IOCM students during a seminar

During your Studies

IOCM students during a seminar
Image: Rebecca Bück

IOCM Curriculum

Recommended Tracks
Image: IOCM
  • Disciplinary Core Track
  • Summer School
  • Study Trip
  • Study Abroad
  • Internship
  • Interdisciplinary Studies
  • Language Studies
  • Master's Thesis

    At the end of the IOCM programme every student writes a Master's Thesis. The process starts with a first meeting before students go abroad in the third semester. After selecting a first supervisor and discussing possible topics with them, students prepare a first short outline, then a full thesis proposal, which is presented and discussed in an obligatory, in-person Master's Thesis Workshop at the beginning of the fourth semester in Jena and revised for a second in-person meeting five to six weeks thereafter. Once the proposal is finalized and a second supervisor is selected, students notify the examination office (ASPA) of the start of their writing process, which is limited to six months and ends with handing in the 70 to 80 page thesis. More details are provided in due time.

    The first supervisor needs to be a PhD holder from the IOCM staff. The second supervisor must hold a Master's degree, preferably but not necessarily in political science. The second supervisor must not stem from the IOCM team. It can be another staff member from the Institute of Political Science or from other Institutes of the Faculty for Social and Behavioral Sciences or other faculties of University of Jena. Second advisors can also be recruited from external research institutions or experts of the field, e.g. during an internship. Such supervisors need the consent of the first supervisor and ASPA.

    DAAD (Promos) offers options to attain a scholarship for thesis research trips abroad. The supervisors can supply a recommendation letter. However, the deadlines for submitting applications need to be observed.

    In the file section below please find the ASPA guidelines on MA theses and the registration form.

    For those students who would like to have some inspiration of possible thesis topics, here is a list of a few past thesis titles:

    1. The impact of sanctions on humanitarian action in armed conflict. A case study of the provision of humanitarian aid in the Syrian Civil War
    2. Bullets and Gorillas. How International Conservation Efforts are Shaping the Virunga National Park in Eastern Congo
    3. Fertile Ground or Barren Soil for Consociational Democracy in Israel?
  • IOCM Lecture Series
  • Student Council

Files

The Examination Regulations, the Modul Catalogue and the Study Regulations can be downloaded as PDF.

Filter and sort the listed files
Type
Name
Category
Files
  1. effective only for students who enrolled before winter 2022/23
  2. Module Catalogue IOCM, revised English version 2022
  3. effective only for students who enrolled before winter 2022/23
  4. Study Regulations IOCM, revised English version 2022
  5. These are the ASPA Guidelines for MA Theses
  6. You need to fill out this form to register your MA Thesis with ASPA

Any Questions?

Please look for further information on the rest of our website, where we explain the various features of our study programme in detail.

If you still can’t find the answer you need, please contact us at: info.iocm@uni-jena.de

If you have questions, issues or remarks concerning your studies in Jena you can also contact your student representatives, the Student Council for Political Science and Social Studies (FSR).