MSc in International and European Relations

This program approaches issues related to European relations in the context of an international society and global governance, with a special focus on Europe’s role in world affairs. The double focus on international and European relations makes this a unique master’s program, offering you a competitive edge.

The curriculum consists of a wide range of topics, covering the latest updates from this intriguing field. You will get an excellent grasp of topics like international law and security, European institutions and Europe’s external relations, theories of international relations, contemporary issues of international governance, and research design and methodology. During the third semester, students have the option of either taking courses focused on global governance, or pursuing a guided internship with an organization of relevance for international or European relations. Throughout the program, you will develop the capacity to understand the history, theory, and contemporary implications of international and European relations, as well as the forces that drive developments.

The program is divided into four components, each equivalent to one term:

• International relations
• European relations
• International governance/Guided internship
• Master’s thesis

Throughout your studies, you will be connected to ongoing research on various topics. The teachers are engaged in research concerning international theory and the development of international norms and institutions, European security and foreign relations, European politics, regional development, political economy, e-governance, migration and diaspora studies, policy analysis, and political theory.

By the time you graduate you will have an independent, critical approach to complex global, and specifically European, issues. Furthermore, you will gain the skills and knowledge to contribute actively to important developments, either as practitioners or as researchers.

Syllabus

Introduction

The Master’s Programme in International and European Relations is a second cycle, two-year, full-time study program that leads to a master’s degree with a major in Political Science, specialization International, and European relations.

The program prepares students for work in advanced capacities in a dynamic, international labor market, as well as further studies, including doctoral education and research. Thus, the objective is that students on completion of the program will have developed an independent and critical approach to international and European relations and the skills and knowledge that will enable them to actively contribute to developments in this field, either as practitioners or researchers.

The students will:

• Develop the capacity to understand the history, theory, and contemporary implications of International and European relations.
• Attain the analytical tools to examine contemporary International and European relations.
• Acquire an in-depth understanding of international governance.
• Develop the capacity to conduct independent analyses of issues in International and European relations, and to present the results of the analyses.

Aim

National Qualifications according to the Swedish Higher Education Act

Knowledge and understanding

For a Degree of Master (120 credits) the student shall:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding in the field of Political Science, including both broad knowledge of the field and a considerable degree of specialized knowledge in certain areas of the field as well as insight into current research and development work.
• Demonstrate specialized methodological knowledge in Political Science.

Competence and skills

For a Degree of Master (120 credits) the student shall:

• Demonstrate the ability to critically and systematically integrate knowledge and analyze, assess, and deal with complex phenomena, issues and situations even with limited information.
• Demonstrate the ability to identify and formulate issues critically, autonomously, and creatively as well as to plan and, using appropriate methods, undertake advanced tasks within predetermined time frames and so contribute to the formation of knowledge as well as the ability to evaluate this work.
• Demonstrate the ability in speech and writing both nationally and internationally to report clearly and discuss his or her conclusions and the knowledge and arguments on which they are based in dialogue with different audiences.
• Demonstrate the skills required for participation in research and development work or autonomous employment in some other qualified capacity.

Judgment and approach

For a Degree of Master (120 credits) the student shall:

• demonstrate the ability to make assessments in the field of Political Science informed by relevant disciplinary, social, and ethical issues and also to demonstrate awareness of ethical aspects of research and development work,
• demonstrate insight into the possibilities and limitations of research, its role in society, and the responsibility of the individual for how it is used, and
• demonstrate the ability to identify the personal need for further knowledge and take responsibility for his or her ongoing learning.

Research

Politics

How can power be shaped, exercised, and justified between individuals who act within the institutional arrangements that have been created through political decisions? This is what we study at Linköping University.

_Are you curious about what it is like to study at LiU? Join us for a chat about what it is like to live and study on our campuses in Sweden. We offer free webinars and recordings for both prospective and admitted degree students throughout the year. Visit our _ _Meet us online _ _page. _

About Linköping University

Linköping University will never rest on its laurels.

In close collaboration with the business world and society, Linköping University (LiU) conducts world-leading, boundary-crossing research in fields including materials science, IT and hearing. In the same spirit, the university offers many innovative educational programs, many of them with a clear vocational focus, leading to qualification as, for example, doctors, teachers, economists, and engineers.

The university has 32,000 students and 4,000 employees on four campuses. Together we seek answers to the complex questions facing us today. Our students are among the most desirable in the labor market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.

LiU achieved university status in 1975 and innovation is our only tradition.

History of Linköping University

In 1975 Sweden’s sixth university was founded in Linköping. Since then Linköping University (LiU) has grown considerably, expanding to Norrköping and Stockholm.

Linköping has been an important center of learning since medieval times when Linköping Cathedral offered a school with extensive international contacts and its own student hall in Paris. In 1627 the Cathedral School became the third upper secondary school in Sweden and in 1843 a college for elementary school teachers began operations. In Norrköping, the Fröbel Institute – Sweden’s first college for training pre-school teachers – was founded in 1902.

From university college to university

What would later become Linköping University began to take shape in the mid-1960s. Higher education in Sweden was expanding and in 1965 the Swedish Parliament decided to establish a branch of Stockholm University, together with a university college of engineering and medicine, in Linköping.

In the autumn of 1967, the branch of Stockholm University moved into premises in central Linköping. There the first students could take courses in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Two years later the units for engineering and medicine got underway.

In 1970 education and research started moving into the recently built Campus Valla, a short distance from the town center. Buildings A and B were the first to be completed. The same year the various parts were merged to form Linköping University College, including faculties of engineering, medicine and arts, and sciences.

The new university college was the first in Sweden to offer study programs in Industrial Engineering and Management and Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering, both starting in 1969. A few years later, in 1975, Linköping University launched Sweden’s first Computer Science and Engineering program.

1975 was also the year when Linköping University College became Linköping University, the sixth university in Sweden. In line with the 1977 reform of the Swedish higher education system, teacher education was also transferred to Linköping University.

Interdisciplinary research and problem-based learning

Linköping University has always worked with innovation in education and research. In 1980 the newly formed Department of Thematic Studies adopted an approach that was new in Sweden. Research was organized in interdisciplinary themes, such as Technology and Social Change or Water and Environmental Studies. Scientists worked across boundaries to solve complex problems. LiU was also first in Sweden to introduce graduate research schools for different themes. The model later spread to other parts of the university and became a national success.

The new Faculty of Health Sciences (Hälsouniversitetet), formed in 1986, combined governmentally and regionally funded education. It introduced a radically changed methodology, being the first in Sweden to use problem-based learning, PBL. Later, LiU became the first university in the world to allow students from different health sciences programs to treat actual patients on a student-managed training ward.

Expansion to Norrköping – and Stockholm

A significant milestone in the history of the University was the opening of Campus Norrköping in 1997. Some programs had previously operated from Norrköping, but the number of students now grew drastically in line with government efforts to expand higher education. Historical factories in the former industrial district were again filled with life, as they were filled with classrooms, laboratories, cafés, a library and of course students.

Linköping University also expanded to Stockholm when the reputable Carl Malmsten School of Furniture sought a collaborative partner from the academic sector. The Malmsten furniture design and handicraft programs became part of LiU in 2000. After almost 60 years at Södermalm in central Stockholm, Malmstens moved to new premises on the island of Lidingö in the autumn of 2009. LiU got its fourth campus.

Buro Millennial / Pexels

LiU in figures

Some important figures for Linköping University.

Education

• 32,000 students (full-time equivalents 17,907)
• 21,400 on Campus Valla
• 5,500 on Campus Norrköping
• 3,900 on University Hospital Campus (US)
• 2,100 distance students and students in other locations, including Campus Lidingö

(Some students take courses on more than one campus.)

• 120 study programs, of which 27 are international programs in English
• 550 single-subject courses
• Exchange agreements with 400 universities in 50 countries
• 2,400 international students
• 2,200 first cycle degrees
• 2,700 second-cycle degrees

Research and scientific training

• 300 professors
• 1,200 PhD students
• 40 licentiate degrees
• 140 doctoral degrees

Staff

• 4,000 employees (full-time equivalents 3,156)