Our MA degree is one of the most competitive graduate level International Relations programs in Turkey, and very highly classified among others in the world. Every year 10-12 students are chosen from hundreds of applications, and accepted to the program fully-funded to serve as research assistants during their education. The main objective is to train our students for academic and professional careers in the field of International Relations. To this goal, we equip our students with substantive knowledge about the field, rigorous methodological and analytical skills on wide array of topics based on research interests and expertise of our faculty members. More than half of our MA students pursue their PhD in the leading academic institutions in North America and Europe following their graduation, and many others find very qualified jobs in government agencies, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations
Our students take 8 courses to complete their 24 credit units course work along with program required training such as Pre-Thesis Seminar, Academic Practices and Master’s Thesis. Among these 8 courses, they must take two program-required courses, International Relations Theory, and Issues in Turkish Foreign Policy; two courses among the method-elective cluster; three courses from department-elective cluster; and one unrestricted elective course that can be taken from any department to support the expertise of the student. A cumulative GPA of at least 3.00 must be maintained for the totality of MA level work, and following the completion of the course load, An MA thesis must be submitted to and approved by the thesis defense committee by the end of the second year in the program.
Our graduate admissions committee select the prospective students based on their achievements, scholarly skills, and academic fit. To apply the program, prospective students must have completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with a minimum of 1) 2.75 cumulative GPA, 2) ALES score of 55 (equally weighted, for Turkish citizens), or GRE score of 298 (verbal and quantitative total + minimum 4.0 analytical, for foreigners), 3) English proficiency measured via TOEFL IBT (at least 87 – home edition not accepted), IELTS (at least 6.5 average and 5.5 from each section) or Bilkent PAE (at least C).
For more information about the program, please contact: dgs_ir@bilkent.edu.tr.