MA Comparative International Relations

Ca' Foscari University of Venice runs Comparative International Relations as a two-year, 120-CFU laurea magistrale in class LM-52. It is comparative by design: rather than teaching international relations from a single national vantage point, it pairs theory and international law with deep area studies, drawing on Ca' Foscari's unusual institutional strength in Asian and Middle Eastern studies — the university has taught Asian languages and politics since the nineteenth century.

The programme is split into five curricula, and only two of them — European Union Studies and Global Studies — are taught entirely in English. The other three (the Americas, East Asia and Eastern Europe tracks) are delivered in Italian. A Sri Lankan applicant must therefore enrol on one of the two English curricula, and should say which one in the application. Coursework across both spans international relations theory, international and European law, the history of international relations, international economics and political economy, research methods, and a supervised thesis. Language study is embedded rather than decorative, with Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian and the major European languages available.

The cost is the reason this route is worth a serious look. Non-EU students who do not file Italian ISEE income documentation pay a flat annual fee set by their country group — for Sri Lanka that is €1,300 a year for 2026/27, and the figure is inclusive of the €192 regional tax and the €16 stamp duty. Applicants who do file ISEE can pay more, up to roughly €2,636. The substantive budget is Venice living costs and the roughly €6,900 annual proof of funds the study visa requires; even so, two years at Ca' Foscari costs less than a single UK taught MA once living costs are counted.

Admission is open access rather than capped, but it is conditional on a credit check: applicants need at least 36 CFU spread across law, economics, history and political science, with a minimum of 6 in each of the four and 12 more distributed among them. Shortfalls have to be made up through single-course examinations before enrolment. The natural applicant is a Sri Lankan BA in International Relations, Political Science, Economics, History, Law or Languages from Colombo, Peradeniya, Kelaniya, Jayewardenepura or an affiliated UK programme — and students aiming at the Sri Lanka Foreign Service examination or the UN and INGO sector in Colombo find the comparative structure more usable than a purely theoretical IR degree.