Have you ever thought about pursuing political science as a major but found that the program structure did not fulfill your expectations? If so, there are major, long-awaited changes coming to the Political Science curriculum starting Fall 2026, which might attract your attention and convince you to pursue a political science major.

As Aryam Al-Hosani, NYU Abu Dhabi’s Political Science Academic Representative, outlined that the major change to the curriculum is the introduction of concentrations. These concentrations will give students an opportunity to specialize based on what they want to do in the future. The concentrations which will be available to Political Science students include International Affairs and Foreign Policy (IAFP) as well as Data Analytics (DA). While the former will be more focused on political science in practice, the latter aims to prepare students for more academic programs after graduation.

Other major changes that are coming relate to the capstone requirements for political science. Most notably, the introduction of a policy report, which would be an option available to students in the IAFP concentration. The DA students, likely wanting to have a career in academia, would still have to do an academic capstone. Nevertheless, such a change to the major improves its academic flexibility. According to Professor Jeffrey Jensen, the Associate Program Head of Political Science and one of the faculty standing behind the changes, this change was primarily a response to years of negative student feedback on the program structure, namely the overtly large focus on quantitative methods. Now, the students will have an option to choose what interests them most and be able to use their senior project, either a policy report or an academic capstone, to support their future career endeavors.

Another important change is that of the foundational courses. In the past, political science required students to take two introductory courses: Introduction to International Politics and Introduction to Comparative Politics. Because of the large overlap, they will now be replaced by one course called Political Thinking in Practice (PTP), which will be based on Introduction to Political Thinking, another foundational course. This way, Professor Jensen explained, more faculty will be free to focus on offering electives instead. After these changes are implemented next year, there will be up to 9 electives offered per semester as opposed to only a couple, which has historically been the case.

Furthermore, many of these courses will be more advanced than their prior counterparts, since the new curriculum will require students to take a minimum of one 3000-level course. This is great news, especially for current juniors, as it means in their senior year they will be able to enroll in classes useful for graduate school applications or in preparation for various jobs in the field which require more sophisticated analytical skills. The increase in available electives, decrease in Methods elective requirements, and the total course count of 12 will all contribute to the major’s increased flexibility. Both the Political Science Representative and Professor Jensen expressed hope that those who previously thought the rigid structure of Political Science did not suit their needs will now consider choosing it as their field of study .