Study programme

Below you will find the course schedule of the Master's programme Research in Public Organisation and Organisational Science. Please note: The course offering is revised yearly. This overview is therefore subject to changes.

You can also download the Master's programme Research in Public Administration and Organisational Science complete curriculum as a PDF-file for easy reference. 

The three pillars of this two-year Master's programme

1. The first pillar contains the core theoretical themes in the fields of Public Administration and Organisation Science, such as public policy, public management, bureaucracy and public service, and human resource management. These courses connect classic theories to cutting edge research. Students both develop knowledge about theories and learn to apply them in research. It offers room to develop your personal interests through a tailor-made tutorial.
2. The second pillar consists of a broad range of philosophy of science and research methods courses. These courses will focus both on high control designs such as experimental and survey research as on low control designs such as case studies and field experiments. The programme will provide you with the broad basis that is needed for researchers in this field. We offer various choices in the programme so that you can choose the modules that are most valuable to you.
3. The third pillar consists of both applied and fundamental research projects, resulting in a (smaller) group thesis at the end of the first year and a (larger) individual thesis at the end of the second year. A policy-oriented research project typically involves a specific organisation or policy problem. The aim of the project is to offer advice on a current issue, and this requires you to conduct research in a real-life setting. A theory-oriented research project involves the writing of an academic article or the formulation of a detailed PhD proposal, which can serve as the basis for a future PhD project.

International study climate

We offer an international programme and aim for an international group of students. In the previous years, we have had students from Canada, Colombia, China, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, the United States and other countries. The mixed nature of the student group provides for an international classroom. Connections to the international academic community and international practice are of great importance. For this reason, the programme starts with a study trip to another European country. In the past years the students visited Barcelona, Lisbon and Riga & Helsinki for example. These trips are organised by the second year students and form a strong international start of the programme. In addition we encourage students to do a summer- or winter school in another country. The universities of Essex and Ljubljana for instance organize strong programmes and many of our students have been attending their summer schools. Finally, the programme offers students the option to write the thesis alongside an international internship in the second semester of the second year.

Educational and examination methods

Below you can see the overview of the educational and examination methods in this programme.