Department of Government, The University of West Indies at Mona

Develop a body of research and teaching and policy oriented materials which can assist in deepening and expanding theoretical and empirical knowledge in the study of government and politics in general, and particularly as they relate to the Caribbean Community.
Contribute to the rapid development of a pool of technical specialists with the competence, skills and commitment required analysing and advancing solutions to complex problems relating to issues of governance and power.
Provide a corps of faculty and graduates, ready to assist in the formulation and implementation of programmes and policies designed to strengthen organisational and bureaucratic imperatives of nation-building and development.

Admission normally demands a good first degree in a relevant discipline with sound undergraduate coverage in the particular sub-field of concentration. In exceptional cases where students are admitted without appropriate fundamentals, undergraduate courses will be substituted as departmental requirements.

The length of the programme shall be three semesters, or 15 months, for a full-time student, and six semesters, or 30 months for a part-time student.

In addition to Research Methods, all students are expected to pursue a structured sequence of courses in one of the following three sub-fields of concentration. Courses with asterisks (*) are compulsory. Others are optional and may be substituted with other appropriate 3-credit courses in the Department or elsewhere.

Full-time students will be required to take four 3-credit courses each in Semester I and II. Semester III, will be devoted to the Research Paper worth 6 credits. Part-time students will take two courses per semester and complete the Research Paper in the final semester of their programme. University Regulations do not permit students who work full-time to also study full-time.

It should be noted that, for each sub-field, compulsory courses are marked with an asterisk (*). Optional courses include courses within the sub-field, and also, where possible, relevant courses offered by the other departments in the Faculty of Social Sciences and other Faculties. Naturally, special approval is required for registration in an extra-departmental course, from both the Department of Government and the other Department or Faculty and all prerequisites must have been covered by the student concerned.

Assessment is through a combination of course work, usually involving a strong research component and written examinations. The minimum pass grade is a B for each subject achieved in both course work and examination components, i.e. student must pass 50% of each component.

The course lecturer and a second internal examiner will carry out the assessment of performance in each examination course. The supervisor, another internal examiner, and an external examiner will carry out the assessment of Research Papers. There will be an external evaluation of the programme, commissioned once every three years, to assess the functioning of the programme, and to ensure the maintenance of high academic standards and international comparability.

In cases where students are required to resit exams, they may do so in only three of the taught courses, and they may resit an examination only once. They will also be allowed to rewrite the Research Paper once within a specified time frame, if the first presentation is unsatisfactory. If students do not progress at a satisfactory rate through the programme; their performance will be reviewed, and they may be requested to withdraw. In the case of full-time students, unsatisfactory performance would be indicated by the failure to pass three courses in the first semester. In specific cases, special circumstances may be taken into consideration when applying these rules.

The research project is an integral part of the MSc. course of study. Its main objective should be to apply what has been learned in the core courses to an analysis of a particular aspect of the political, international and or administrative process within a given subject area. The paper should be double spaced type-written comprising about 10,000 - 15,000 words.

Soon after the courses on Research Methods, each student is assigned a research supervisor by the Programme Director (s). Together the supervisor and student agree on an outline and research strategy.

Three copies of the paper agreed on for FINAL SUBMISSION are due by July in the year of graduation.

Students must meet with their respective Programme Directors to be assigned a Research Supervisor.