Why just read the books when you can study with the experts who wrote them?

The Research School of Social Sciences is the only research institute devoted to the social sciences in Australia and one of the very few in the world. As such it provides an unusually good environment for graduate study. The School attracts and retains scholars of great distinction and productivity. This means our graduate students have the opportunity to work with the leaders in their fields and our students are, as often as not, advised by the authors of the standard reference works in their area - or by those who are about to write the books or articles that will become the new standard references. We also attract a steady stream of prominent researchers from overseas. They typically come on visits of between two and six months and have a fine tradition of making themselves available to our graduate students for discussion.

There are a large number of research seminars on a whole range of issues in the social sciences each week throughout the year (except for Christmas and early to mid-January). No-one can go to them all, but there is the opportunity for a student (or staff member, for that matter) working in area X to learn about the latest research in area Y. We hope that our students, as well as doing outstanding work in their chosen fields, will become part of the exciting and challenging intellectual environment we provide in the School.

The Research School offers a number of Summer Research Scholarships in most academic programs during the summer vacation period. Offers are made subject to the availability of appropriate supervision and accommodation. Summer Research Scholars are expected to participate in an ongoing research project or to undertake a substantial piece of supervised research work, which may result in a report/paper, possibly for publication.

Enquiries about graduate studies in RSSS should be made to:

Human Resources Officer
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
Telephone 61 2 6125 6648
Facsimile 61 2 6125 6649

Graduate Information