The Master of Science in Sociology is an innovative English-taught programme at Ghent University, based on three cornerstones: an advanced scientific approach to contemporary societal problems, sociological research, and internationalisation. What are the social conditions that constitute the fundamental causes of health and illness? How can higher education institutions become more accessible? How are power and responsibilities formally and informally distributed within organisations? This programme addresses these and other contemporary social problems. Students acquire a strong academic approach that allows them to critically address such topics.

Sociological imagination is the ability to connect the things that happen to people (such as their success in education, their relationship with their parents and their well-being) to social characteristics (the way schools are organized, the divorce rate, the degree of social inequality). To have this sociological imagination, a person must pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point of view. We expect prior knowledge for students to start this programme, particularly the basics of sociological theories and perspectives and the basics of quantitative and qualitative methods and research methodology. Students who lack this prior knowledge must take courses of or take the full preparatory programme to the Master in Sociology. The full preparatory programme is one year Most of the courses in the preparatory programme are taught in Ghent, but some courses are taught at the VUB in Brussels. To take these courses, students should register as guest students at the VUB.

Sociology graduates are in great demand for their combination of thorough insights in society, research expertise, communication and project management skills. Ghent University Sociology graduates start an academic career (as PhD students or research fellows) or work in ngos, governmental organisations (on themes such as health prevention and radicalisation) and research departments (such as market research). The programme prepares you for work on scholarly projects in academia, governmental organisations or research institutes. You will be able to research social phenomena such as social inequity, gender differences, quality of labour, democratisation of higher education, migration or health and risk behaviour. Our programme also prepares students for future careers as policy advisors or project managers in human resources, journalism or education.