Politics and international relations is an exciting, fast-changing, broad-based discipline. Our programmes are extremely flexible and offer extensive module choice, reflecting the research interests of our staff, including conflict resolution, comparative politics, European integration, ethnic conflict, terrorism, the theory of international relations, political theory, and the politics of countries such as China, Japan, Russia and the USA. This is our most flexible BA degree programme. It gives you a solid foundation in the subject and allows you to tailor your own pathway according to your interests and needs. The programme aims to enable students to understand and use the concepts, approaches and methods of politics to develop an understanding of their contested nature and the problematic character of inquiry in the discipline. We seek to develop students’ capacities to think critically about political events, ideas and institutions, while ensuring that students acquire knowledge and understanding of political analysis in a supportive and responsive learning environment.

Through your study, you acquire many of the key qualities that graduate employers expect, including: the ability to plan and organise projects; to analyse and summarise complex material, and to express your opinions coherently and with sensitivity. Those students who choose to take advantage of our study abroad options find it gives them a definite advantage in the employment market. Recent graduates have gone into areas such as teaching, publishing, practical politics, local and central government, the diplomatic service, EU administration, financial services, non-governmental organisations, journalism, international business or international organisations. Many have also gone on to postgraduate study.