DEPARTMENTAL GRADUATE
PROGRAMMES
PROGRAMMES ON OFFER
Taught Honours/Masters Programmes
The Department offers the following graduate programmes.
Taught Honours/Masters programmes in:
-
Politics
-
International
Relations
In addition,
the Department is closely involved in the following taught
Honours/M Phil interdisciplinary
programmes:
-
Justice
and Transformation
-
Public Policy and Administration
(note:
both of the above programmes are convened by our department as
well)
-
Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) (convened by Philosophy
Dept)
-
Political
Philosophy and Social Theory (convened by Philosophy Dept)
We do not offer a
coursework PhD, although PhD students may supplement their knowledge
by auditing, or registering for, departmental courses.
For more information, see our
handbook
entry.
The Department
also offers the following advanced degree programmes by Research
Dissertation only:
- MSocSc in
Political Studies by research
- MPubAd by
research
- PhD in Political
Studies
- PhD in
Public Administration
COURSEWORK PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
General
All taught programmes have required core courses, a menu of optional courses,
and a research project or supervised dissertation work.
The one-year Honours degree comprises
four taught
courses (weighting of 20% each), and a
Research Project (weighting of 20%).
The Coursework Masters degree usually comprises
four taught courses (weighting of 12.5% each) and a Mini
Dissertation (weighting of 50%).
Coursework Component
In order
to provide for a general grounding in particular areas of concentration,
some courses are designated as programme core courses or
core electives. These typically function as courses which
provide a general orientation or survey of core disciplinary areas
at a relatively advanced level. Other courses are available as
elective options, and may include more specialised or interdisciplinary
courses.
Students must select at least one core course and 3 other
courses from the core electives or approved electives
to make up their quota of four courses. At Masters level, convenors may recommend that
individual students attend two 5-level
Research Methods
courses, which together would be the
equivalent of one full course.
Individual courses may function as core electives or electives
in more than one programme.
For
specific information pertaining to your programme's core course,
core elective and elective option requirements, see the individual
programme listings.
Departmental courses are offered on a
2-year cycle.
For a detailed list of courses offered in this and the following
year, see the course list link. The
courses listed there are not the only courses included in Political Studies
programmes; courses offered by other cognate departments (Historical Studies,
Sociology etc) and which are included in our programmes are not listed here.
Details of these courses may be found on other departments’ websites or in
the faculty handbook.
Subject to the
entry requirements of individual courses and the requirements of
the programme for which they are enrolled, Honours students may
take a maximum of two 5000-level courses (the remainder should
be at 4000-level) and Masters students may take a maximum of two
4000-level courses (the remainder should be at 5000-level).
Students may take up to two courses in the politics
departments of the University of Stellenbosch and the University of the Western
Cape. Details of these courses may be
found on these departments’ websites.
Research and Dissertation
Components
At Honours level, the research component is a Research
Project, which is usually in the form of a literary survey.
At Masters level (by coursework and
dissertation), the research component is a Mini
Dissertation.
Politics Research
Components
Interdisciplinary
Research Methods Courses
PROGRAMME DURATIONS
Honours
The Honours degree must be completed within one
year.
Masters
Students normally take somewhere between 12 and 24
months to complete a Masters degree. Some elect to complete
most of their courses in the first year and the dissertation in the
second.
Others manage to complete the full course-load and dissertation
within a year - i.e. handing in before the start of the next
academic year in mid-February.
RESEARCH DEGREES
The Research degrees are by dissertation/thesis only.
Faculty rule FM3 and University General Rules apply.
Applicants must have the required academic background
and submit an acceptable
research proposal
for which supervision is available. Research degrees are encouraged
where the field of research is clearly defined, the student wishes
to concentrate on a specific research topic and has demonstrated the
ability to do so.
Residential Masters Students are
required to participate in the
Departmental Masters/PhD Seminars.
Examination is by dissertation/thesis alone. A masters
dissertation should not exceed 50,000 words in length. A doctoral
thesis should not exceed 80,000 words in length.
Application Codes
For a guide to application codes, see our
quick
departmental guide.
Registration Codes
The following course codes will be used when you
register for your degree thesis component. These are not
application codes. These are for registration purposes in the
event you are accepted.
- Research Masters in Political Studies: POL5000W
- Research Masters in Public
Administration: POL5003W
- PhD in Political Studies: POL6000W
- PhD in Public Administration: POL6001W
Guidelines on the
Research Proposal
APPLYING
See the separate webpage on
Application
information.
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