Sociology

This means that the programme will train you to understand such issues in their societal context, to understand how they became public and in what ways people, institutions or governments try to address them.

UvA Sociology staff comes from a great variety of intellectual and methodological traditions, offering you the opportunity to put together your own curriculum within a broad sociological spectrum, combining courses and building various expertises. The Master’s offers a sound understanding of sociological theory and methods that enables you to see and evaluate the social issues you care about in new and exciting ways.

Student profile

The Master’s in Sociology is for you if you want to make sense of the social world, if you want to learn to ask better questions, if you want to learn how to do social scientific research or critically analyze our familiar contexts and, ultimately, if you are keen to think about alternative social worlds.

Competencies

As a sociology graduate you possess excellent research skills and have the capacity to define complex social problems, to ask good questions, to come up with potential solutions and to translate these into written recommendations. UvA Sociology graduates work in a variety of contexts, from municipal policy advise, to journalism, to NGO’s and scholarly work.

Focus on research

Staff of the Department of Sociology has an excellent reputation in their own specialist fields and bring this knowledge to their teaching in the Master’s programme. Many staff members are also active in various public debates and are involved in research on (government) policy.

Specialisation tracks

Next to this Master's programme in Sociology, there are six English-language specialisation tracks in Sociology:​

What is the difference between the MSc Sociology and the specialisation tracks?

The main difference between this Sociology degree programme and the English tracks is that the Sociology programme offers more choice.

Students in the general Sociology programme are allowed to put together their own curriculum by choosing from all the courses offered by the various specialisations, whereas it is compulsory for track students to choose from courses within their specialisation. Sociology students can specialise in one of the six majors, but may alternatively opt for a more general programme. 

Dutch students of the MSc Sociology may write their thesis and papers in Dutch (provided that the lecturers are able to understand Dutch).

Key facts