Master's in Comparative Politics (Political Science)

The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, Dutch: Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities and later renamed for the city of Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam is the third-oldest university in the Netherlands, and one of the most prestigious academic institutions of the country, and in the world. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). It is also part of the largest research universities in Europe with 31,186 students, 4,794 staff, 1,340 PhD students and an annual budget of €600 million. It is the largest university in the Netherlands by enrollment. The main campus is located in central Amsterdam, with a few faculties located in adjacent boroughs. The university is organised into seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Science, Law, Medicine, Dentistry.

Comparative Politics is a one-year programme (60 ECTS) with 12 ECTS dedicated to compulsory courses, 18 ECTS dedicated to elective courses, and 30 ECTS dedicated to an independent Master’s research project. First semester In the first semester you will start with the Specialisation Course, which presents the state-of-the-art in the Comparative Politics subfield, and take two electives on comparative politics topics of your choice. Together with students from the other political science programmes you will also follow a course that explores the increasing transnationalisation of politics. Second semester In the second semester you will write your Master’s thesis based on your own empirical research. Writing of the thesis takes place in a Research Project, under supervision of one of our members of staff. Thesis The Master’s thesis research project is literally your masterpiece. It is an independent research project supervised by an expert. The topic of your research is preferably closely linked to the research of the group but can also be chosen freely as long as an expert on the topic can be found to supervise you.