The Master's Programme in Political Science with a Specialisation on German and European Studies is an interdisciplinary and international cooperation project at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (NaUKMA). Our main goal is to support the reform of Ukrainian social science in the fields of teaching, research and strategic consulting, where a knowledge transfer from the German and European science systems is believed to play its major role. The operation of the study program, students and teachers exchange as well as targeted support of young scientists and creative research projects are expected to lay down a new basis for a social science which promotes excellence in teaching and research as well as the Ukrainian democratisation process.

 

The Programme has been organized around a German-speaking study programme "German and European Studies", which came into existence in 2007, and is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and operated by the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena together with the NaUKMA.

 

Since then, the range of our activities has greatly expanded and now includes collaborative research initiatives of a different kind, namely regular-basis colloquiums, joint research projects, conferences, workshops and publications. By the means of the latter, we also succeed in reaching a wider public. The establishment of the Programme is intended to contribute to a strategic concentration of our activities and strengthen their effectiveness within and beyond the Ukrainian scientific landscape.

 

For us, it is important to emphasize that the Programme's contribution is of a supportive character, and our Ukrainian partners exercise absolute freedom in laying down the main directions of their own social science. We look to demonstrate a high scientific level of our own work and thus prove how value-neutral, theoretically and empirically founded work can contribute to the progressive political, economic and social development of a society.