Course: MPhil Politics (European Politics and Society)

In the first year, you must complete core classes and tutorials in European Governance and a programme of research methods training, which includes core courses in statistics and research design and specialised elective courses.

In your second year, you must write a thesis and complete two specialist option papers. Options that have been offered in recent years include:

• The Political Sociology of Post-Communist Societies
• Comparative Political Economy of Advanced Democracies
• EU Foreign Policy
• The Politics and Government of the UK
• Protest, Social Movements and Revolution

Please note, these options are illustrative only. Options are subject to change year-to-year, and we cannot guarantee that these modules will be offered in the year that you take the course.

For information on how the course is assessed, please visit the University’s MPhil in Politics (European Politics and Society) listing.

• in-depth knowledge and understanding of the major topics and perspectives within the study of European Politics and Society, based on a wide-ranging impactful scholarly literature.
• an understanding of and experience in use of social-scientific research skills appropriate to the subject, including both quantitative and qualitative methods, historical and archival research, among other key research skills.

You will attain these goals via:

• the experience of researching, writing, presenting, and discussing essays and analytical pieces, in unique small-group formats;
• critical reading and engagement with key literature on European politics;
• practice with a wide variety of social-scientific research approaches;
• close consultation with EPS faculty;
• writing an original MPhil thesis that addresses a novel question in European politics;
• attendance of the highest calibre presentations by invited scholars of European politics worldwide, and stakeholders or practitioners of European politics.

A high proportion of the teaching for your course is designed and delivered by academics, highly respected for their research in Politics and International Relations.

Graduate teaching and supervision at Oxford is provided by your academic department—in this case, DPIR—although some graduate teaching may take place on college premises.

The majority of graduate teaching at DPIR takes the form of either one-to-one supervision meetings with your Academic Supervisor or tuition in small groups (as with classes and seminars). However, lectures are also used alongside small-group teaching in the delivery of some Research Methods training courses.