International Comparative Education (ICE) / International Education Policy Analysis (IEPA)

Program Requirements

Students must complete at least 48 units at Stanford to receive a Master's degree in ICE or IEPA. The following constraints are placed on those 48 units:

• All courses must be at or above the 100 level – courses numbered below 100 do not count toward the MA degree.
• At least 24 units must be at or above the 200 level (EDUC 180 or 190 count toward this requirement).
• At least 30 units must be from courses offered by the Graduate School of Education (EDUC units).
• At least 16 units must be taken for a letter grade (as opposed to Credit/No Credit).
• A 3.0 GPA must be maintained for all courses applied to the master's degree.
• Students must enroll in a minimum of 8 units during Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters, and cannot exceed 18 units in any quarter.
• ICE/IEPA students must choose one of the following unit plans. Combinations, alterations, or exceptions to these unit plans are not allowable.
  • Enroll in at least 11 units Autumn and Winter quarter, at least 8 units Spring quarter and exactly 6 units in Summer quarter OR
  • Enroll in at least 11 units Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarter and exactly 3 units in Summer quarter
  Note: Students must enroll in at least 6 units during all quarters (including Summer) in which they wish to maintain eligibility to receive financial aid (such as loans).
• English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOLLANG) and Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation (ATHLETIC) courses cannot be applied towards the master's degree.
• All courses taken outside the GSE must be approved by the Program Director.
• See the "Coterminal Degree” section for unit requirements applying to students admitted through the coterminal degree program.

Required Courses

Note: All course information is subject to change. Please consult ExploreCourses and Axess for final course offerings.

*EDUC 206D will be offered in Summer 2024-25 (Wotipka, C.; Santos, H.; Song, J.) (3)

Students in the program are required to take the EDUC 206 series to complete their Master's (MA) Paper requirement. By enrolling in EDUC 206A, B, C and D, students are advised through the process of developing their projects through to the completion of their papers at the end of Summer Quarter. To make satisfactory academic progress in the ICE/IEPA program, students must have their MA Paper proposals approved by the start of Spring quarter. Failure to do so means the student is not making satisfactory progress and will trigger an academic review.

Research Methods

Choose two from the following (others must be approved by the Program Director):

Students who plan to collect their own data for their MA Papers are required to enroll in EDUC 206B for 3 units and take no more than three additional courses in Winter and Spring quarters. In addition, they must enroll in a Directed Research (EDUC 190) with one of their advisors in Winter or Spring quarters.

Students who plan to use qualitative methods for their MA Papers must take EDUC 200A (or the equivalent) and EDUC 200B.

For those who plan to conduct quantitative data analyses, in addition to (or in place of) EDUC 200A, students have the option of enrolling in one or more of the following courses: EDUC 326, 400B, 423A, 423B, 430A, 430B, 430C, PUBLPOL 303D, or an equivalent with approval from the Program Director. Students often take more than one of these courses and are highly encouraged to take a mini course in methodology (e.g., EDUC 401B: Mini Courses in Methodology: Stata). 

Students who plan to collect their own quantitative data using survey methods (interviews, questionnaires) for their MA Papers are required to take EDUC 399A: Designing Surveys.

Students enrolling in EDUC 215: Education Internship Workshop can apply up to 6 units toward their degree; students may enroll in 3 units (max.) per quarter.

ICE-specific requirements

Enroll in two of the following:

Students are encouraged to enroll in one of the following policy courses:

IEPA-specific requirements

Choose one of the following (students are encouraged to enroll in at least two): 

Enroll in one of the following (students are encouraged to enroll in both):

Additional ICE-Related Courses Offered by the GSE in 2024-2025 (Recommended)

English for Speakers of Other Languages

Non-fluent speakers of English are strongly encouraged to take one of the following writing courses:

Project: MA Paper (Due Friday, August 1, 2025)