Admission requirements
Mandatory course for students enrolled in the bachelor’s programme Security Studies. Only students of the Bachelor Security Studies can take this course.
Description
This course provides an introduction to doing social science research on a safety and security related matter. You will learn about the foundations of research, different research design considerations, and research ethics considerations. This course will also introduce you to basic data collection and data analysis methods.
This course forms the starting point for the other research methods courses in year 2. This course as well as the research methods courses in year 2 will help you develop important research skills that will help you prepare for your bachelor thesis. For this reason, this course is compulsory for all students following the bachelor Security Studies. No prior knowledge or experience in research is required to take this course.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course you will be able to:
Understand the fundamental concepts in social science research;
Acquire basic knowledge on a variety of research methods;
Identify appropriate research techniques and methods of data collection/analysis to answer specific research questions;
Reflect on research design choices, identify their limitations, and critique their execution;
Gain an understanding of the importance of research ethics.
Timetable
On the right side of the programme front page you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Brightspace.
Mode of Instruction
Total study load is 140 hours:
Contact hours (7 lectures): 21
Contact hours (4 course labs): 12
Self-study hours (including following the Brightspace materials and working on homework/assignments): 104 hours
Examination (end-term exam): 3 hours
Attendance of the course labs & lectures is mandatory.
If you miss more than 1 course lab you fail the course and won’t obtain a final grade.
If you miss more than 1 lecture you fail the course and won’t obtain a final grade.
Assessment method
Group assignment
30% of the final grade.
Grade must be compensated.
Resit not possible.
End-term exam
70% of the final grade.
Grade must be 5.50 or higher.
Resit of a fail is possible.
Resit will take the same form.
Students will be permitted to resit the end-term exam (70%) if they have a calculated overall course grade lower than 5.50.
Additional formative (non-graded) assignments are an obligatory part of the course.
In the case of written assessment methods, the examiner can always initiate a follow-up conversation with the student to establish whether the learning objectives have been met.
Transitional arrangements
Passed partial grades obtained in year 2024-2025 remain valid during year 2025-2026.
TA students who have passed either the Group Assignment OR End-term Exam are exempt from the attendance requirement for the lectures and course labs. However they are strongly adviced to attend the lectures.
Please be aware that passed partial grades obtained in academic year 2025-2026 are no longer valid during academic year 2026-2027.
Reading list
Compulsory literature for this course is:
Grønmo, S. (2023). Social research methods: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (Second ed.). SAGE.
Other (suggested) literature will be listed on Brightspace in due course.
Registration
Register yourself via MyStudymap for each course, workgroup and exam (not all courses have workgroups and/or exams).
Do so on time, before the start of the course; some courses and workgroups have limited spaces. You can view your personal schedule in MyTimetable after logging in.
Registration for this course is possible from Tuesday 9 December 2025 13:00.
Leiden University uses Brightspace as its online learning management system. After enrolment for the course in MyStudymap you will be automatically enrolled in the Brightspace environment of this course. Furthermore, announcements and modifications will be communicated via Brightspace. Students have the responsibility to stay informed and are thus advised to regularly check Brightspace for updates.
More information on registration via MyStudymap can be found on this page.
Please note 1: Registration for the resit of an exam is mandatory, this has to be done by the student and can be done from Monday 4 May 2026 until 10 days before the exam. Until 5 days before the exam you can email OSC and fill in a form.
Please note 2: guest-/contract-/exchange students do not register via MyStudymap but via uSis. Registration via uSis is possible from Thursday 11 December 2025
Contact
[Dr R. Ganohariti] (mailto:r.j.premaratne.ganohariti@fgga.leidenuniv.nl)
Remarks
For exceptions, please contact the Board of Examiners.
A pass is required for this course in order to be admitted to the Thesis course in year 3.