Quantitative Methods

Studiepoeng, omfang

10 ECTS

Studienivå (studiesyklus)

Master

Undervisningssemester

Spring

Mål og innhald

The aim of this course is to provide students with advanced skills in the most important techniques and recent developments within quantitative methods in the social sciences. Through a combination of introductory lectures and practice workshops, the course will enable students to carry out empirical quantitative research and make sound methods choices when writing their MA thesis. Students will be provided with an advanced overview of - and the opportunity to practice - different quantitative methods for the study of global challenges from a politic science angle: various forms of statistical analyses such as linear regression, logistic regression, and multilevel analysis, but also experimental methods, quantitative text analysis and network analysis. The course will also provide advanced knowledge of statistical packages, such as Stata or R.

Læringsutbyte

A student who has completed the course should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has advanced knowledge of:

• key methods used in quantitative research
• the suitability and limitations of using quantitative approaches
• key design choices, ethical standards and quality criteria in quantitative research

Skills

The student can:

• justify and critically discuss the choice of quantitative methods within a research design
• operationalise concepts for quantitative measurement
• collect, clean, analyze and present quantitative data
• use suitable software for data analysis
• apply and integrate different quantitative methods in empirical analyses

General competence

The student can:

• recognize and critically discuss the advantages and limits of quantitative designs
• identify and manage ethical and scientific standards of quantitative research
• present and defend their quantitative research projects orally and give constructive feedback on other students´ projects

Tilrådde forkunnskapar

GOV351, GOV352, GOV353

Studiepoengsreduksjon

None

Krav til studierett

The course is open for students who have been accepted to the Master's programme in Politics and Governance of Global Challenges and students who have been accepted to the Masterprogram i politikk og forvaltning . Exchange students may be accepted upon application.

Arbeids- og undervisningsformer

6-7 introductory (video) lectures combined with 6-7 practice workshops where students learn to apply quantitative methods; seminars to present student work.

Obligatorisk undervisningsaktivitet

Presentation of a draft essay in a seminar (individual research report, about 2000 words) in which student outlines their quantitative research project. In addition, each student is required to comment on two other students´ written/oral presentation.

The compulsory assignment must be approved in order to take the exam. Approved compulsory assignments are valid in the current and following two semesters.

Vurderingsformer

Written essay (research report), approximately 5000 words.

Karakterskala

A-F

Vurderingssemester

Assessment in teaching semester. Students who have a valid document of absence or fails the exam may take a new exam in the following semester.

Litteraturliste

The reading list will be ready before 1 July for the autumn semester and 1 December for the spring semester.

Emneevaluering

All courses are evaluated according to UiB's system for quality assurance of education.

Programansvarleg

The Programme Committee is responsible for the content, structure and quality of the study programme and courses. 

Emneansvarleg

Course coordinator and administrative contact person can be found on Mitt UiB. 

Administrativt ansvarleg

The Department of Government at the Faculty of Social Sciences has the administrative responsibility for the course and the study programme.