Master of Science in Sociology

The Master of Science in Sociology addresses contemporary social problems via a strong academic approach and the concept of sociological imagination. Using your sociological imagination means that you pull away from a personal-level assessment of a situation, to include the historical and societal context. Students use this ability to connect the things that happen to people (such as their success in education, their relationship with their parents and their well-being) to social characteristics (the way schools are organised, the divorce rate, the degree of social inequality).

The one year programme is based on three cornerstones:

1. an advanced scientific approach to contemporary societal problems through the method of sociological imagination. We look for answers to sociological questions such as: what are the social conditions that constitute the fundamental causes of health and illness? How can higher education institutions become more accessible to students from various ethnic and social backgrounds? How does a history of migration in a family impact people’s integration in a host society, what chances or difficulties does an ethnically diverse society pose? How are power and responsibilities formally and informally distributed within organizations?
2. an advanced methodological approach, as opposed to pure theoretical reasoning. Students are taught how they can independently set up research projects, culminating in a master thesis. The applied nature of our programme is furthermore evident in the internship, policy and organization/management courses and a focus on intervention in tackling social problems.
3. students have the opportunity to benefit from international perspectives, by being taught in an internationally diverse group. Moreover, they can pursue international mobility through the internship.

Students choose one of the four available Majors (Internship, Policy and Management, Skills Lab or Conflict and Development in a Global World). They write a Master's dissertation. Meanwhile they gain a thorough understanding of advanced quantitative research methods.

The Master of Science in Sociology provides a solid, general training by means of advanced sociological courses dealing with topics such as health sociology, migration, higher education, policy and organisation. Applied quantitative analysis will unravel the secrets of multilevel analysis using real world data to answer actual research questions.

The first semester of the programme is fully dedicated to the core mandatory advanced sociological course units. From the start, students start preparing for their Master's dissertation or internship. Students compile part of their curriculum in light of their personal interests, future career prospects and ambitions. They have to choose between four Majors:

• Internship: students are challenged to use their sociological imagination in real-life contexts and take their expertise to the next level. During this experience, students confront theoretical learning with hands-on experience, characterized by social engagement.
• Policy and Management: students immerse themselves in course units on human resources management, public administration, governance, change management or international development.
• Skills Lab: students explore and develop applied skills to prepare for future careers through course units such as ‘Dare to Venture’, ‘Business Skills’ and ‘Advanced Academic English’.
• Conflict and Development in a Global World: students follow courses on non-Western societies and learn about the implications of insights from various disciplines in this field for studying Western and other non-Western societies.

By the end of the first semester, students should have taken most of their exams, and they can fully concentrate on their Major and their Master's dissertation. Students are supervised by a Ghent University professor and conduct their own quantitative or qualitative research, which they write down in the master’s dissertation. At the end of the second semester, the course unit Social Dynamics of Policy and Organization helps to digest the experiences developed during the dissertation research, the internship and the other courses.

Sociology graduates are in great demand for their combination of thorough insights in society, research expertise, communication and project management skills. Ghent University Sociology graduates start an academic career (as PhD students or research fellows) or work in NGOs, governmental organisations (on topics such as health prevention and radicalisation) and research departments (such as market research). The programme prepares you for work on scholarly projects in academia, governmental organisations or research institutes. You will be able to research social phenomena such as social inequity, gender differences, quality of labour, democratisation of higher education, migration or health and risk behaviour. Our programme also prepares students for future careers as policy advisors or project managers in human resources, journalism or education.