Social Policy

Part of the public policy family, social policy is the discipline concerned with the governmental action aimed at insuring individuals in situations when these fail or face difficult times to provide for themselves (e.g. unemployment, childcare). Once the governmental programs in social policy expanded (with the expansion of the welfare state), countries across the world adopted a variety of social policy interventions. In this course, we will learn to distinguish between these interventions (e.g. is a state more liberal and relying on taxation instruments to insure the wellbeing of its citizens or has it adopted a more universal approach and equally provides with welfare services). We will deepen our knowledge through practical assignments based on social policy tools (e.g. work with unemployment benefit, social assistance benefit or tax credit). This way, we will learn to engage in the course as both: a professional in social policy and an analyst who understands core principles behind social policy. At the end of the course, students will have a good understanding of key social policy terminology and will be able to judge for themselves if they would like to become a social policy professional or continue on this study track.

Course leader

S. van der Laan

Target group

The course requires an intermediate level of preparation. Is it aimed towards the specific major in social policy, but it is relevant to a major in sociology or political science. Students that followed the European Welfare State course (beginner level) are automatically accepted.

Course aim

To provide the students with a solid understanding about the core principles and functioning mechanisms in social policy.
To identify different practices and concepts across the world using cases from students’ home countries and contrasting social security systems from various welfare states;
To prepare the students for a potential prospective social policy study track and to offer the students a professional orientation in this area.

Credits info

6 EC
Maastricht Summer School awards academic credit (ECTS) for courses successfully completed during the programme. To include these credits in the curriculum of your degree, you need to obtain official approval from the responsible department at your home institution.

Upon completion of a course, the Maastricht Summer School issues a transcript. The transcript states the student’s name, student ID-number, the grade or Pass/Fail and the number of ECTS credits.

Fee info

EUR 800: This 2-week course costs €800,-.