MSc Politics & Data Science

Graduate Taught (level 9 nfq, credits 90)

The explosion of online and social media, the proliferation of digitized information, and improved electronic access to political decision-making processes provide new opportunities to study existing and emerging political processes in various democratic and non-democratic political regimes. The simultaneous development of cutting-edge data science methods to study digital text, audio, and video provide the tools we need to take advantage of these opportunities. The MSc Politics and Data Science is designed to equip students with the theoretical knowledge and methodological skills necessary to examine and understand politics in the digital age.

Apart from the three core modules in the Social Science Background stream, students can select three modules that best fit their interest. Apart from the core module and the core optional module in the Technical Background stream, students select four modules that best fit their interest. These modules can either revolve around methods needed to study digital and digitised politics, such as programming and machine learning, quantitative text analysis, statistics, and experimental methods. Or they can be modules relating to comparative politics, international relations, political violence, political economy, and related fields that the School of Politics and International Relations has strengths in.

The programme thus provides a thorough grounding in political science and its sub-disciplines, and in-depth training in the empirical methods necessary to study important questions emerging in these areas of study.

Careers & Employability

Graduates from this programme will be ideally equipped for careers in a large and varied set of employment sectors. The combination of a solid understanding of social science theory and the technical ability to apply advanced data-science approaches to answer questions of political and societal relevance, makes our graduates a unique addition to any data science team. Furthermore, graduates will be well-positioned to apply for quantitative social science PhD programmes with the aim of pursuing an academic career.

Potential future employers include:

Government
International Organisations (EU, UN, WTO, World Bank)
Non-Government Organisations
Not-for-profit sector
Corporate Sector
Tech industry
Think tanks

Potential roles include

Political Advisor
Social Data Specialist
Data Manager
Chief Information Officer
Social Science PhD candidate

Curricular information is subject to change

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Who should apply?

Full Time option suitable for:

Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
International (Non EEA) applicants currently residing outside of the EEA Region. Yes

Part Time option suitable for:

Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
International (Non EEA) applicants currently residing outside of the EEA Region. No

The MSc in Politics and Data Science is aimed towards students with backgrounds in political science and related social sciences with a strong interest in learning data science methods, and towards students with a Computer Science or related technical background who want to study politics.

Vision and Values Statement

The programme shall equip students with both the theoretical overview and the empirical tools necessary to understand and engage with the brave new world of digitised politics, and the expansion in scale, types, and complexity of data available to study political phenomenon. The MSc in Politics and Data Science provides students with in-depth knowledge of political science theories and approaches and the methodological training to apply these tools in a theoretically-informed manner. It offers advanced training in statistical and computational methods, including tools to extract and prepare unstructured data (data wrangling), to detect patterns and predict behaviour based on statistical data, to evaluate the veracity of theoretical models on large-scale datasets, to analyse highly interconnected data from networks and spatial data sets, and to develop simulations to evaluate the inherent consistency and implications of theoretical arguments.

Programme Outcomes

The key objective is to have graduates who are able to join data science teams in the Government, corporate, or private sectors, with sufficient understanding of technical concepts in data science and machine learning to collaborate with computer scientists and engineers and with sufficient understanding of social science and politics to be able to bring a deeper understanding of human behaviour to otherwise technology oriented teams.

Graduates can also use the skills acquired to continue work in political science research, either in academia, think tanks, or the non-profit or public sector, where they will benefit from a deep understanding of the cross-section between data science and political science.

Knowledge and understanding

Understanding the range of data science and machine learning methodologies that are available to data scientists, and their key advantages and disadvantages.
Understanding of theories of political behaviour, political processes, and political institutions.
Understanding variations in political systems and their functioning.

Applying knowledge and understanding

Understanding of central aspects of political and social science research design, such as conceptualization, operationalization and measurement.
Ability to use knowledge of research design to systematically address questions pertaining politics and public policy.
Gain general experience in applying data science techniques to questions of political and social science relevance.

Making judgements

Ability to decide on appropriate statistical techniques given a particular research question in relation to political behaviour and public policy.
Ability to evaluate reported statistical and algorithmic results in political and social science research.
Through training in general research design, ability to evaluate the veracity of input data of political and social behaviour for use in data science applications.
Have a basic understanding of the situations where automated techniques as used in standard data science practice are suitable and ethically appropriate, and where not.

Communications and working skills

Ability to clearly communicate results from statistical analysis of political and social behaviour.
Ability to communicate the possibilities and scope of data science tools for the understanding of political and social behaviour.
Basic practice in team work and learning how to collaborate in larger technical projects, including ability to work with techniques for code sharing, agile development, tools for scientific replication, etcetera.

Learning skills

Have sufficient grounding in fundamentals of statistical analysis and computer science to be able to acquire new skills in data science.
Have sufficient grounding in political and social science to be able to read into new domains of political and social science research.

What modules can I take?

View All Modules Here

The MSc Politics and Data Science programme is organised around two streams of study. The first stream grounds students with backgrounds in political science and related social sciences in data science methods. The second stream is geared towards students with computer science or related technical backgrounds, teaching them about research design and theories in political science. Apart from two required core modules in each stream, all students can select four optional modules that best fit their interests. These modules can either revolve around methods needed to study digital and digitised politics, such as programming and machine learning, quantitative text analysis, statistics, and experimental methods. Or they can be modules relating to comparative politics, international relations, political violence, political economy, and related fields that the School of Politics and International Relations has strengths in.

Core and Option Modules for MSc Politics and Data Science Social Science Background Stream

These are the current modules for 2023/24 but are subject to change. Each of the following modules carries 10 credits unless otherwise specified.

Core Modules

POL40950 Introduction to Statistics (Autumn)
POL42340 Programming for Social Scientists (Spring)
POL42350 Connected_Politics (Spring)

Core Option Modules - Select one

IS41210 Platform Governance (Spring)
POL42050 Quantitative Text Analysis (Spring)
SOC41070 Sociological Thinking in the Digital Age (Spring)

Option Modules

Autumn

IS40840 Data & Society
POL40050 Theories of International Relations
POL40140 Global Justice
POL40160 Comparative Public Policy
POL40540 Comparative European Politics
POL40950 Introduction to Statistics
POL41020 Politics of Human Rights
POL41510 Middle East & North Africa
POL41650 The Global Political Economy of Europe
POL41870 Political Economy of Institutions and Comparative Development
POL41980 Peace & Conflict Studies
POL42040 Gender & the Political System
POL42070 Politics of (mis-)information
POL42470 Gender Identity & Difference
POL42490 Politics of Ireland North & South
SOC41130 AI and Society

Spring

DEV40020 Gender and Development
IS41210 Platform Governance
POL40100 Politics of Development
POL40370 International Political Economy
POL40610 EU Foreign and Security Policy
POL40970 Politics European Governance
POL41030 Theory of Human Rights
POL41640 Qualitative Research Methods for Political Science
POL41720 Gender Peace and Security
POL41780 The Politics of Inequality
POL41860 Governance, Politics and Development
POL42050 Quantitative Text Analysis
POL42060 International Security
POL42340 Programming for Soc Scientists
POL42440 Political Economy of Security
POL42480 Contemporary Election Campaigns: Democratic Norms and Empirical Research
POL42500 Politics of Authoritarianism
SOC41070 Sociological Thinking in the Digital Age

Summer Trimester Core Module

POL42310 Thesis (30 credits)

Core and Option Modules for MSc Politics and Data Science Technical Background Stream

These are the current modules for 2023/24 but are subject to change. Each of the following modules carries 10 credits unless otherwise specified.

Core Modules

POL42350 Connected_Politics (Spring)
POL42070 Politics of (mis-)information (Autumn)

Core Option Modules - Select one

IS41210 Platform Governance (Spring)
POL42050 Quantitative Text Analysis (Spring)
POL42340 Programming for Social Scientists (Spring)
SOC41070 Sociological Thinking in the Digital Age (Spring)

Option Modules

Autumn

IS40840 Data & Society
POL40050 Theories of International Relations
POL40140 Global Justice
POL40160 Comparative Public Policy
POL40540 Comparative European Politics
POL40950 Introduction to Statistics
POL41020 Politics of Human Rights
POL41510 Middle East & North Africa
POL41650 The Global Political Economy of Europe
POL41870 Political Economy of Institutions and Comparative Development
POL41980 Peace & Conflict Studies
POL42040 Gender & the Political System
POL42470 Gender Identity & Difference
POL42490 Politics of Ireland North & South
SOC41130 AI and Society

Spring

DEV40020 Gender and Development
IS41210 Platform Governance
POL40100 Politics of Development
POL40370 International Political Economy
POL40610 EU Foreign and Security Policy
POL40970 Politics European Governance
POL41030 Theory of Human Rights
POL41640 Qualitative Research Methods for Political Science
POL41720 Gender Peace and Security
POL41780 The Politics of Inequality
POL41860 Governance, Politics and Development
POL42050 Quantitative Text Analysis
POL42060 International Security
POL42340 Programming for Social Scientists
POL42440 Political Economy of Security
POL42480 Contemporary Election Campaigns: Democratic Norms and Empirical Research
POL42500 Politics of Authoritarianism
SOC41070 Sociological Thinking in the Digital Age

Summer Trimester Core Module

POL42310 Thesis (30 credits)

Fees, Funding and Scholarships

MSc Politics & Data Science (W473) Full Time
EU fee per year - € 9310
nonEU fee per year - € 21520

MSc Politics & Data Science (W474) Part Time
EU fee per year - € 6110
nonEU fee per year - € 10760

***Fees are subject to change

Tuition fee information is available on the UCD Fees website. Please note that UCD offers a number of graduate scholarships for full-time, self-funding international students, holding an offer of a place on a UCD graduate degree programme. For further information please see International Scholarships.

SPIRe operates a Graduate Scholarship programme, which opens on May 1st. To access details, see SPIRe Graduate Scholarship Scheme. Please note that not all programmes are eligible for this Scholarship, please check the T&C's carefully when they become available.

Entry Requirements

Good undergraduate degree (2.1 or equivalent) in political science or related social science, or in computer science, statistics, or related discipline. Because of the streaming of the module structure of the program, we can accommodate students with a social science as well as students with a more technical background.

Your application will be considered on its individual merits and relevant professional experience will also be taken into account.
English language requirements: applicants whose first language is not English should have met TOEFL, IELTs, or computer-based TOEFL requirements (600, 6.5, or 250 respectively), or the Cambridge English Test (Certificate in Advanced English at a minimum of Grade B, or Certificate of Proficiency in English at Grade C). Applicants who obtained a previous degree from an English-speaking university may be exempted from this requirement. Click here for further info.
These are the minimum entry requirements – additional criteria may be requested for some programmes

Testimonial

Jeanette Garcia
Graduate

I entered the program with nothing more than an enthusiasm for quantitative research, and I left with a skill set that includes data wrangling, machine learning, and quantitative text analysis. The faculty at UCD is very passionate about education and research, encouraging my peers and me to take the initiative in our learning processes and collaborative projects.

At UCD, I found a supportive network and developed a deep appreciation for data and how its study and nuanced interpretation promotes informed policies and decisions. The MSc in Politics and Data Science offers a much-needed bridge across disciplines and expertise.