Master in Social Research. Innovations and applications.

  • Place: Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid.
  • Language: Spanish.
  • Timing: 18 months. October to February.

Our Master Program offers an applied and specialized training in methods and techniques of social and market research, both qualitative and quantitative. With a duration of one year and a half (18 months, 90 ECTS credits), most of the faculty involved belongs to the Department of Sociology IV (Methodology of Social Research and Theory of Communication). Since the Master is part of the Sociology Graduate Program of the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, those who intend to pursue a Ph.D. later will obtain direct access to the doctoral program.

The master is done along a year and a half with the following structure:

  • A first semester (October to February) with five compulsory core courses (30 ECTS credits).
  • A second semester (February to June) with two mandatory practical workshops and three electives to choose from a total of six (30 ECTS credits).
  • External research training (compulsory,20 ECTS credits) in private companies or public agencies, that take place between the second and third semester.
  • Final research dissertation that is developed during the third semester (10 credits) and compulsory in order to obtain the Masters Degree.

Academic Program:

First semester:

  • Network Research and Digital Society.
  • Material culture and audiovisual methodology.
  • Technologies and digital applications for social research.
  • Survey methods in the digital society.
  • Qualitative methods applied to social research.

Second semester:

  • Two subjects required practices:
    • Workshop / Laboratory of multivariate analysis.
    • Workshop / Laboratory analysis of qualitative materials.

Three optional courses to choose from the following list:

  • Social research methodology.
  • Participatory action research (PAR): different scopes.
  • Marketing and market research.

External training: The Master includes mandatory practices in research departments in private companies or public agencies ( 20 ECTS credits). Students may choose between a full time or part time arrangement during the second or third semester (three to six months).

Final research dissertation (10 ECTS credits). To obtain the Masters Degree, students must submit, with the agreement of his/her advisor, a final research dissertation that shows an advanced knowledge in methods and techniques of social research learned in the master courses.