programme is to train students to reflect critically and productively on the challenges of the 21st century with its scientific and technological upheavals in a way that guides their actions.
The EST master's programme covers the areas of philosophy, history, and science and technology studies. The courses offered enable students to acquire specialist knowledge and methodological skills in all three areas, as well as a multi-perspective understanding of common research topics. Individual specialization, in-depth study, and the option to study other disciplines enable innovative research combinations and original specializations. Philosophy of science, history of science, and science and technology studies analyze the practices and structures in which knowledge is generated, negotiated, communicated, used, and challenged. In this sense, they are epistemologies.

Graduates of the EST master's programme are qualified to examine, understand, and evaluate the following subject areas beyond the scope of a bachelor's programme:

Graduates acquire competencies in a variety of research methods. These range from basic qualitative methods such as source criticism, logical reconstruction of arguments, and ethnographic observation to more recent methodological repertoires. These include, for example, empirical philosophy, computer-assisted analysis, big data, or the history of data infrastructures, approaches to transformative history and philosophy of science such as epistemic decolonization, and global history of science. Methods that take into account diversity, atypically embodied persons, and critical race theory are also taught. A special feature of the EST master's programme is the promotion of targeted specialization in the advanced module. This is achieved by taking special courses, for example, through an individual additional profile, which can be acquired in the natural and engineering sciences, the humanities, or the social sciences.

In addition, the programme aims for interdisciplinarity at all levels: Students learn to integrate questions and methods from the history of science, the philosophy of science, and social science research on science and technology (Science and Technology Studies). The EST master's programme enables students to educate themselves for the diverse challenges of the 21st century and to address these challenges in a historically, philosophically, and socially grounded manner. Particular emphasis is placed on teamwork and the ability to write and argue clearly and persuasively. In the courses of the degree programme, students deal with content and methods that correspond to the current state of research in the respective subject area. The focus is on scientifically sound reflection based on the current state of science. The EST master's programme serves to deepen the competences and content taught in the respective bachelor's programmes.

The EST master's programme opens up a wide range of positions and activities for its graduates, such as conferral of the doctoral degree in one of the three constituent disciplines; positions in science and technology journalism; careers in policy consulting, data ethics, and technology assessment; positions promoting public understanding of science and technology in increasingly complex and technologized environments; management positions in science administration, in international organizations with a technical focus, and in scientific professional associations and societies; editing work in newspapers, specialised journals, and publishing houses; non-fiction author; positions in public history, municipal cultural offices, collections, museums, and archives