Study in UK - Why I choose international relations course

Hi, I need help for my Chevening application essay. Thank you!

Studying in the UK Question

Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses, and explain how this relates to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future.

*Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

Currently, I work as an Expert Staff for Members of Parliament in the House of Representatives. However, I realized that a bachelor's degree is not strong enough to provide various inputs and suggestions to the Member to use in national policy making. I believe that continuing my study will make my future steps more feasible to go into the portion of public policy making.

The concentration of my research comes from my own interests, namely diplomacy as the prevention or conflict resolution. I realize that almost all national and international policies are resulted by political decisions, and every political decision always comes from negotiation and diplomacy among the actors involved. Quoting Berthold Brecth, a German poet, the worst illiterate is the political illiterate, that the cost of living and the prices depend on political decisions. A political ignorance can cause the prostitute, the robber, and corrupt officials. Given that almost all policies were resulted by diplomacy, those who have strong diplomatic power will win political decisions.

Based on my experience of working in the field of policymakers, diplomacy between policy makers depends on resource of information, support of others, and the power of diplomacy. Many state welfare policies are lost to outside party negotiations during international, national and regional negotiations. There are not many Universities offering Diplomacy in International Relations as a major. With careful research, I found three Universities for my purpose :

1.MA in International Relations (Diplomacy) at Univeristy of Birmingham. This program is placed under School of Government and Society. University of Birmingham provides study in a supportive environment with research-active staff working on diplomacy and internationals relations. I found the curriculum that is just right for me in the program module. One of them being Diplomacy and Statecraft which is my favorite curriculum considering I am currently working in state institution.

2.MA in Diplomacy at University of Nottingham. This program is placed under School of Politics and International Relations. The curriculum offered is broader because it focus not only on statecraft, but also addresses civil and commercial diplomacy services. That caught my attention was the module on quantitative political analysis, the knowledge that is rarely taught in other Universities.

3.MA in Global Governance and Diplomacy at University of Leeds. This program is placed under School of Politics and Intenational Studies. It provides the expertise and skills required to pursue career in international organization. The course is skills-based teaching concerning the global challenges of recent time. The interesting things in this course are the students will be equipped in the skills of diplomacy field, not only theories but also practices.

In conclusion, I am very excited to immediately learn Diplomacy in International Relations in United Kingdom in any of the university above with their own strengths and weaknesses that I am ready to adapt with. I believe that this study will empower my theoretical and practical abilities in diplomacy as prevention or conflict resolution. The most important is to support my future career focusing in my country's Diplomacy.

Humaira, I think the motive you wrote in the first paragraph is not powerful enough. I think you need to focus on the importance of the professional/ educational outcome that you are seeking, not the impact of the title.

Humaira, you need to specify your academic background in relation to Diplomatic Relations. Indicate if you studied Foreign Service or a similar course in college and then explain how your college studies helped you get this far in your career. Discussing your shortcomings as a professional is a nice touch. It shows the reviewer that you have given your course choices careful consideration and that you based your university and course choices on professional considerations.

However, I found that you depiction of the masters courses fall short of explaining each course's applicability to your current or future career plans. You need to explain less about what you hope to learn and how you will be using these information to help improve diplomatic relations or negotiate international contracts in the future. The essay specifically asks you to detail your future career goals in relation to your course choices so you have to explain that in no less than 2 sentences within the university and course choice paragraph.