How to apply

Admission for entry in 2017-18 will open in November 2016. The Government Department has one deadline to consider all applications. This is Monday 9 January 2017. All applications received by this date will be considered for full funding. For more information please see our Funding pages.

We welcome applications from students with a good undergraduate degree in Political Science (or a closely related discipline) and, preferably, an MA or MSc degree in Political Science (or a closely related discipline). For more information please see the entry requirements page.

Students should apply for the MRes/PhD programme in Political Science through Graduate Admissions. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed either in person or via Skype.

In addition to the documents required by LSE Admissions, all applications should include:

1. LSE application form
2. Two academic references
3. Curriculum Vitae (CV or resume)
4. Short statement of why you want to do the MRes/PhD in Political Science (maximum of 1000 words).
5. A Research Proposal outlining the PhD research that  you want to conduct
6. Sample of written work

Entry requirements

The entry requirements for the MRes/PhD in Political Science are as follows:

Minimum entry requirement – First class or very good upper second class honours degree (normally 65+) and an MA, MSc or equivalent degree (completed or completion expected) in Political Science or a closely related discipline (such as Sociology, Economics or History)

English requirement – Higher: 7.0 in IELTS (at least 6.5 in reading, listening and speaking and 7.0 in writing) or 107 in the internet-based TOEFL (at least 25 in writing, and 22 in the other three elements)

GRE/GMAT requirement: None

For more information please see the Graduate Admissions website.

Research proposal

Your research proposal should be no more than 3000 words, and aim to address as many of the following questions as are relevant:

• What is your general topic?
• What research questions do you want to answer?
• What is the key literature and its limitations?
• What are the main hypotheses of the work?
• What methodology do you intend to use?
• If you are using data, which data do you intend to use?
• If you expect to do case studies or field work, what are your case selection criteria?

Applications that are received without a research proposal that addresses these types of questions will not be considered.

It is highly advisable when outlining your research proposal, to pay some attention to the research interests of the academic staff in the Department of Government. We can only consider admitting students in areas where we have expertise. Please see the Department of Government’s Research pages and staff profiles for more information.

Sample of written work

You should provide a scanned copy (or a photocopy if applying by post) of a marked assignment from your most recent programme of study. This can be in the form of:

1. Two master's degree essays of between 3000-5000 words; OR
2. A master's dissertation (this can be an extract from a longer work)

This sample can be related to your proposed topic of research or more broadly to the discipline/area to which you are applying. If possible, the copy should show comments from the marker(s) and/or the mark given for the assignment. If you submit scanned copies you must ensure that the information in the document is clear and legible.

Ideally the writing sample should fulfil the following criteria, however we recognise that not all applicants will have access to a document that fulfils all of them. You should therefore send an essay that is as close as possible to the following:

• The essay should be in English and must be your own work - if the assignment was not originally written in English, you should translate it yourself.
• The marks/comments of the assessor should be legible.
• It should be from your most recent period of study.
• It should relate to your proposed research topic (or more broadly to the general area of political science that you are interested in).
• Each page of the assignment should bear your name, and if possible your LSE application ID number

Further information

For further details about how to apply for the MRes/PhD in Political Science please see the Graduate Admissions website.