Excellent evaluation for International Relations and Diplomacy

The International Relations and Diplomacy master’s degree programme, a two-year Political Sciences programme, has received an extremely positive visitation appraisal. The evaluations ranged from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’.

Three criteria

The programme was submitted to three criteria by the visitation committee. The ‘expected final qualifications’ criterion was evaluated as ‘good’. The visitation committee considered these qualifications to be of a high level: the demands made of students are in general above average, and high for interdisciplinarity and research-orientation. The ‘academic teaching environment’ was assessed by the committee as ‘excellent’, and for ‘examinations and final qualifications obtained’ the result was ‘good’.

Teaching programme

The committee was very impressed with the quality care system in the institute, and with the balance in the content of the subjects dealt with. Student facilities are, in the committee’s view, excellent, and the committee was also extremely impressed with the degree of co-operation among the academic staff: they offer a coherent programme of academic teaching with an excellent balance between research, theory and practice.

Theses

The system of providing master’s students with a set of instructions and a clear time frame was considered by the committee as best practice, also for other master’s programmes. In consequence, the theses within this programme are of consistently high quality.

Co-operation with Clingendael

International Relations and Diplomacy offers a combination of academic education in the contexts of international affairs and political science, together with practical experience in international negotiations and diplomacy. The programme is offered in co-operation with the Netherlands Institute for International Affairs ‘Clingendael’ in The Hague.

The evaluation was conducted by Quality Assurance Netherlands Universities (QANU).

(January 2012)