• A unique program for teachers in Russia — not only to improve qualification as teachers of social studies, but also to receive a master's degree in political science.
• Professional instructors. The program is taught by school and university textbooks authors, high-level methodologists, and experts included in the system of preparing and checking assignments for the Unified State Examination, the All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren, the International Youth Olympiad (IOM), and the “Vyshaya Proba” Olympiad for schoolchildren. 90% of the program instructors are doctors and candidates of science.
• An individual educational trajectory that can be formed from electives and online courses.

Graduation from the program will allow you to:

1. Improve your value on the labor market, enter competitions, and maintain high KPI in training schoolchildren for olympiads and exams.

2. Work in a methodical approach: develop educational programs, critically evaluate educational materials, etc.

3. Build a career within the school system: work as a head teacher or director.

4. Become trained at the intersection of social disciplines and enable you to work with scientific databases, stay updated of pedagogical innovations and modern approaches to communications.

5. Get the skills of analytical, educational, methodological, research, expert, organisational, and managerial work in the field of education.

Along with the general MA-level package — the ability to reflect on acquired scientific methods and approaches; to invent new methods and tools for professional activity; to independently master new research methods; to improve and develop one's intellectual and cultural level; to make managerial decisions and take responsibility; to analyse and evaluate information in the course of professional activity; to organise multilateral communication — the list of competencies of the graduate of the program includes:

a) General professional competencies:

• Building professional communication according to the profile of activity based on the use of vast range of communication technologies;

• Searching for information and solving professional tasks with the use of modern information and communication methods and software;

• Evaluation, modelling, and predicting socio-political processes based on the methodology of theoretical and empirical research;

• Conducting scientific studies in the field or interdisciplinary;

• Development and implementation of organisational and management solutions;

• Independently build strategies for presenting the results of professional activity

• Developing proposals and recommendations for applied research.

b) Specific professional competencies:

• Using recent results of scientific research in political science and related disciplines;

• Working with current scientific literature, analysing the state and trends of political science;

• Using modern empirical databases in scientific and project activities;

• Analysing empirical data using up-to-date qualitative and quantitative methods and appropriate software;

• Developing the design of scientific and applied individual and team researches;

• Carrying out independent collection of analytical materials.

a) Basic courses

“Contemporary Political Science”: provides insight into methodology, methods, institutional design and efficiency of power, democracy and democratisation, human rights and political inequality. Issues of modern political economy, problems of collective choice and approaches to the study of political conflicts are discussed separately.

“Theory and Methodology of Political Research”: encloses the main models of explanation and logic of political science research, the features of normative political theory, problems of postmodernism, institutionalism, and behavioural analysis.

“The World of Politics: Systems, Regimes, Processes”: explores the phenomenon of the Russian space and its influence on the political, economic, social and cultural development of Russia, the peculiarities of the development of Russia in the Modernity and the prospects for the transformation of Russian statehood in the postmodern era.

“Contemporary Society”: examines the formation and development of Russian society over the past decades and provides a palette of approaches from humanities and social sciences to its understanding.

“Communication, education, technology”: helps to comprehend the impact of changes in the education system on participants in educational relations, processes, and technologies.

b) Electives 

Political science cycle:

“Human and Politics"

“Wars and Political Conflicts”;

“Political Geography”;

“Contemporary Russian Politics”;

“State power in modern Russia”.

Pedagogical profile:

“Pedagogical design”

“Teaching social studies at school: modern requirements for content and methods of teaching”

“Teacher’s intellectual resources”

Interdisciplinary courses:

“Theory and practice of historical reconstructions”

“Philosophy of European Drama”

c) Research seminar: forms and develops students’ skills for conducting independent scientific political research.

d) Project seminar: enables students to master knowledge, skills, and abilities to participate professionally in the implementation of research and educational projects in academic and applied areas.

This degree programme of HSE University is adapted for students with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities. Special assistive technology and teaching aids are used for collective and individual learning of students with SEN and disabilities. The specific adaptive features of the programme are listed in each subject's full syllabus and are available to students through the online Learning Management System.

All documents of the degree programme are stored electronically on this website. Curricula, calendar plans, and syllabi are developed and approved electronically in corporate information systems. Their current versions are automatically published on the website of the degree programme. Up-to-date teaching and learning guides, assessment tools, and other relevant documents are stored on the website of the degree programme in accordance with the local regulatory acts of HSE University.

I hereby confirm that the degree programme documents posted on this website are fully up-to-date.

Vice Rector Sergey Yu. Roshchin

Summary of Degree Programme 'Contemporary Social Studies in Secondary Schools'