In the first semester students have to take one core course in the field of International Relations and the course Portfolio Political Science. Both courses combine a broad engagement with core questions of politics with in-depth study of a particular contemporary theme from a sub-disciplinary perspective. Students study in groups of four to five students. Subsequently students also choose two relevant electives from a list of approximately (topics change every academic year).

The second semester ends at the end of June. In this second semester students select a research project (24 ECTS credits) on a topic relevant to the field of International Relations.

• In Part I (Thesis Seminars) students focus on core theory and common substantive literature and on research design within a programme that exposes them to a range of research methods.
• In Part II students concentrate on writing their thesis.

The final Master's thesis is a report on primary or secondary research carried out by the student as part of the research project. The thesis should be between 10,000 and 16,000 words long.

The study load is approximately 40 hours per week.