Politics. Economics. Philosophy

For many decades, the social sciences have rewarded narrow specializations in both topic and methodology, believing this to be the best way to achieve results. The established systems of higher education have also strongly supported this trend through the development of stand-alone departments. However, today, the task of addressing real-life economic, social, political and environmental problems and designing appropriate policy responses requires a combination of approaches and bodies of knowledge across different sciences and intellectual traditions. Real-world problems like climate change, pollution, crime and disease recognize no state borders, so the tradition of insulating disciplines, methodologies and geographic areas of expertise is harmful because it allows disciplinary biases and blind spots to obscure needed solutions. Faced with these challenges, academics, activists, and policymakers should build on a growing trend towards research and policymaking that promotes creativity and sustainability by explicitly working at the interdisciplinary crossroads of the social sciences and the humanities and within teams of open-minded individuals from diverse intellectual backgrounds.

The Master’s Programme ‘Politics, Economics, Philosophy’ encourages students to do research into the political, economic, and moral dimensions of real-life social problems of various origins and to integrate tools and insights from its three core disciplines with an eye on changing the world for the better.

The Master’s programme in Politics. Economics. Philosophy is a two-year programme taught in English, which offers the following types of courses:

• Bridging courses (depending on students’ background and level of preparation): Political Science, Economics, Mathematics, and Philosophy
• Core courses: Modern Political Science, Methodology and Research Methods in in Political Science and Economics, Intellectual History, and Data Analysis in the Social Sciences
• Special courses in the following blocks: Politics, Economics and Philosophy

While enrolled in the programme, students have the opportunity to collaborate in research with HSE institutes, laboratories and research centres.

The Master’s programme in Politics. Economics. Philosophy is designed to prepare students for the following professional career tracks:

• Experts and consultants in the field of strategic decision-making in either public agencies or non-governmental organizations (political parties, PR agencies, business analytical centres, NGOs, etc.)
• Analysts, researchers and teachers in academia looking to continue their studies in PhD programmes at leading universities in Russia and abroad.

Graduates of the programme are well positioned for roles where joint competences from politics, economics and philosophy are most relevant, especially those that are focused on interdisciplinary problems of institutional reform and policy-making in various domains.

The main international partner of HSE’s PEP programme is the MA programme in Philosophy – Politics – Economics at the University Wittem/Herdecke in Germany. Students may take advantage of international partnerships of the Faculty of Social Sciences, including the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Bayreuth (Germany), Charles University of Prague (Czech Republic), Sciences Po Toulouse and EHESS (France), KU Leuven and University of Antwerp (Belgium), University of Tilburg (the Netherlands), University of Bologna and University of Torino (Italy), University of Shanghai (China), George Mason University and University of Michigan (USA).

The application process for Fall 2020 is open until August 20, 2020, although applications for Russian government scholarships are due on April 1. Applicants are considered for admission based on their application portfolio meeting the programme’s requirements.

More information about the application process can be found here.