Graduate

Introduction

Political Science at SFU offers an M.A. and a Ph.D. programme in an environment that encourages intellectual growth. The faculty has diverse research interests and strong links across Canada and internationally, helping to create an active research community in the department. Our strong commitment to teaching and high faculty to student ratio mean that small seminars are the norm and graduate students work closely with faculty members.

Students wishing to enter the M.A. programme can focus their studies on any one or combination of our five fields: Political Theory and Methodology; Canadian Politics; Comparative politics; International Relations, and Public policy, Public Administration and Urban government. Our Ph.D. programme combines emphases on Canadian politics and government, Comparative politics and International relations with field-crossing research clusters in Global and Regional Politics, Democracy and Political Representation, and Public Policy, Governance and Political Economy.

SFU has been recognized as one of the best comprehensive universities in Canada by successive reviews in the annual Maclean’s University ranking of universities. This reflects our high ratings on research grants and awards, new library acquisitions, the caliber of our students and SFU’s excellent reputation across the county.

Political Science within and beyond SFU

A number of faculty members have close connections to other programmes at SFU, including Women's Studies, Latin American Studies, Urban Studies, Public Policy, the Asia-Canada Programme, Development Studies and the School for International Studies. Two research centres play particularly important roles as hub for colleagues and graduate students’ research. Political Science faculty took the initiative to create the Centre for Public Opinion and Political Representation in 2010. With members in six SFU academic units, and associate members at over a dozen US and European universities, CPOPR supports a wide variety of collaborative research initiatives. The Centre for Global Political Economy is an interdisciplinary research unit promoting faculty and graduate student research on various aspects of the global political economy.

The department sponsors a regular Speaker Series where academics from inside and outside SFU present their research. Both CPOPR and CGPE hold regular, less formal research colloquia and occasional public forums. A number of successful international conferences over the past decade have featured our graduate students in active roles.

Funded research projects

In addition to having a broad range of intellectual and disciplinary interests, multiple academic links, and strong research and publication records, our faculty has notable success in securing major research grants. Recent external grant success has been achieved in projects such as as the Canadian Election Study, Polls, the Media, and Elections, Climate Change Adaptation, Canadian Social Democracy, International Forestry Policy, Policy Analytical Capacity, Government Responsiveness, transportation policy, economic security in BC, Engaging Diasporas in Development, and Wine Genomics. Such major external grants provide considerable funding and diverse research opportunities for our graduate students.

Major external grants provide considerable funding and diverse research opportunities for our graduate students. Our faculty also give a high priority to effective and challenging teaching. This combination makes our department an exciting place for academic study.

Graduate students in Political Science at SFU

Our graduate programme typically admits between 15 and 20 new students yearly, from across Canada and internationally. Our graduate cohort is an important community within the Department and participates actively in Departmental affairs, as well as conducting its own affairs via the Graduate Caucus.

Chair: Akshay Singh (aks5@sfu.ca)
Secretary/treasurer: Allan Maclean (atmaclea@sfu.ca)
Graduate Student Society Representative: Nancy Teeple (nteeple@sfu.ca)
Teaching Support Staff Union Representative: Aleksejs Ivaschuk (aivaschu@sfu.ca)
Departmental MA Representative: Anja Novak: (anjan@sfu.ca)
Departmental PhD Representative: TBD

Having a smaller graduate programme than the larger universities, we can provide more opportunities for our students to gain experience as Teaching and Research Assistants and more chances to develop close working relationships with faculty.

MA co-op program

SFU operates an extremely successful Co-op study program for undergraduate and graduate students, which provides excellent experience and opportunities for post-graduate employment as well as a good source of income. For a list of some recent MA student co-op placements, please see [link coming soon].

Life in Vancouver

Our department is located on SFU’s main campus, situated on top of Burnaby Mountain. We are roughly 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver.  Stunning views of Vancouver, the North Shore mountains and the Olympic peninsula in Washington state are all available from the Burnaby campus. SFU also has a Harbour Centre campus in downtown Vancouver, which houses a range of specialized programs and facilities. SFU’s Surrey campus is roughly 45 minutes to the south west of Burnaby Mountain, and is growing rapidly to serve primarily undergraduate students from the southern and eastern suburbs of Vancouver.

Opportunities for indoor and outdoor recreation are numerous for SFU students, with excellent indoor facilities on the main campus, numerous community recreation centres across the lower mainland [Greater Vancouver] area, hiking or skiing on the North Shore Mountains only 30 minutes away, extensive beaches and parks throughout the greater Vancouver region, and the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort only two hours away. The range of intellectual and cultural resources in the community is extensive, especially with Vancouver’s emergence as an Asia-Pacific metropolis. Vancouver is consistently ranked as one of the top three cities in the world, and we’ll be happy to suggest ways you can make the most of this in your time in our graduate program.

Graduate rental housing is available in several forms on Burnaby mountain. Many graduate students live off-campus, often closer to downtown Vancouver. Feel free to contact members of our graduate caucus with questions about where you might consider looking for an apartment.