The University of Salford is a public research university in Salford, Greater Manchester. The Royal Technical Institute, Salford, which opened in 1896, became a College of Advanced Technology in 1956 and gained university status in 1967, following the Robbins Report into higher education. It has 21,500 students and is in 160 acres (65 hectares) of parkland on the banks of the River Irwell.

The University of Sheffield is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Firth College in 1879 and Sheffield Technical School in 1884.

The University of Siegen is a young, modern institute of higher education located centrally in the area bordering the three German federal states of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatine. The overall goal of the University of Siegen is to contribute to a humane future and to take responsibility for people and society. This is reflected in the guiding principle of the University of Siegen: shaping a humane future. Social science research at Siegen University defines and investigates new frontiers in the field and covers the main social and political developments across Germany, Europe and the globe. The Department of Social Sciences is characterized by its interdisciplinary focus, its combination of fundamental and applied research, and the study of macro and micro constellations. Our research focuses on building knowledge in the following areas: Europe, Global Change and International Relations; Media and Politics; Migration and Mobility in a European and Global Perspective; Political Education and Educational Sociology; Political Sociology; Social Problems, Health-, and Social Policy and Social Structure Analysis. The Department of Social Sciences at Siegen University is committed to high-quality undergraduate and graduate teaching in all of the social sciences. Our interdisciplinary areas of expertise include political science and sociology and maintain close links to other subjects, such as history, social work, educational studies, and media studies. We pride ourselves on providing students with the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with theories and methods and to apply academic concepts to contemporary real-world issues. More than 60 scientists (including 15 professors) teach and conduct research within our department. We offer studies in social sciences for undergraduate students via our BA in Social Sciences and for graduate students via our MA in Social Sciences. Additionally, we offer various undergraduate and graduate teaching-study programs. Expertise in the social sciences can also be gained via in the following study programs: BA in Social Work, MA Education and Social Work, MA in Media and Society, and the international MA in Roads to Democracies.

The University of Silesia in Katowice is accredited to offer 50 full-time and part-time programmes, including unique programmes such as the following: Biophysics, Econophysics, Geophysics, and Medical Physics. The programmes offer a total of over 160 specialisations, including Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Data Analyst, Geophysics, Nanophysics and Mesoscopic Materials, Physics of Nanosystems and Quantum Information Technology, Geoecology, and Geoecotourism. The University of Silesia regularly upgrades its didactic offer by launching new programmes which reflect the needs of the labour market. When planning new programmes it also takes into account guidelines concerning programmes which are regarded as being of special value to the economy, including those which are granted the status of specialties ordered by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. As a result, the university’s offer includes more and more engineering degree programmes. The Faculty of Social Science was established on November 1, 1973 and moved to its present building in the academic year 1978/1979. Its internal structure has been developing for over a decade and at the moment, it comprises four institutes (Institute of Philosophy, Institute of History, Institute of Political Science and Journalism, and Institute of Sociology) and two separate sub-divisions (Department of Economics and Department of Art History). The Faculty offers courses in Philosophy, History, Sociology and Political Science, as well as doctoral programmes and postgraduate courses in Journalism, Management, Ancient and Contemporary History, European Integration, Local and Regional Government, Regional Studies, Organization of Welfare Work, Civic Education, Theory of Social Pathologies, their Prevention and Social Therapy. The faculty manages the most modern of the University’s lecture rooms, which are furnished with audio-visual equipment, as well as a computer lab and a library. The faculty staff consists of 180 academics who are both teachers and researchers. The faculty is entitled to grant doctoral and other degrees in Philosophy, History, Sociology and Political Science. The research conducted by the Institute of Philosophy focuses mainly on the history of philosophy, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of technological development and ethics. The Institute of History specializes in the history of Upper Silesia since early medieval times, the development of the educational system in the region, and the history of the Roman Empire. The Institute of Political Science and Journalism undertakes research into the problems of local and regional politics, governmental and political transformations in Central and Eastern Europe, Western democracies, and Polish foreign policy. The Institute of Sociology is especially renowned for its thorough research into the field of general sociology, methods and techniques of sociological research, regional social studies, sociological aspects of economy, sociology of culture, social work, sociology of the family, and sociology of knowledge. The Department of Economics is particularly interested in the economic transformation of Poland against the background of structural changes in Western Europe, while the Department of History of Art is concerned with art and the artistic culture of the region within its historical borders. The faculty cooperates with the following universities and academic institutions: Institute of Art History in Munich (Germany), University of Berlin (Germany), University of Birmingham (UK), University of Bordeaux (France), University of Brno (Czech Republic), University of Cottbus (Germany), University of Stuttgart (Germany), University of Dortmund (Germany), University of Durham (UK), University of East Anglia (UK), University of Grenoble (France), University of Indiana (USA), University of Karlsruhe (Germany), University of Potsdam (Germany), University of Madrid (Spain), University of Granada (Spain), University of Valladolid (Spain), University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Florence (Italy), Univeristy of Padua (Italy), University of Naples – L’Orientale (Italy), University of Odessa (Ukraine), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), University of Olomouc (Czech Republic), University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), University of Salzburg (Austria), University of Tübingen (Germany), Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica (Slovakia), and Kadir Has University (Turkey).

Sofia University is a public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria. Founded on 1 October 1888, the edifice of the university was constructed between 1924 and 1934 with the financial support of the brothers Evlogi Georgiev and Hristo Georgiev (whose sculptures are now featured on its façade) and has an area of 18,624 m2 and a total of 324 premises. The university has 16 faculties and three departments, where over 21,000 students receive their education.

The University of Southampton is a public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities in the United Kingdom.

Teaching (undergraduate and postgraduate) and research in International Relations

Research in several fields of social and political sciences

The School of Government and Public Policy combines the policy relevant research of the prestigious European Policies Research Centre and the Centre for the Study of Public Policy with internationally acclaimed research in political science and public policy and excellence in undergraduate and postgraduate politics teaching. We are a vibrant and innovative School whose members are internationally oriented, with research collaborations across Europe, North America, and Australasia; and who come from many national backgrounds including: Greece, Germany, Italy, Austria, Finland, Turkey, Slovakia, the Netherlands, and the United States (as well as the UK!). The quality of our research is recognised internationally with, for example, the Centre for Higher Education Development in Germany (CHE) listing Strathclyde as one of an ‘Excellence Group’ of political science departments in the European Union. The CHE highlighted the School’s ‘outstanding achievement in publications, citations and staff mobility’. The quality of our teaching has been acknowledged by those whose opinion matters most to us: our own students. In all successive National Student Surveys, politics students at Strathclyde have recorded an overall satisfaction rating of over 90 per cent; with the scores reaching 94 per cent in 2009 and 96 per cent in 2010. The 2010 result places the School at the top of the student satisfaction table in politics in Scotland and joint leader in the UK. We constantly strive not only to maintain the quality of our research, teaching and policy relevant knowledge exchange but also to improve our performance to meet the needs of our students, research partners and policy makers in a fast-paced and rapidly changing world.

UG and PG teaching, Mphil/PhD supervision, staff research

The Department of Politics is dedicated to delivering an outstanding undergraduate and postgraduate experience to students from a wide diversity of backgrounds and countries, and to maintaining our internationally recognised reputation for research excellence.

The Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies is a full-scale political science research and teaching institution. We have an international team of faculty (from 12 different countries) with extensive English-language teaching, including 4 English-language MA programs and a fully English-language PhD program. We participate actively in the ECPR, with a member from our institute attending almost every ECPR event. From 2006-2012, Prof. Vello Pettai was a member of the ECPR Executive Committee, serving first as head of the summer school portfolio and later as Vice-Chair and Treasurer. In June 2013, our institute hosted the first Joint Sessions in International Relations organized by the European International Studies Association (formerly the ECPR Standing Group in Intl. Relations). We also hosted the 2016 ECPR Graduate Student Conference. Visit our website for more information.