Security, Intelligence & Strategic Studies (Erasmus Mundus International Master) IntM
The Erasmus Mundus International Master in Security, Intelligence & Strategic Studies brings together European and international partners to provide an integrated study programme engaging with theoretical, empirical and applied approaches to security, intelligence and strategy. You will study across Europe and can consider undertaking a work-based learning placement with a practitioner organisation on a competitive basis.
- Academic contact: imsiss@glasgow.ac.uk
- Teaching start: September
- Glasgow: Gilmorehill campus and International (multiple locations)
- IntM: 24 months full-time
Why this programme
- The University of Glasgow is the leading partner in the consortium of universities that have developed this joint masters programme. Other degree awarding partners include Charles University Prague (Czechia), Dublin City University (Ireland), University of Trento (Italy) and University of Belgrade (S
- Specialist master classes and webinars will be provided by practitioners and visiting academics.
- The programme will address a wide range of challenging intellectual questions, as well as the policy and ethical dilemmas that arise when state and non-state actors seek to resolve threats ranging from traditional interstate conflict to diverse contemporary issues such as terrorism, organised crime, and insecurity and vulnerability associated with technological and cyberspace advancements.
- You will also gain experience of the methods and products (linked to intelligence gathering and analysis, diplomacy and strategic communications) used by states, as well as the international political and economic/business communities to advance their security.
Programme structure
The programme is structured around a series of mobility periods across two years where you study at three universities for one semester each. Mobility periods are designed to enable you to engage with a variety of perspectives on the programme's themes and promote valuable knowledge and practical skills-based outcomes that will feed into future career opportunities.
Our five security themes reflect pressing global challenges, and guide the curriculum and research focus, ensuring you engage with the most relevant and evolving issues in the field. Each course is tagged with one or more of these themes.
- Emerging Technology & Digital Resilience
- War, Conflict & Peace Studies
- Radicalisation, Terrorism & Organised Crime
- Intelligence, Strategic Planning & Public Diplomacy
- Human & Environmental Security
During the first three semesters, you complete 90 ECTS, which must include courses that cover at least two of the programme’s five themes (min. 30 ECTS per theme). In the final semester, you undertake an independent study period. This includes researching and writing a dissertation, with the potential to apply for a professional internship on a professional basis.
Full details on the programme structure can be found on the IMSISS consortium website.
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Year 1
University of Glasgow (September - December)
All students will start the programme at the University of Glasgow. You will take two core and one optional course. Courses cover core theoretical concepts of security, intelligence and strategic studies.
Core courses
- Intelligence Analysis & Policy Making
- International Security & Strategic Studies
Optional courses
- Challenges in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia
- Contemporary Global Challenges
- Designing Your Security and Area Studies Research Proposal
- Development in Africa
- Ethics of War and Peace
- Globalisation: Challenges from the South
- Inequalities in Global Economy
- International Relations and Development
- Introduction to Human Rights
- Media and Democracy
- Politics of Nuclear Weapons and Energy
- Propaganda and Diplomacy
You can also take one non-credit bearing language course, subject to availability.
Dublin City University (January - May)
The DCU pathway’s core strengths are centred around conflict and peacebuilding, terrorism, radicalisation and contemporary regional security studies.
Optional courses (choose three)
- Asylum and Migration in the European Union: Politics and Policies
- Conflict, Security & Peacebuilding
- Counter-Terrorism in Europe
- Disinformation & Democracy
- Emerging Issues in Security
- Environmental Change & World Politics
- EU Foreign & Security Policy
- European & International Human Rights Law
- Gender Sexuality & Migration
- Intelligence Analysis: Theory and Practice
- Irish Foreign Policy
- Political Terrorism
- Politics of the Middle-East & North Africa
- Politics of the UN
- Russia & The Former Soviet Space
- Statehood & Recognition in World Politics
- War & Peace in South Asia
University of Trento (February– May)
The Trento pathway provides you with the opportunity to focus on the causes of conflict, providing students with a deeper critical understanding of security.
Core courses
- Civil Societies and Contentious Politics
- Geographies of Security
- History and Politics of the Middle East: Conflicts, Ideologies and democratisation
- Human Rights, Natural Resources and Conflicts or International Law and Security
Optional courses (choose two)
- Enlargement and the External Governance of the EU
- European Union Politics: Integration and Policies
- Global Economic Policy
- Labour Rights in the Global Economy
- Natural Resources and Energy Security
- Political Geographies of Environmental Change
- Power, Force and Violence in International Politics
- Research Methods in Security Studies
- Science, Technology and Global Affairs
- The Politics of China: Past and Present
Various locations (June - August)
- Research period to work on dissertation
- Summer School from a choice provided by partners and associate partners of the programme.
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Year 2
Charles University Prague (September - February)
Charles University in Prague provides you with the opportunity to further specialise in your chosen thematic areas.
Optional courses (choose five)
- Armed Forces and Society
- Arms Control and Disarmament
- Artificial Intelligence and Security
- Asian Security
- Conflict Studies
- Cyber Security
- Economic Warfare
- Ethics and Security
- European and Trans-Atlantic Security
- Gender and Security
- Health and Security
- Human Security
- Human-Artificial Intelligence Nexus
- Hybrid Warfare
- Insurgency and Counter Insurgency
- Intelligence
- Latin American Security
- Middle East Security
- NATO and EU Crisis Management
- Peacekeeping and Peacemaking
- Radicalisation and Deradicalisation
- Russian and post-Soviet Security
- Security and Migration
- Security and Technology
- Sociology of Technology
- Space Security
- Strategic Studies
- Technoscientific Imaginaries and Futures
- Terrorism and Counterterrorism
- The Far Right Today
- War Studies
- Warfare and Technology
University of Belgrade (September - February)
The University of Belgrade offers courses which reflect the experiences of security in the Balkan region and its place in the wider European and global security context.
Optional courses (choose five)
- Critical Approaches to Peacebuilding
- Critical Security Studies
- Cybersecurity, data politics and open-source intelligence
- Development Studies: Approaches, Actors and Issues
- Disintegration of Yugoslavia and Post-Yugoslav Wars
- Ethnic Conflicts and Peacebuilding in Divided Societies
- European Colonialism and its Legacy
- European Geopolitics Through Serious Games
- Failed States and State-building
- International Order and Reactionary Politics
- Regional Peace and Security through Cinema
- Security Sector Governance
- Violent Extremism and Radicalisation in the Western Balkans
Independent study (March - August)
You must apply for an internship which you will complete during your second year of study. You can choose to incorporate research from your internship into your independent study, or you can decide to complete your internship as a standalone work-based learning opportunity.
You complete your studies by undertaking your dissertation during the fourth mobility period. This must be done at a location formally connected with the programme, or approved by the programme director.
Programme alteration or discontinuation
The University of Glasgow endeavours
to run all programmes as advertised. In exceptional circumstances, however, the University may withdraw
or alter a programme. For more information, please see: Student contract.
Career prospects
Graduates from this programme are prepared to pursue careers in security-related posts in government offices and public administration, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, transnational business corporations and private security and risk analysis companies. Some might also like to pursue a doctorate and an academic career.
Fees & funding
Tuition fees for 2027-28
IntM
Fees for the 2 year programme:
UK/EU and non-EU programme countries
- Full time fee: £9,750 per annum or €11,255 per annum
All other countries
- Full time fee: £20,260 per annum or €23,385 per annum
The fees charged to students reflect the fee and funding regime established by the European Commission in respect of Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree programmes. This means that, for this programme, fees paid by Programme Country students (EU, EEA [Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein] and ERASMUS associated countries [Turkey, FYR Macedonia, Serbia]) are the same as those paid by UK students.
The fees listed here cover tuition only. The University of Glasgow can only collect fees in Pound Sterling at the published GBP values and subject to exchange rates at the time of payment. As the programme contains various mobility periods, students (funded and self-funded) will need to cover their own airfares between each chosen partner.
Fee status
Deposits
All applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2000 to secure a place on this programme.
Deposits: terms & conditions
The following guidelines will apply in determining whether a deposit will be refunded. Where the deposit is refunded, a 25% administration fee will be deducted unless otherwise stated.
a: Deposits WILL be refunded to applicants under the following circumstances:
- Where the University is unable to offer you a place on the programme as specified on the offer. A full refund will be issued in this case.
- Death of a close family member (parent/guardian, grandparent, sibling, spouse, child/dependent). Official evidence (signed and stamped) must be provided.
- SERIOUS ill health of the applicant or a close family member (parent/guardian, grandparent, sibling, spouse, child/dependent). Official evidence (signed and stamped) must be provided.
- Applicant does not meet conditions of offer. This may be academic or language test requirements. Satisfactory evidence must be uploaded to the student’s applicant self-service to prove that they have not met the conditions of their offer (note that applicants who do not meet the language condition of their offer must show reasonable attempt to meet this, i.e. they must provide at least two language tests which were taken after the date the deposit was paid).
- Visa / ATAS refusal: we will only consider a refund if the visa / ATAS refusal was based on matters outside of the applicant’s control.
- If a refund request is received within 14 days of the deposit being received a full refund will be issued under the Consumer Protection Regulations.
b: Deposits WILL NOT be refunded to applicants under the following circumstances:
- An applicant decides not to attend the University for any reason not outlined above.
- Personal financial constraints / unsuccessful scholarship application.
- Applicant has decided to defer – in this situation the University will retain the deposit and hold it against the applicant’s account to secure their place for the following year of entry. You may defer twice. After the second deferral standard conditions will apply.
- There is still time to meet the English language test requirement before the final upload date. Please see section a) 4.
- Visa / ATAS was applied for too late. Please see section a) 5.
- Any documents used for admission are proven to be fraudulent. We work in partnership with Qualification Check to check academic qualifications. English language qualifications are verified with the provider.
- The refund request is received more than 30 days after the official course start date as outlined in your offer email.
Timeframe for requesting a refund
Refund requests must be received no later than 30 days after the official course start date as outlined in your offer email. As per section b)7 above the request will be denied.
Receiving a refund
- To comply with Money Laundering Regulations, the University will pay all refunds to the original payer using the source payment details. This is known as a “return to source” payment.
- All appropriate documentation and evidence relating to the original payment must be provided, when requested.
- All payments and refunds are in GBP currency - the University is not responsible for any exchange rate fluctuations or beneficiary bank charges associated with the refund.
- Where University approved payment methods have not been used, this may cause significant delays or prevent payment altogether.
- We will aim to issue the deposit refund within 8 weeks of receipt of information per point 2 above. At peak times this may be longer.
How to request a deposit refund
Please go to our enquiry form and select 'Fees and Deposit' as the enquiry reason and then 'Can I have a deposit refund?'.
Please upload all supporting documentation to your applicant self-service portal before submitting the above request.
Additional fees
- Fee for re-assessment of a dissertation (PGT programme): £370
- Submission of thesis after deadline lapsed: £350
- Registration/exam only fee: £170
Funding opportunities
University of Glasgow CoSE-UGM Alumni Scholarship
We are delighted to announce a scholarship for graduates of UGM wishing to undertake a masters programme in the College of Science and Engineering.
Banco de Mexico
The Mexican National Bank (Banco de Mexico) provides special loans for students who wish to undertake a programme of postgraduate study. The University of Glasgow in partnership with Bank of Mexico FIDERH is offering a fee discount to holders of a Bank of Mexico FIDERH loan. See the FIDERH website for further information.
ANID (la Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo)
The University of Glasgow offers a 25% discount to all successful ANID scholars who enrol at the University of Glasgow to complete a postgraduate programme.
(Please note that this scholarship was previously known as CONICyT)
The scholarships above are relevant to this programme. For more funding opportunities search the scholarships database
Entry requirements
2.1 Hons (or non-UK equivalent) in with backgrounds in humanities and social sciences, for example Politics, International Relations, History, Peace Studies, Area and Cultural Studies, Law, Sociology, Anthropology, Criminology, Human Geography, Computing Science, Literature, Philosophy, Organizational Studies, Social and Public Policy, Global Studies, Psychology, Media Studies and Journalism, Modern Languages, Economics, Environmental Studies, Management or Business.
Applicants with backgrounds in Computer Science, Engineering or Philosophy will not be eligible for Pathway B (University of Trento).
Applicants who have indicated a preference for Pathway B (Trento) will also be required to demonstrate proficiency in another language other than English or Italian at level B2 or above. Students need to prove skills for a second language, not including Italian, at Level B2 or above through one of following:
a secondary school diploma acquired in any third language other than English/Italian, or a degree certificate (undergraduate or masters) acquired in any third language or a certificate from a recognised testing institution that makes clear reference to CEFR level B2.
Previous knowledge of Italian is not required. The University of Trento will provide Italian classes for those who choose to study there.
A 2.2 Honours degree in one of the degree subjects listed above, may also be considered if supported by directly relevant work experience.
Applicants should indicate their pathway preference on the Scholarship or Self-funder Application form.
International students with academic qualifications below those required should contact our partner institution, Glasgow International College, who offer a range of pre-Masters courses.
English language requirements
For further information about English language requirements, please contact the Recruitment and International Office using our enquiry form
For applicants from non-majority English speaking countries, as defined by the UK Government, the University sets a minimum English Language proficiency level.
Accepted English Language Tests
We accept a wide range of English language tests for entry to this programme. Tests must have been taken within 2 years 5 months of programme start date, and requirements must be met using a single test.
IELTS Academic/IELTS Academic for UKVI/ IELTS Academic online
- 6.5 overall with no subtest less than 6.0
- IELTS One Skill Retake Accepted
- We do not accept General Training
TOEFL iBT (including MyBest and Home Edition)
Test taken up to 20 January 2026
- 90 overall with no subtest less than Reading 20; Listening 19; Speaking 19; Writing 21
Tests taken from 21 January 2026
- 92 overall with no subtest less than 4.5
PTE Academic (test centre only)
- 65 overall with no subtest less than Reading 60; Listening 60; Speaking 65; Writing 60
- We do not accept the online PTE Academic
Cambridge C1 Advanced and C2 Proficiency
- 176 overall with no subtest less than 169
Oxford ELLT
- 7 overall with no subtest less than 6
LanguageCert Academic/Academic SELT/ Academic Online
- 70 overall with no subtest less than 65
Password Skills Plus
- 6.5 overall with no subtest less than 6.0
Trinity College Integrated Skills in English II
- 96 overall with no subtest less than 90
Kaplan Test of English
- Any two subtests at 480 or higher, and any two subtests at 450 or higher
PSI Skills for English
- B2 Pass with Merit
Duolingo English Test
- 120 overall with writing at 120 and no subtest less than 110
Oxford Test of English Advanced
- 140 Overall with any two subtests at 126 or higher, and any two subtests at 136 or higher
Alternatives to English Language test
Degree from majority-English speaking country (as defined by the UKVI including Canada if taught in English)
- students must have studied for a minimum of their final year at Undergraduate level, or 9 months at Master's level, and must have completed their degree in that majority-English speaking country within 6 years of programme start.
TNE degree from UK university taught at a campus outside of the UK
- students must be awarded the degree by the UK university and must have completed the degree within 6 years of programme start.
Pre-sessional courses
The University of Glasgow accepts evidence of the required language level from the English for Academic Study Unit Pre-sessional courses. We would strongly encourage you to consider the pre-sessional courses at the University of Glasgow's English for Academic Study (EAS) Unit. Our Pre-sessional courses are the best way to bring your English up to entry level for University study and remain valid for 2 years following date of successful completion.
Our courses give you:
- direct entry to your University programme for successful students (no need to take IELTS);
- essential academic skills to help you study effectively at University;
- flexible entry dates so you can join the right course for your level.
For more detail on our pre-sessional courses please see: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/mlc/eas/pre-sessionalcourses/
We can also consider the pre-sessional courses accredited by the below BALEAP approved institutions to meet the language requirements for admission to our postgraduate taught degrees:
- Heriot Watt
- Kingston Upon Thames
- Middlesex University
- Manchester University
- Reading University
- Edinburgh University
- St Andrews University
- UCL
- Durham
International students
We are proud of our diverse University community that includes students and staff from more than 140 different countries.
How to apply
For information on applications and to apply, please see the consortium website:
Apply to programme (consortium website)
More information about this programme
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