UCL ESPS applicants Info

UCL EUROPEAN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES

Year Abroad & Dissertation

For ESPS students, the stimulating experience of living and studying in London is complemented by a year in another European country. This boosts fluency and confidence, and is an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in a different culture and society, form lasting friendships, develop new interests and aptitudes, and make valuable contacts. Students return with an added maturity which proves a key attraction in the job market, and transferable skills in the form of independence, capacity to communicate and intercultural experience

The Year Abroad

The year is spent in a country where the student's (major) European language is spoken and in a university where courses relating to the humanities or social science specialism of the student will be followed.

Thanks to the department's links with leading institutions in continental Europe, students can expect the same diversity of choice in their year abroad as they enjoy throughout the rest of the degree.

ESPS has established placements in: Paris (Institut d'Etudes Politiques and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales); Bordeaux (Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux - Sciences Po, Bordeaux); Brussels (Universite Libre de Bruxelles); Madrid (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid); Seville (Universidad de Sevilla and Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Milan (Università degli Studi di Milano); Rome (Universita di Roma La Sapienza); Berlin (Humboldt Universität and Freie Universität); and Hamburg (Universität Hamburg).

In addition to this, thanks to agreements with several language and social sciences departments at UCL, ESPS students are eligible to apply for Erasmus placements at a range of European universities. These include: Université Sorbonne Paris IV; Université Lumière Lyon II; Universität Wien in Vienna; Università degli Studi di Firenze in Florence; Università degli Studi di Bologna; Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale in Naples; Universitat de València; Universidad de Granada; and Universiteit van Amsterdam.

See here for possible destinations in Scandinavian countries.

The Erasmus exchange programme, which provides help and financial assistance for the year, has proved very popular with ESPS students, who have often been successful in securing places.

Unfunded exchanges beyond the EU are available for students taking Russian as their major language. These include St Petersburg State University and Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

For an indication of possible destinations for the Year Abroad please visit the UCL Study Abroad web pages.

ESPS9001 ESPS Dissertation

This module consists of research on a topic derived from the field of your specialisation. The theme of the Dissertation is chosen during the second year, in discussion with ESPS tutors and course teachers.

The research for the Dissertation is carried out during your third year abroad, in the country or countries of the major language(s) you are studying, utilising foreign sources. In your final year at UCL, you will finish writing up and submit a 6,500 - 8,000 word report on this research, which is assessed as one of the four units for the final year.

The Dissertation draws together knowledge acquired in your humanities or social science specialisation and in the literature and culture of the country you are studying, as well as utilizing linguistic skills developed during the year abroad. A successful Dissertation may well form the starting point for further, more independent work at postgraduate level, and it will be seen as an important indicator of an aptitude for research.

It is essential that you develop a specific research topic and an outline early on in your second year, convince your supervisor of the viability of your dissertation, and secure your supervisor's formal agreement by the end of the second term of your second year. Please note that ESPS members of staff will only be able to supervise two Dissertations per year.

Click here to view titles of past Dissertations. The Dissertations of former students are stored in ESPS's library and can be helpful in conceiving and structuring current students' own research.

For those interested in developing a particular aspect of their research at the end of their degree, an opportunity exists for publication of selected articles based on the Dissertations, in the ESPS annual journal European Social and Political Research.

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