Doctoral Programme in Political and Social Sciences
Our researchers study the important issues of our time that the social science can uniquely address, with Ph.D. opportunities across politics and comparative politics, political theory, international relations, and sociology.
Our active faculty, and strong cohort of Ph.D. researchers and post-doctoral scholars, creates a stimulating environment for study. By covering key fields across the political and social sciences within one department, we enable cross-disciplinary research conversations to take place, meaning ideas and research findings are easily shared and discussed further.
While our experienced staff offer intense supervision, you also receive the academic freedom and time for your own independent research. In addition, our researchers benefit from interacting with the academics, practitioners and other leaders in their field, who are regular visitors to our Department, so able to offer their advice and thoughts on your work.
Research Proposal
Applicants are selected for interviews on the basis of their academic record and their research proposal. Your research proposal shows that you are ready to write a PhD dissertation that can be supervised at the EUI. The proposal should outline the project that you wish to pursue in your PhD dissertation. It should demonstrate command of the state of the art in the field (with references to the literature) and of research methodology within the discipline, formulate a research question and include a short bibliography. Where appropriate it should also include the theory or hypotheses that will be examined or a description of the empirical content and sources of the research project.
The policy of the EUI is not to offer individual guidance and advice on dissertation proposals. You should not contact potential supervisors and ask them to support your application or to provide you with advice. You should instead read the information on research themes supervised by the department and by individual professors. In the application form and in your research proposal you can indicate one or more professors who you think could supervise your dissertation.
Please also consider the following points when framing your research proposal for studies in the SPS Department.
- You should identify a research question that you aim to explore and present your argument with clarity, while also attempting to demonstrate the feasibility of the project. Please remember that ours is a four-year programme and you will need to limit your subject, explain its rationale and clearly focus your research and writing.
- The title of your proposal should be well-defined and fully express its content. It is equally important to produce a good abstract, which will be included in the summary of your application file. Your abstract will be read first and faculty members will often decide on that basis whether to read your full application more carefully.
- You are expected to elaborate on the methods that you are planning to adopt in your thesis.
- The overall length of your proposal must not exceed 2500 words (including footnotes, references and bibliography). Longer proposals may be excluded from further consideration.
Before starting your online submission, prepare the required documents:
- one or two page CV
- research proposal of 2500 words
- degree transcript(s) issued by your university listing the exams/courses taken at university, grades/marks awarded and (if applicable) the final degree result. You should also attach your degree transcript(s) from previous degree(s). Do not attach or send supplementary documents that are not strictly requested, such as the copy of your official diploma, traineeships diplomas etc.
- International English language certificate
- Copy of an identity document (such as passport or ID card) - JPG format. The copy of your ID document will be only processed by the EUI Administration and the relevant grant authority(ies), it will not be distributed to the EUI Departmental selection committee.
- Recommended but not mandatory: GRE general test scores (EUI code 7395 – Departmental Code 2209 SPS) - Candidates should directly upload the recommended GRE scores (GRE Examinee Score Report/GRE Test Taker Score Report) to the online application form.
Note that attachments must be PDF using standard international fonts (max size 1MB).
For more information please click "Further Official Information" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
https://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/PoliticalAndSocialSciences/DoctoralProgramme