MSc Social Research Methods

About the MSc programme

This programme is based in LSE's Methodology Institute| and offers the following benefits:

• An advanced training in quantitative and qualitative social research methods, in the context of a disciplinary specialisation.
• The MSc is designed as a training for doctoral research and as a pre-professional training for careers in social research in the public and private sectors.
• Almost 50 per cent of the graduates of this programme have entered PhD programmes, or are working in social research in universities or national and local government.
• Study within LSE's Methodology Institute, which is a base for cross-disciplinary research and teaching in the broad area of social science methodology.
• The Institute has links with both governmental and private sector research groups. In particular, staff in the Institute are heavily involved in the Joint Research Programme between LSE and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
• The programme is taught with other departments in the School.

You take compulsory courses in research design, quantitative analysis and qualitative research methods, and a unit in a specialist field. You also submit a research report of 10,000 words on a topic related to your specialist field of study, and you have the chance to take short courses on computer packages for qualitative analysis during the year.

Compulsory courses

(* half unit)

• Quantitative Analysis from basic to advanced (two half units)
• Qualitative Research Methods*
• Fundamentals of Social Science Research Design*
• Dissertation

Options

Choose to the value of one unit from the range of optional courses in your chosen specialist field:

Sociology

• Politics and Society 
• Crime and Society: Concepts and Method
• Sociology of Employment I: Social Relations at Work*
• Sociology of Employment II: Contemporary Management and Globalisation*
• Gender and Societies*  

Social Psychology

• Any graduate level course(s) in Social Psychology, subject to timetabling constraints, and as approved by the course manager, to the value of one course unit. 

Philosophy

• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of the Social Sciences
• Philosophy of Economics

Social Policy

• Social Policy Research

Statistics

• Special Topics in Quantitative Analysis*
• Research Design for Experimental and Observational Studies*
• Multilevel and Longitudinal Modelling* 
• Statistical Inference: Principles, Methods and Computation*

Decision and Policy Sciences

• Any course from MSc Decision Sciences, subject to timetabling constraints, and as approved by the course tutor.

Government

• Any graduate level course(s) in Government, subject to timetabling constraints, and as approved by the course tutor, to the value of one course unit.

Development Studies

• Any graduate level course(s) in Development Studies, subject to timetabling constraints, and as approved by the course tutor, to the value of one course unit.

Management

• Any graduate level course(s) in Management, subject to timetabling constraints, and as approved by the course tutor, to the value of one course unit.

Population

• Population Analysis: Methods and Models*

Plus choose one half unit from the following:

• Population and Development: An Analytical Approach*
• Planning for Population and Development*
• Reproductive Health Programmes: Design, Implementation and Evaluation* 
• Demography of the Developing World* 
• Gender and European Welfare States* 
• Health and Population in Contemporary Developed Societies* 
• Health and Population in Developing and Transitional Societies*

Methodology

• Qualitative Research With Non-Traditional Data*
• Survey Methodology*
• Causal Inference for Observational and Experimental Studies*
• Doing Qualitative Fieldwork*
• Special Topics in Qualitative Research Methods*
• Introduction to Quantitative Analysis*
• Applied Regression Analysis*
• Multivariate Analysis and Measurement*

Please note that not all options will be available every year and the choice of options may be constrained by timetable limitations.