Social Cultural Science

Social and Cultural Science is a step towards PhD studies, since it emphasises theory, methodology and empirical research skills, comparing today's societal issues in different countries.

This Master's programme provides you with a thorough training in empirical research in the context of contemporary society. Taking a multidisciplinary perspective, you compare such social issues as inequality, poverty, the decline of organised religion, minorities and conflict and social cohesion in different countries. The programme is designed for all those who want to understand how society works and why countries differ from each other.
The emphasis in this programme is on methodology and research skills. You learn how to translate social problems into empirical research questions and which methods are most suitable to obtain an answer to those questions. This might be quantitative research ± collecting and analysing large volumes of data ± or qualitative research, for example, interviews or a content analysis of items in the press. In addition, students are able to draw on a considerable amount of existing data because the Nijmegen Institute of Social and Cultural Research (NISCO) has a rich data archive and it participates in several international surveys.

This programme was recently awarded the quality label 'Top Programme' in the Netherlands in the Keuzegids Masters 2015.