MSc Social Policy (Research)

About the MSc programme

This programme is based in the Department of Social Policy| and aims to provide a set of high quality, integrated courses to equip students in social policy with transferable research skills before they move on to substantive research, whether in the form of a PhD or in employment. It offers the following benefits:

• Study in a Department which has achieved one of the highest ratings in the UK for the quality of its research.  
• Teaching by specialists who are at the forefront of research into British, European and global social policy and by experts in different social science research methodologies.
• A comparative, international and multidisciplinary environment with links to several specialist research groups based in the Department as well as to LSE's Methodology Institute.

Students can progress to research degrees (subject to normal admissions procedures at LSE and other institutions). The MSc is recognised as research training by the ESRC (for students seeking later funding for doctoral research).

Previous students have also gone on to a wide variety of research and policy jobs in the public, private and voluntary sectors, in the UK and internationally, including work in central and local government, public services, research consultancies, and NGOs.
Applicants with a good first degree from within any subject background will be considered. A social science background and/or work experience in the social policy field are advantageous, but not essential.

The programme is provided in conjunction with the Methodology Institute, and offers advanced training in both quantitative and qualitative methods along with a specialist taught course in applications of different research approaches to social policy questions. It consists of four course units, including compulsory and optional courses. A key component of the MSc is a dissertation of up to 10,000 words on a topic individually selected by the student, to be prepared with the guidance of a personal supervisor. For students continuing to a PhD this will often form the basis of their eventual doctoral thesis.

See also MSc Social Research Methods (Social Policy)| in the Methodology Institute, which involves greater methodological content (two taught units on methods, rather than one), but no optional subject papers. 

Compulsory courses

• Foundations of Social Research 1 or Foundations of Social Research 2
• Social Policy Research
• Dissertation 

Options

Students choose courses equivalent to one full unit. The options list is wide so as to permit students to choose an option that fits with the proposed subject of their dissertation. Students without a background in social policy are strongly encouraged to take the 'core' half unit: Social Policy: Goals and Issues in the Michaelmas term.

The following courses may be taken:

(* half unit)  

• Criminal Justice Policy
• The Governance of Welfare: The Nation State and the European Union*
• Contemporary Issues in European Social Policy*  
• Health Economics*
• Social Security Policies*
• Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy*
• Social Exclusion, Inequality and the 'Underclass' Debate*
• Foundations of Health Policy* 
• Urbanisation and Social Policy in the Global South*
• Behavioural Public Policy* 
• International Housing and Human Settlements* 
• Housing, Neighbourhoods and Communities* 
• Planning for Population and Development*
• Social Policy: Goals and Issues*
• Demography of the Developing World*
• Social and Political Aspects of Regional and Urban Planning*
• Gender and Social Policy: Theory and Practice*
• Gender and European Welfare States* 
• Ethnicity, Race and Social Policy*
• Education Policy, Reform and Financing*
• Basic Education and Social Development* 
• Globalisation and Social Policy*
• Social Policy: Organisation and Innovation*
• Measuring Health System Performance*
• Social Rights and Human Welfare*
• Rural Development and Social Policy* 
• The Third Sector*
• The Economics of European Social Policy*
• Welfare Analysis and Measurement
• Politics of Social Policy: Welfare and Work in Comparative Perspective*
• Happiness and Public Policy*
• Doing Qualitative Fieldwork* 
• Any other courses subject to the approval of the programme director