Programme outline

The programme starts on Wednesday September 1 with an intensive levelling up period for all participants. By mid-October all students should be ready for the main courses. These main courses cover theoretical aspects that are complemented by exercises. In addition, students are encouraged to further their knowledge and skills by attending expert meetings, and by doing group and individual assignments.

Overview of the academic year

While most of the courses take place in G. D. Luxembourg, the programme organises a three-month stay at the University of Leuven (Belgium).

Term	Period	Location
Levelling up term	Early September to Mid-October	CEPS/INSTEAD (G.D. Luxembourg)
Second term	Mid-October to January	CEPS/INSTEAD (G.D. Luxembourg)
Third term	February to April	University of Leuven (Belgium)
Dissertation term	May to July	CEPS/INSTEAD (G.D. Luxembourg)

Most of the courses are scheduled in units of one week.

Levelling up term : refreshing and preparing

During the levelling up term the focus is on refreshing the students' knowledge to prepare them for the different courses offered during the next two terms. First, the goal of the levelling up term is to ensure that all students have a basic but sound understanding of social policy in general, with courses such as social policy, basic economics, new social developments and theories and labour market policy. These courses count for 8 of the 60 credits of the programme.

Second, the same applies for the students' understanding of statistics and research methodology in particular, with a levelling up statistics course that focuses on basic statistics and principles of research methodology and analysis. This course counts for 3 of the 60 credits.

Second term : deepening

The second term builds on the first and offers more in-depth courses on issues addressed before. Courses in this term are the Policy cycle, statistics and research Methods - part I and part II and the seminar with workshops. The statistcs courses in this term count for 10, and the others for another 10 of the 60 credits.

Third term : broadening

During the third term, students are exposed to more advanced statistics, in-depth social policy analysis and the environment in which policy is made through policy cycles, as well as tools that can be used to evaluate social policies. The goal of this term is to broaden the scope of the first two terms by explicitly addressing comparative social policy and auditing or methodology tools. In addition, it also includes an in-depth course on policy evaluation techniques and tools . These courses count for 13 of the 60 credits of the programme.

Dissertation term : finalizing

The final term is the dissertation term in which students work exclusively on their Master's paper. This has a weight of 16 of the 60 credits of the programme.