A Balanced Curriculum – MA IR

Maxwell attracts students from all over the world

Maxwell’s MAIR program is 16 months, but don’t think for one moment that you are not getting a full experience in this condensed time frame.  The program is comprised of two semesters on campus (fall and spring) followed by the integration of professionally oriented internships over the summer and following fall terms.  These internship experiences allow you to connect what you learn in the classroom with the skills you will need in the professional environment.  They also allow for extended study and work abroad – and continued foreign language proficiency – which can be quite critical as you move forward in this field.

The core components of our MA IR program go that extra mile – providing all students with competencies in the areas of:

(1)    Management in the international sector,

(2)    Policy analysis specific to international policy issues for informed decision making and effective program/project monitoring and evaluation, and

(3)    An understanding of the context, issues and actors in the field, such that you can negotiate and work with, through and sometimes around the various state and non-state interests to achieve complex policy goals.

As a school of social sciences, Maxwell takes research very seriously – but even in this multidisciplinary research-focused environment, our MA IR program is very professionally oriented.  While we allow you to focus on the development of expertise, which the field demands, we have also integrated a professionally focused pedagogy into our core classes that really allow you to develop specific skills required for work and advancement in the field.  This program will not simply be an extension of a high quality undergraduate liberal arts degree, where you study and integrate new knowledge and concepts. You will learn how to apply these new concepts to real life internationally oriented policy and management dilemmas – and have the skill set to make meaningful impact in the field.