Philosophy of Law Governance and Politics Leiden University

Overview

The Master's programme Philosophy of Law, Governance, and Politics introduces you to the philosophical issues on the intersection of law, politics, and policy. This programme is meant for students who wish to combine an MA in Law, Political Science, Public Administration, or an adjacent discipline with an MA in Philosophy Law, Governance, and Politics. Only students with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Public Administration, or an adjacent discipline (or an equivalent degree) are admissible.

Leiden University is home to an internationally ranked Law School as well as excellent institutes for Political Science and Public Administration. Combined with the Institute of Philosophy, these institutions form the perfect setting for the study of issues on the intersection of law, politics, and public policy.

In this programme students will learn about the philosophical, methodological, systematic, and normative questions that come up in the study of law, politics, and policy. Questions such as the authority of the state and its laws, democratic representation, or the implementation of political ideals in a non-ideal world are being studied in the courses. The combination of these courses with graduate work in law, politics, or public policy, is inspiring and thought-provoking.

What you will learn

Future employers are interested not only in the subject-related knowledge that you acquired during your study programme, but also in the ‘transferable skills’. These include cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, reasoning and argumentation and innovation; intrapersonal skills, such as flexibility, initiative, appreciating diversity and metacognition; and interpersonal skills, such as communication, accountability and conflict resolution. In short, they are skills that all professionals need in order to perform well.

It is therefore important that during your study programme you not only acquire as much knowledge as possible about your subject, but also are aware of the skills you have gained and the further skills you still want to learn.

The skills you may encounter in the various courses are:

• Collaboration
• Persuasion
• Research
• Self-directed learning
• Creative thinking

Career prospects

The master’s programme in Philosophy (120 EC) offers outstanding preparation for students seeking a profession that requires knowledge of a specific discipline and the added value of advanced skills in logic, reasoning, abstraction and critical thinking.

Successful completion of the master’s programme can lead to PhD research and an academic career, or in the public, private or non-profit sectors. 75% of our students choose to enter a PhD programme after their studies, primarily in the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Germany or France. The remaining 25% already had a job when they joined the programme and were seeking to enhance their performance.

Examples of the diverse roles of our graduates include:

• PhD student at a university
• Curator at a gallery
• Project advisor on digital literacy
• Campaign strategist for a campaign developer
• Academic employee for a foundation

Accreditation

Accredited by NVAO, the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders.