Programs

As a community of students, faculty and staff, the Department of Political Science is committed to academic freedom, equal access to education and collegial self-governance. The Department strives to develop and nurture a scholarly community of faculty and students who engage in a common process of education and research, with special emphasis on contemporary challenges facing society. The orientation of both the teaching program and the research project is essentially multi-disciplinary, allowing for a diversity of agendas and methods that enrich this academic endeavor.

We offer the BA Program - Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, two Master Programs and a Doctoral Program in Political Science. Our One-year Master of Arts (MA), Two-year Master of Arts (MA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs have double accreditation. They are registered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York for and on behalf of the New York State Education Department (US) and recognized by Agentur für Qualitätssicherung und Akkreditierung Austria (AQ Austria).

Our programs offer a comprehensive course of instruction and research in the fundamental areas of the discipline: political institutions and processes; the origins, development and transformation of theories and concepts; voting behavior; political party research; political communication; the understanding different approaches to political analysis; political philosophy; social theory; political economy; public policy; political and economic sociology; constitutionalism and the legal contexts; data and text analysis; human rights and technology; as well as hybrid regimes or regime change, which are all necessary for understanding contemporary political phenomena and political debate.

Our course-offering exposes students through quality coursework to a solid background knowledge that is necessary to understand contemporary social and political issues. The cognitive skills the program seeks to impart include abstract reasoning ability, critical thinking, and the employment of different methods of analysis, as well as analytical skills that are necessary to understand, engage with, and criticize complex social and political problems and scholarly works that discuss them. The acquisition of these skills enable students to deepen and broaden their knowledge of politics and social issues and to develop and articulate their own ethical stance on issues studied, to embark on further studies at the doctoral level, or to become critical and engaged professionals in politics, government, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, journalism, or in private business. This reinforces the overall aim of the program that is to help motivated young people from across the globe to become successful professionals, who shape the social, political and academic world.