A Bachelor’s Degree within a social science field, e.g., Political Science, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Relations, Human Rights or a related major field. Equivalent of English 6 from Swedish secondary school.

The central focus of the programme is an interest in the various forms that politics takes at the transnational level, including its place within and effects upon particular societal contexts. The aim of the programme is to give students a basis for understanding and critically relating to four central tendencies within our contemporary world:

1. agental pluralism – that political decisions involve not just the nation-state but numerous actors at multiple levels, including Intergovernmental Organisations, interest- and issue-groups, businesses, epistemic communities, and other emergent forms of actor;
2. the transnationalisation of governance - a movement away from politics as structured in terms of top-down relations within nation-states towards more complex and networked forms of governance;
3. the transnationalisation of political contestation – that civil society and other actors seeking to change politics both work across national boundaries and see their political demands as going beyond purely national concerns; and,
4. the transnationalisation of policy problems – that there has been a shift in how policy problems are understood so that, for example, in the 1960s there was a shift from seeing environmental pollution within the confines of the nation-state towards identifying it as a transboundary phenomenon.

Knowledge and understanding

Following successful completion of the course students should be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the developing tendencies identified in the programme that relate to its overarching themes, including a qualified overview of current research on globalization and of how different processes on the global level relate to and affect societal changes on the local level
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of methodological approaches in the field of Global Politics and of their consequences for research outcomes.

Competence and skills

Following successful completion of the course students should be able to:

• analyze complex phenomena and issues on the basis of different types of material.
• autonomously identify gaps in knowledge, formulate issues and design research based on relevant theories and methods.
• communicate research outcomes in speech and writing in a professional way to different audiences and recipients.
• demonstrate the ability to participate in research dialogue and project work.

Judgement and approach

Following successful completion of the course students should be able to:

• identify and reflect on ethical aspects on research.
• evaluate research results on the basis of the parameters of reliability and generalizability for the purpose of estimating the limitations of research.
• identify their personal needs for further knowledge and learning.

Master of Arts (one-year) with a major in Political Science requires completion of 60 credits on advanced level within the main field of Political Science and include a Master's Thesis.

The course syllabi state the entry requirements for progression within the programme.

A decision to discontinue a programme will result in the programme syllabus ceasing to be valid. However, students will have the opportunity to complete their studies within the nominal period of study (calculated from the last admission to the programme's first semester) and during at least the following two semesters, known as the ’discontinuation period’.

The programme syllabus is a translation of a Swedish source text.