Programme Overview:
- Duration:
- 1 Years / 2 Years
- Attendance:
- Full Time / Part Time
- Mode of Delivery:
- Face-to-Face
- Next Intake:
- 2024/2025 September
- Contact Name:
- Spire Graduate
- Contact Number:
- Please click 'Ask a Question'
- Fees:
- Fee Information
The MA Politics degree was developed for those who wish to understand the role of politics in shaping the great issues of our day including power and conflict, distribution and inequality, relations between nations, and the new challenges of globalisation, financial crisis, national security, and climate change.
The course focuses on the two traditional pillars of the discipline – political theory and comparative politics.
Comparative politics looks at the European nation-states in a comparative perspective.
Political theory— the reflection on the nature and morality of politics.
Graduates work with a wide variety of international private-sector employers, government agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations, in roles that include:
Recent graduates of UCD School of Politics & International Relations now work in:
Curricular information is subject to change
The vision of this programme is to transform students into specialists in the field of politics at the levels of both theory and practice and to allow them participate effectively in both theoretical and practical debates in that field
The MA Politics is a 90-credit programme. Full time students must take three 10-credit modules in the autumn trimester, and three 10-credit modules in the spring trimester. Students must also submit a thesis worth 30-credits or pursue an Internship instead.
SPIRe part time programmes run for 2 years and students normally do 1 -2 modules per semester. The final 30-credit module is completed during the second year of the programme. PT students should complete the Research Design module in year 2.
Please note that our part-time programmes run during the day and are not timetabled in the evenings or at weekends.
Core and Option Modules for MA Politics (credits in parentheses)
These are the current modules for 2023/24 but are subject to change.
Each of the following modules carries 10 credits unless otherwise specified.
Autumn Trimester Core
Autumn Trimester Option
Spring Trimester Option
Summer Trimester
POL42300 SPIRe Internship (30 credits)
or
POL42310 Thesis (30 credits)
MA Politics (W023) Full Time
EU fee per year - € 10100
nonEU fee per year - € 22600
MA Politics (W111) Part Time
EU fee per year - € 6420
nonEU fee per year - € 11300
***Fees are subject to change
Tuition fee information is available on the UCD Fees website. Please note that UCD offers a number of graduate scholarships for full-time, self-funding international students, holding an offer of a place on a UCD graduate degree programme. For further information please see International Scholarships.
SPIRe operates a Graduate Scholarship programme, which opens on May 1st. To access details, see SPIRe Graduate Scholarship Scheme. Please note that not all programmes are eligible for this Scholarship, please check the T&C's carefully when they become available.
The UCD School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe) has established an internship programme for graduate students undertaking MA programmes in Politics, International Relations, International Political Economy, International Development, Peace and Conflict, MEconSc European Public Affairs and Law, MSc Human Rights and MSc Politics and Data Science. You can either opt for a Masters thesis, or an internship of at least 480 hours, typically undertaken from June to August.
See this page for more information
A primary degree with at least Second Class Honours Grade 1 (2H1) in a relevant subject such as political science, international relations, social science, sociology, history, geography, economics, global studies, public policy, development studies, EU studies, law. 2H1 is equivalent to 60 per cent, B minus or 3.08 GPA - in American system: B or 3.00 GPA.
Coral Richardson
Hello, my name is Coral and I am originally from California in the US. When looking at potential programs, the UCD Politics program stood out because it offered unique elective options and featured faculty members with expertise and current research in fields that interested me.
Starting a degree in a new field was daunting at first, however, the faculty, peers, and courses have overwhelming highlights of my time at UCD and I feel more than adequately prepared for future work in research and academia. I have had the chance to work with several faculty members in my own courses and as a tutor through the Master’s Graduate Scholarship program. Each professor has been engaging and passionate about their research as well as willing to help me narrow my academic interests.
In addition to the uplifting academic environment, I have met so many new friends from Europe and abroad that have introduced me to new customs and ideas that have expanded my worldview and made my time in Dublin even more enjoyable. Academically speaking, this course offered a balance of elective and required courses that simultaneously improved my research abilities and general understanding of modern politics without restricting opportunities to further my research interests in more specific subfields such as development politics. The optional elective courses are diverse and can accommodate most research interests with focuses on major political subfields: international relations, comparative politics, and political theory while the required courses were engaging and invaluable to building my confidence in research methods.