MA in International Relations
Brighton, United Kingdom
Master degree
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
01 Sep 2025*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 10,500 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* UK
** £10,500/year for full-time home, Channel Islands and Isle of Man students | £21,500/year for full-time international students
Key Summary
Study the issues facing humanity and how these have been thrust into our everyday lives. You’ll learn to systematically reflect on these issues.You’ll look at the exciting and troubling times we live in as a starting point. You’ll then critically examine the theory and the history of international relations. You’ll examine a wide range of issues relevant to students from a diverse range of backgrounds.
We host the specialised:
- Centre for Advanced International Theory
- Sussex Centre for Conflict and Security Research
- Centre for Global Political Economy.
Our faculty also contributes to and/or leads School- and University-wide centres such as the Centre for Global Health Policy, the Sussex Rights and Justice Research Centre, and the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies.
You’ll learn from our multidisciplinary environment, interdisciplinary approach, cutting-edge research, international faculty and distinctive programme of events.
We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities described in this prospectus. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to significant disruption, or in response to COVID-19, we’ll let our students know as soon as possible.
Scholarships
Our aim is to ensure that every student who wants to study with us is able to despite financial barriers so that we continue to attract talented and unique individuals.
Studying MA International Relations & MA Geopolitics & International Affairs
Full-time and part-time study
Choose to study this course full time or part time, to fit around your work and personal life. Modules for the full-time course are listed below. For details about the part-time course, contact us.
Core modules
Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.
Autumn teaching
- Foundations of World Politics
- International Relations Theory
Spring teaching
- Research Methods and Professional Skills (IR)
Summer teaching
- Dissertation (International Relations)
Options
Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.
While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.
Spring teaching
- Environment, Resources, Security
- Foreign Policy Analysis
- Humanitarianism in Global Politics
- Managing Economic Instability
- Nationalism and Global Order
- Rethinking Imperialism
- Russia, Eurasia and the Crisis of the Liberal West
- The Political Economy of Development
- War and Security in North/South Perspective
Summer teaching
- Dissertation with Placement (Global Studies)
Field trip
This course offers an optional field trip to Brussels, Belgium or Geneva, Switzerland. A field trip aims to foster your interaction and engagement with policy-makers and practitioners from a wide range of international organisations.
Placements
To help you gain experience and increase your employability, you can apply for an optional placement as part of your course. Research placements run for up to 12 weeks in the summer term and vacation. You can also write your dissertation based on your experience. You’ll be responsible for applying for and securing your placement. Our dedicated careers team can help you:
- find an employer
- draft an application
- prepare for interviews.
Find out more about Global Studies postgraduate placements
We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.
We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.
Check back in January 2024 for the modules running in the academic year 2024/25.
7th in the UK for Social Sciences (The Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2022)
This course is for you if you’re hoping to go on to postgraduate research, or a professional career in international relations or international affairs. We’ll help you identify study placements in these fields.
Graduate destinations
Recent Department of International Relations graduates have gone on to jobs including:
- associate project officer, OSCE
- deputy administrator, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- market research analyst, Qualifa.