Master of European Politics and Policies (MEPP)
Programme
| Curriculum | Academic Calendar | Dissertation | Teaching Staff |
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Curriculum 2009-10
The MEPP program consists on the one hand of a trunk of compulsory courses, including a research seminar and master’s dissertation. And a list of elective courses on the other hand, allowing you to combine your particular interests either towards specific policy issues (political economy, foreign policy, international security, social policy), or to a more historical, political, economic or legal approach.
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You complete the programme in one year by acquiring 60 credits. The first semester will be mainly devoted to the compulsory courses and the Research Seminar. Students with no or little background in Public Administration will spend a lot of their time on these courses and will go more easily through the courses on European decision making and vice versa. The second semester will be devoted to both courses and writing the Master’s dissertation. In most courses class discussions and questioning is encouraged, requiring you to prepare lectures in advance. Moreover, group work and/ or presentations are part of the teaching method, which entails that you will also be meeting and working a lot outside class hours. In both semesters, time for leisure and pleasure is created by means of extra curricular activities. |
Consult the MEPP programme book, timetable and description of courses.
| Course description | Professor | Credits | Semester | |
| Compulsory | European Policy- and Decision-making | F. Govaerts | 4 | 1 |
| Comparative Public Administration in Europe | K. Verhoest | 4 | 1 | |
| Comparative Public Management in Europe | G. Bouckaert | 4 | 1 | |
| Pressure Groups in the European Union | P. Bouwen | 4 | 2 | |
| Comparative Public Policy in Europe | M. Brans | 4 | 2 | |
| Multilevel Governance: Comparative Analysis of Regionalism and Federalism | A.M. Dobre | 4 | 2 | |
| Research Seminar | J. Matthys | 5 | 1 | |
| Master's dissertation | 15 | 1+2 | ||
| Preferential list of Electives (min. 10 credits) | ||||
| International Political Economy | B. Kerremans | 4 | 1 | |
| Global Environmental Politics | H. Bruyninckx | 4 | 1 | |
| Strategy and global security analysis | L. Reychler | 6 | 2 | |
| The European Social Model | J. Berghman | 4 | 2 | |
| Russian Politics | K. Malfliet | 6 | 1 | |
| European Foreign Policy | S. Keukeleire | 6 | 1 | |
| Comparative and International Socio-Economic Policy | F. Vandenbroucke | 3 | 2 | |
| Free elective Courses | ||||
| Constitutional law of the European Union | K. Lenaerts | 6 | 1 | |
| European and International Social Security Law | D. Pieters | 4 | 1 | |
| Economic aspects of European Integration | N. | 6 | 1 | |
| Managerial Aspects of European Integration | D. Janssens | 6 | 1 | |
| Organizational decision making and change | M. Euwema | 4 | 2 | |
"The assessment panel assesses the coherence of the Master of European Politics and Policies as good.
The coherence within MEPP is strong as all courses contribute to the study of the discipline of European Public Administration and Politics in all its aspects. The assessment panel finds that there is a good balance between basic courses and more advanced courses, as there is between the concepts of European Public Administration and Politics oriented topics and their practical application. The assessment panel characterises the horizontal coherence as very well as the courses adequately cover the different subfields of the discipline. Moreover the vertical coherence is guaranteed by the good structure of compulsory and selection of electives in the curriculum.”
(Dutch-Flemish Accreditation commission-2007)
Academic calendar
The academic year at K.U.Leuven consists of 2 semesters, each having 13 weeks of lectures. The first semester starts late September and lasts until the end of the third week of January, with a two weeks’ break for the Christmas and New Year holidays (classes end by Christmas). The second semester starts the first week of February and lasts until the end of June, with a two week Easter break (classes end by mid-May). By and large the evaluation of the course is organised by an exam held at the end of each semester.
For the academic calendar of 2010-11, click here
All students are required to attend courses at K.U.Leuven during the first semester.
During the second semester students can attend courses either stay at K.U.Leuven or at one of the participating institutions of the EMPA network.
Master’s Dissertation
In addition to the course work of the first and second semester, students are expected to produce a dissertation (of about 15.000 words) that consists of work of potentially publishable quality which makes a contribution to theory and practice of public administration, public policy making in the European context and of other European political issues.
The guidelines for such a dissertation are described here. To give you an idea of possible topics, you can consult the list of 2010-11 [pdf].
Teaching staff
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Prof. Dr. Marleen Brans Director MEPP-programme |
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Prof. Dr. Stephan Keukeleire Vice-Director MEPP-programme |
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Prof. Dr. Geert Bouckaert |
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Prof. Dr. Katlijn Malfliet |
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Prof. Dr. Koen Verhoest |
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Dr. Ana Maria Dobre |
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Prof. Dr. Frans Govaerts |
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Dr. Pieter Bouwen |
