Dear Ruud Van Dijk,
As Head of the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science I am writing to thank you for your recommendation of [name of recent University of Amsterdam MA graduate] for graduate study at LSE in 2011/12. Now that we are into the second term and students have settled in to their programme, our thoughts are turning to the future and the next cohorts of students who will join us in October 2012 and subsequently.
The Department of International History is a leading, globally renowned institution for the study of the history of international relations. We pride ourselves on our outstanding track record in ground- breaking research, and offer graduate students in-depth specialist courses based upon the very latest scholarly findings. As the foremost European institution for International History studies, the Department offers a wide range of courses, with particular expertise on the Cold War, US Foreign Policy, the Middle East, the First World War, Russia and Empires.
While the Department of International History offers five different and exciting graduate programmes, our flagship degree is the MSc in the History of International Relations, which provides students with the maximum flexibility—the chance to choose not just from the twenty courses that we offer but also an outside option in a closely related field, such as International Relations, Economic History, Government, or Law, as well as undertaking a 10,000-word dissertation on a research subject that interests them.
I hope that if you have current students of similar calibre who are considering graduate study in 2012/13 or subsequently, you will encourage them to apply to LSE. Our current prospectus is available online at http://www2.lse.ac.uk/study/graduate/home.aspx, giving details of all our graduate programmes. In addition, the website provides online resources to guide applicants through the process of submitting their information and supporting documents to us, applying for funding and, in due course, all aspects of living and studying in London.
I hope that you are justly proud of the successes achieved by your students. The selection process is not an easy one, but it is greatly helped when referees such as yourself give their support to the applications of able students. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Kind regards,
Head of the Department of International History
