- Clean Energy Research Group
- Feminist Mobilization and Economic Empowerment
- The Governance of Migration
- About
- People
- Undergraduate
- Graduate
- News & Events
- Affiliated Programs
- Research
- NATO Field School
MA Program
Our Master's program emphasizes intellectual challenge and academic engagement, and welcomes students with diverse research interests.
The department strongly prefers that applicants to the MA program have a BA in political science. The minimum SFU requirement for admission to an MA program is a Bachelor's degree with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of at least 3.0 (or B average) from a recognized university. In practice, however, our successful applicants have much higher CGPAs. We suggest that students coming into the program have at least two years of background in political science. Some students with insufficient political science training may be required to take up to a year of qualifying work in the upper-division undergraduate courses in our department.
Admission requirements
- A bachelor’s degree from SFU or its equivalent from another recognized institution;
- A CGPA of at least 3.0/4.33 (B) or a grade point average of at least 3.33/4.33 (B+) based on the last 60 credits of undergraduate courses.
- Submitted evidence, usually in the form of references from qualified referees, of the student’s ability to undertake advanced work in the area of interest.
Degree requirements
Students may follow one of three streams. For information on all three streams of the MA program, please see the MA program guidelines in the SFU Calendar:
- The Project/Extended Essays option; or
- The Thesis option; or
- The Course Intensive option.
Program requirements are designed to allow students to complete their degrees in as little as ten months, though average completion time over the past several years is closer to 16 months. MA students typically act as teaching assistants for undergraduate lecture courses for at least one semester.
Our MA graduates have done well in finding employment in Canada and internationally. Those who go on to further studies elsewhere have entered law schools, as well as PhD programs across Canada and abroad. Our students have successfully pursued doctoral programs at places, such as the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Chicago, Queen's University, University of London (UK), the University of Rochester (US), the London School of Economics (UK) and the University of Essex (UK).
Apply to SFU or get more info.
To take the next step toward your graduate degree in political science, apply now.