BA (Hons) International Relations, Politics and Security Studies

What you will study

All module information is for 2023 entry and is subject to change.

First-year

• Understanding the International System
• Politics and the State
• Challenges and Approaches to Development
• Issues in World Politics
• Peace and Violence: theories, cases and challenges

Second year

Core

• Analysing Contemporary Conflict
• Contemporary International Relations
• The Politics and Processes of Foreign Policy
• Security: Concepts, Constructions and Analyses

Option

• Peacebuilding, Conflict and Security
• Power Shifts: Regional and Global Challenges
• Globalisation and Global Governance

Final year

Core

• Dissertation
• International Policy Processes in Practice
• Politics of International Crisis Response

Option

• Authoritarianism, Nationalism and Populism
• Politics and Security in Africa
• Revolutions and Regime Change
• Politics of International Crisis Response
• Africa Study Visit
• Creative Conflict Transformation
• Politics and Security in the Middle East
• Technology, Violence and War
• University Semester 1/Semester 2 Elective

Learning and assessment

You’ll learn through a mixture of lectures, directed study, discussion and group work. The programme also includes study trips and an away-day crisis simulation exercise.

You can tailor your studies to emerging areas of interest in the second and third years through optional modules and the final dissertation project and will be supported in selecting your projects, case studies and topics throughout your studies.

Outside of modules, you will undertake a reflective learning journal with the support of your Personal Academic Tutor, through which you will identify, and take, opportunities to develop all the skills outlined in the learning outcomes.

Assessment takes place through a well-developed range of formative and summative tasks designed to help students develop and demonstrate their understanding and skills.

Career prospects

On graduation you’ll have the professional competencies you need to launch a career in:

• National and local government
• Global governance institutions
• Research institutes
• International, national and local development agencies
• Environmental advocacy and policy work
• Private sector strategy and governance for Sustainability
• NGOs

Career support

The University is committed to helping students develop and enhance employability and this is an integral part of many programmes. Specialist support is available throughout the course from Career and Employability Services including help to find part-time work while studying, placements, vacation work and graduate vacancies. Students are encouraged to access this support at an early stage and to use the extensive resources on the Careers website.

Discussing options with specialist advisers helps to clarify plans through exploring options and refining skills of job-hunting. In most of our programmes, there is direct input by Career Development Advisers into the curriculum or through specially arranged workshops.