Politics & International Relations - Politics & Data Science

MSc Politics & Data Science
Graduate Taught (level 9 nfq, credits 90)

The explosion of online and social media, the proliferation of digitized information, and improved electronic access to political decision-making processes provide new opportunities to study existing and emerging political processes in various democratic and non-democratic political regimes. The simultaneous development of cutting-edge data science methods to study digital text, audio, and video provide the tools we need to take advantage of these opportunities. The MSc Politics and Data Science is designed to equip students with the theoretical knowledge and methodological skills necessary to examine and understand politics in the digital age.

The MSc Politics and Data Science programme is organised around two streams of study. The first stream grounds students with backgrounds in political science and related social sciences in data science methods. The second stream is geared towards students with computer science or related technical backgrounds, teaching them about research design and theories in political science. Apart from two required core modules in each stream, all students can select four optional modules that best fit their interests. These modules can either revolve around methods needed to study digital and digitised politics, such as programming and machine learning, quantitative text analysis, statistics, and experimental methods. Or they can be modules relating to comparative politics, international relations, political violence, political economy, and related fields that the School of Politics and International Relations has strengths in.

The programme thus provides a thorough grounding in political science and its sub-disciplines, and in-depth training in the empirical methods necessary to study important questions emerging in these areas of study.

Vision and Values Statement
The programme shall equip students with both the theoretical overview and the empirical tools necessary to understand and engage with the brave new world of digitised politics, and the expansion in scale, types, and complexity of data available to study political phenomenon. The MSc in Politics and Data Science provides students with in-depth knowledge of political science theories and approaches and the methodological training to apply these tools in a theoretically-informed manner. It offers advanced training in statistical and computational methods, including tools to extract and prepare unstructured data (data wrangling), to detect patterns and predict behaviour based on statistical data, to evaluate the veracity of theoretical models on large-scale datasets, to analyse highly interconnected data from networks and spatial data sets, and to develop simulations to evaluate the inherent consistency and implications of theoretical arguments.

Programme Outcomes
The key objective is to have graduates who are able to join data science teams in the Government, corporate, or private sectors, with sufficient understanding of technical concepts in data science and machine learning to collaborate with computer scientists and engineers and with sufficient understanding of social science and politics to be able to bring a deeper understanding of human behaviour to otherwise technology oriented teams.

Graduates can also use the skills acquired to continue work in political science research, either in academia, think tanks, or the non-profit or public sector, where they will benefit from a deep understanding of the cross-section between data science and political science.

Knowledge and understanding:
-Understanding the range of data science and machine learning methodologies that are available to data scientists, and their key advantages and disadvantages.

- Understanding of theories of political behaviour, political processes, and political institutions.

- Understanding variations in political systems and their functioning.

Applying knowledge and understanding:
- Understanding of central aspects of political and social science research design, such as conceptualization, operationalization and measurement.

- Ability to use knowledge of research design to systematically address questions pertaining politics and public policy.

- Gain general experience in applying data science techniques to questions of political and social science relevance.

Making judgements:
- Ability to decide on appropriate statistical techniques given a particular research question in relation to political behaviour and public policy.

- Ability to evaluate reported statistical and algorithmic results in political and social science research.

- Through training in general research design, ability to evaluate the veracity of input data of political and social behaviour for use in data science applications.

- Have a basic understanding of the situations where automated techniques as used in standard data science practice are suitable and ethically appropriate, and where not.

Communications and working skills:
- Ability to clearly communicate results from statistical analysis of political and social behaviour.

- Ability to communicate the possibilities and scope of data science tools for the understanding of political and social behaviour.

- Basic practice in team work and learning how to collaborate in larger technical projects, including ability to work with techniques for code sharing, agile development, tools for scientific replication, etcetera.

Learning skills:
- Have sufficient grounding in fundamentals of statistical analysis and computer science to be able to acquire new skills in data science.

- Have sufficient grounding in political and social science to be able to read into new domains of political and social science research.

Related Programmes
MSc Politics
MSc International Relations
MSc International Political Economy
MSc International Development
MSc Business Analytics
MSc Social Data Analytics

The MSc Politics and Data Science programme is organised around two streams of study. The first stream grounds students with backgrounds in political science and related social sciences in data science methods. The second stream is geared towards students with computer science or related technical backgrounds, teaching them about research design and theories in political science. Apart from two required core modules in each stream, all students can select four optional modules that best fit their interests. These modules can either revolve around methods needed to study digital and digitised politics, such as programming and machine learning, quantitative text analysis, statistics, and experimental methods. Or they can be modules relating to comparative politics, international relations, political violence, political economy, and related fields that the School of Politics and International Relations has strengths in.

Core and Option Modules for MSc Politics and Data Science Social Science Stream (credits in parentheses).

Please note these are subject to change.

Autumn Trimester:
Core Modules:
POL40950 Introduction to Statistics (10)
POL42340 Programming for Soc Scientists (10)

Optional Modules:
POL40050 Theories of Internat.Relations (10)
POL40100 Politics of Development (10)
POL40140 International Political Theory (10)
POL40950 Introduction to Statistics (10)
POL40970 Politics European Governance (10)
POL41020 Politics of Human Rights (10)
POL41650 Global Political Econ ofEurope (10)
POL41800 Theories of Int'l Rels Stream2 (10)
POL41860 Governance, Pol, Dev 10cr (10)
POL41910 Political Violence (10)
POL41930 Psychology of Conflict in MENA (10)
POL42040 Gender & the Political System (10)
POL42340 Programming for Soc Scientists (10)

Spring Trimester:
Core Modules:
POL42350 Connected_Politics (10)

Core Modules Choose Min of 10 credits:
POL42050 Quantitative Text Analysis (10)
IS40970 Artificial Intelligence (5)
and
IS40980 Soc Networks On-Off Line (5)

Optional Modules:
IS40970 Artificial Intelligence (5)
IS40980 Soc Networks On-Off Line (5)
POL40160 Comparative Public Policy (10)
POL40370 International Political Econom (10)
POL40540 Comparative European Politics (10)
POL40610 EU Foreign and Security Policy (10)
POL41030 Theory of Human Rights (10)
POL41640 Qual Research Methods for Pol (10)
POL41720 Gender, Peace, and Security (10)
POL41780 The Politics of Inequality (10)
POL41870 Econ & Policy Analysis 1 10cr (10)
POL41980 Peace & Conflict Studies (10)
POL42000 Political Theory and the EU (10)
POL42050 Quantitative Text Analysis (10)
POL42060 International Security (10)
POL42070 Politics of (mis-)information (10)

Summer Trimester:
POL42310 Thesis (30)

Good undergraduate degree (2.1 or equivalent) in political science or related social science, or in computer science, statistics, or related discipline. Because of the streaming of the module structure of the program, we can accommodate students with a social science as well as students with a more technical background.

- Your application will be considered on its individual merits and relevant professional experience will also be taken into account.

English language requirements: applicants whose first language is not English should have met TOEFL, IELTs, or computer-based TOEFL requirements (600, 6.5, or 250 respectively), or the Cambridge English Test (Certificate in Advanced English at a minimum of Grade B, or Certificate of Proficiency in English at Grade C). Applicants who obtained a previous degree from an English-speaking university may be exempted from this requirement.

- These are the minimum entry requirements – additional criteria may be requested for some programmes.

How to apply?
The following entry routes are available:

MSc Politics & Data Science FT (W473)
Duration 1 Years
Attend Full Time
Deadline Rolling*

MSc Politics & Data Science PT (W474)
Duration 2 Years
Attend Part Time
Deadline Rolling*

* Courses will remain open until such time as all places have been filled, therefore early application is advised.

1 Year Full Time or 2 Years Part Time.

Careers & Employability
Graduates from this programme will be ideally equipped for careers in a large and varied set of employment sectors. The combination of a solid understanding of social science theory and the technical ability to apply advanced data-science approaches to answer questions of political and societal relevance, makes our graduates a unique addition to any data science team. Furthermore, graduates will be well-positioned to apply for quantitative social science PhD programmes with the aim of pursuing an academic career.

Potential future employers include:
Government
International Organisations (EU, UN, WTO, World Bank)
Non-Government Organisations
Not-for-profit sector
Corporate Sector
Tech industry
Think tanks

Potential roles include:
Political Advisor
Social Data Specialist
Data Manager
Chief Information Officer
Social Science PhD candidate