International Relations at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (UMCS) is a three-year, full-time Bachelor's programme with a general academic profile, taught in English at the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism. It is for those who want to understand a fast-changing world – relations between states, international organisations and non-state actors, and the processes that shape the international environment.
The curriculum treats international relations as cross-border activities and processes that are multi-faceted – political, economic, social, cultural, military and ecological – and multi-level, from the global and regional scale down to individual countries. Throughout the programme the focus is on change: how the international order is shifting, how globalisation and cyberspace reduce the role of distance, and how what is global connects with what is local. Besides the core courses, you choose from a range of optional subjects.
You can choose one of three specialisations:
The programme offers domestic and foreign apprenticeships and internships, as well as study trips to state institutions dealing with foreign policy and to international organisations.
You also meet people from politics, diplomacy, the media and culture, can develop your interests in scientific clubs and take part in Oxford-style debates. Trainings and courses run by the UMCS Competence Development Office and the Academic Incubator of Entrepreneurship, where you can develop your own ideas, complete the picture.
Studies are international in both directions: at UMCS you attend classes with visiting professors and foreign lecturers from around the world, and through the Erasmus programme you can spend part of your studies at one of the partner universities abroad.
Did you know? Teaching on the programme draws on the research tradition at UMCS known as the “Lublin school of international relations”.
As of the 2026/27 admissions, based on the programme pages at irk.umcs.pl.
