A review of PhD research projects conducted within political science PhD programmes run at Italian Universities

by Stefania Panebianco | Published in issue3 /
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(An addendum to the article published on IPS n. 2/2008)

This article provides information on the PhD research projects conducted by students enrolled in the PhD in Political Studies, at the University of Milano, and in the PhD in International Studies, at the University of Trento. These data were not included in the article published in the IPS issue n. 2/2008, however they will be regarded as being part of the survey conducted last July, therefore these information should be integrated and/or compared with the results already published.

The response rate of PhD students enrolled at the University of Milano in the academic year 2007/2008 (40%) is slightly lower compared to the response rate of 50% obtained from the other Universities, including the University of Trento. These two groups of respondents are larger than the groups of PhD students enrolled at the University of Bologna, at the University of Pavia and at the University of Torino, but smaller that the PhD community of the SUM/Florence and of the University of Siena, which remains by far the largest one (see graph below).

PhD respondents and University affiliation PhD respondents and University affiliation

In line with the prevailing trend of the other PhD programmes, the PhD programme of the University of Milano mostly attracts Italian students having graduated in Political Science, usually at the same University. In most cases, there is also a disciplinary continuity between the PhD programme in Political Science and an undergraduate degree thesis conducted in Political Science disciplines. The PhD community based at the University of Trento is instead much more international; in fact more than half of the PhD students are non-Italian students and only one respondent was graduated at the University of Trento. In this case, there is a weak disciplinary continuity between the International PhD and undergraduate studies. Most of the PhD students graduated in disciplines other than Political Science, but at the post-graduate level almost all of them studied Political Science and wrote a dissertation in Political Science disciplines. As previously stated by survey respondents, a PhD programme in Political Science has a clear added-value from the point of view of training; in fact rarely PhD students declare that they were already skilled in the methodology and techniques of the PhD course, although in some cases they were familiar with the theme of the dissertation research prior to their PhD enrolment (there is not a relevant difference between PhD candidates in Milano and Trento).

As far as the sub-field of the PhD theses is concerned, in line with the majority of the survey respondents, for the PhD programme of Milano Comparative Politics is by far the most frequent selected option; there are however also theses conducted in Political Theory, International Relations, Public Policies, Italian Political System and EU politics. The PhD programme of the University of Trento has instead a more international orientation, and International Relations is the mostly chosen sub-field to write a PhD dissertation (all cases but one). The first PhD is more in line with the PhD programmes of the other Italian universities, while Trento stands out as an International Relations PhD programme. Once all the data are integrated, International Relations becomes the second largest sub-field of reference of PhD theses conducted in Italy, after Comparative Politics (see graph below).

Main sub-field of reference of PhD theses Main sub-field of reference of PhD theses

Concerning the themes chosen by the PhD theses conducted at the University of Milano, there is a wide selection of crucial topics of Political Science: political parties, parliamentary democracies, Europeanization, etc. The PhD dissertations conducted at the University of Trento deal with global issues such as energy, migrants workers’ rights, democracy and democracy promotion; the EU is the mostly researched actor.

As indicated by the first part of this survey, students enrolled in PhD courses in Italy are used to dialogue with the international political science community and use the most advanced research techniques. Research is mostly based upon a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Interviews and databases analysis are the mostly used research tool.

The international dimension of the PhD programmes run at the University of Milano and at the University of Trento stems from the language chosen to write the dissertation. PhD students often (but all in the Trento case) use English to write their dissertation.

The PhD programme of the University of Milano is involved in the internationalization process of PhD programmes run at Italian universities which had previously been signalled. Italian Political Science programmes are not self-referential, on the contrary they keep a close eye on the international Political Science community, not only in the traditional form of debating the international literature, but also thanks to the wide participation of their students in international conferences, summer schools and long research stays at universities abroad. The PhD in International Studies run at the University of Trento has already acquired an international dimension. In sum, although the formula of ‘international programme’ is not always formally used, we can legitimately say that the students community of Italian PhDs has achieved a fairly high level of internationalisation.