Who we are

Our beginnings

Graduate School was founded in 2007 in response to the Faculty of Social Sciences' need to offer interdisciplinary programmes in areas not covered by specific departments. Because of our unique organisational structure, we are able to engage experts from all corners of the faculty and university to help build our curriculum and teach our students. In this way, we offer international master's programmes and a large number of free-standing courses which are interdisciplinary by design. 

Education at Graduate School

Our students come from a blend of different social scientific backgrounds and are recruited to be diverse in their previous training and knowledge. We're proud to consistently admit high-performing students from nearly every continent to our programmes, and have found that this diversity of thought in the classroom creates invaluable experiences for those joining us for their graduate education, or even just an elective course.

Our programmes are built for the next generation of social scientists. Increasingly, there is a trend in higher education for students to have more agency in personalising the roadmap of their studies. As such, our programmes give our students lots of space to individualise their focus areas while becoming master's in their fields.

The first year is a mix of Graduate School-mandated profile courses, intended to get each cohort on the same page in the field of their programme and then deepen their knowledge of field. Students then take a mix of mandatory and elective methods courses to build and deepen their methods toolboxes as researchers.

During the second year, our students can take advantage of a variety of options meant to help them focus in on their future goals. Whether it's through practical experience during an internship, studying abroad throughout the world, or diving deep in more elective courses here in Lund, the third term is the time to really zero-in on one's individual professional goals and make concrete steps toward them. Finally, our students write their theses not at Graduate School, but rather in the departments corresponding to their majors, allowing them to receive supervision and feedback from experts in their fields. 

Join our mission

We're proud to see our alumni go on to do amazing work throughout the world, from governmental/non-governmental organisations, doctoral positions, and bringing their interdisciplinary expertise to the private sector. Together, we're united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition. Want to get in touch with us? Send us an email to master [at] sam [dot] lu [dot] se, or see our contact page.