Postgraduate study
Edinburgh: Extraordinary futures await.

School: Social & Political Science

About the School

The School of Social & Political Science provides an intellectually vibrant teaching and research environment, boasting an international community of more than 220 world-class academic staff and 800 postgraduate students.

The School was established to promote a culture of interdisciplinary research and collaboration across various subject areas, research groups and centres. These include: the subject areas of politics and international relations, social anthropology, social policy, social work, sociology and science, technology and innovation studies; the Centres of Canadian Studies, African Studies and South Asian Studies; and an array of specialist institutes and centres for the study of governance, public policy, global development, the EU, families and relationships, criminal justice, social work and innovation in genomics.

The School is one of Europe’s leading lights for research in the social sciences. In the last Research Excellence Framework (REF), 77 per cent of our submitted research was rated world leading or internationally excellent and all of our assessed research units were ranked in the UK top 10 for either research power or research quality (Research Fortnight, REF 2014). Our research has recently attracted large grants from the Economic and Social Research Council, EU Framework Programmes and the Leverhulme Trust, among others.

With faculty members coming from across the world, and many dynamic international research collaborations, the School has outstanding global connections. Edinburgh is a member of the League of European Research Universities, a 21-strong partnership of Europe’s top multi-faculty universities, and the Coimbra Group, a network of 40 European universities, including some of the oldest and most prestigious on the continent.

We have established close ties with the National University of Singapore and the University of Bremen in Germany, while membership of the Universitas 21 network has greatly enhanced our ability to collaborate, linking us to high-profile universities all around the world: three in Australia, three in the UK, two each in the US, Canada and China and one each in Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Sweden.

The Graduate School

Our international and interdisciplinary approach cuts across traditional social science boundaries, bringing together outstanding teachers and researchers from across the University to inspire and challenge you.

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About our degrees

We offer a range of options for postgraduate study: from professional qualifications to independent research, on-campus taught programmes to part-time, online study. Find out which graduate study option is right for you: