Our Mission
The University of California, Irvine, and (UCI) ranks among the top research universities in the nation. The UCI enrollment of 20,000 undergraduates and 3,600 graduate students is large enough to provide an active university environment. Our mission: a continued commitment to excellence and your achievement.

Political Science Department
The Department of Political Science is a nationally-ranked, top-30 department. In 2001, the Department was ranked 29th by U.S. News and World Report. Its faculty members have achieved distinction in research and professional visibility. Three members of the faculty (David Easton, Bernard Grofman, and Jack Peltason) are fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Other faculty members have served as officers of the major professional associations, including the American Political Science Association, International Studies Association, and International Society of Political Psychology. The Department has attained a reputation for producing the very best innovative and interdisciplinary scholarship. Faculty are engaged in the study of such key questions as the politics of advanced and democratizing societies, international cooperation and peace, the politics of racial and ethnic minority groups, and the origins of altruism and morality and their impact on world politics.

The Department has a very innovative Ph.D program with strong interdisciplinary emphases.  Graduate students can pursue concentrations in democracy studies, international relations, political economy/public choice, political psychology, and race and minority politics. Our Ph.D. program offers big payoffs to our graduate students, in fact, because of the extended range of inquiry an interdisciplinary program affords.