Applicants who have completed the equivalent of a Master's degree will be considered for admission to the PhD program. Graduate degrees in Political Science or close cognates such as International Relations or Public Policy are strongly preferred, applicants with fewer than four graduate-level courses in Political Science are admitted to the PhD only under exceptional circumstances. Applicants must have a minimum GPA of at least 3.3 in the last 60 graded credits of academic studies, but successful applicants will typically have a GPA of 3.7 or higher. Since English is the primary language of instruction and communication at the University of Alberta, all applicants must be proficient in English prior to admission. Applicants with degrees/ qualifications in a language other than English may need to demonstrate English Language Proficiency through one of the following exam scores:

TOEFL with a minimum score of 600 (paper-based) or a total of 100 (Internet-based) with a score of at least 20 on each of the individual skills areas, or
MELAB of 85, or
IELTS 7.0 with at least 6 on each band.