Politics (Joint Honours)
What makes Politics at Worcester special?
Passionate about politics? Politics has never been so exciting! Our BA Hons Joint Politics course examines contemporary international political issues such as Brexit, EU membership, migration, anti-establishment politics, identity politics, globalisation, as well as Westminster politics.
BA Hons Joint Politics also analyses historical and contemporary national/international political systems in Europe, China, the Middle-East and the U.S. Our programme additionally explores classical, Enlightenment and contemporary political philosophies. You will learn how to evaluate political theory, to compare political systems across the globe, and to engage critically with a range of international political challenges.
Whether you are a Corbynista, a Conservative, a Liberal, a Remainer, a Brexiteer or of a different political persuasion, the Politics team welcomes applications from those passionate about political challenges across the globe.
For more information about this course, please follow our Politics Twitter account.
Key features
- Specialist careers advice and work-based learning that will increase your employability in a competitive jobs market.
- Pursue a career in academia, politics, teaching, journalism, media, the civil service, local government or the charity sector.
- A multi-disciplinary and flexible degree that is tailored around your specific interests and will provide you with adaptable employability skills.
- Fantastic research facilities at the University of Worcester’s award winning Hive library, which offers a diverse range of online resources and easily accessible archives.
- A wide range of optional / mandatory modules on British / European politics and international relations.
It's not too late to apply!
Entry requirements
What qualifications will you need?
104
UCAS tariff points
Entry requirements
104 UCAS tariff points
Other information
If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the Admissions Office on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.
Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be obtained from http://www.ucas.com
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Book your placeCourse content
What will you study?
Here is an overview of current modules available on this course. Regular updates may mean that exact module titles may differ.
Year 1 |
Mandatory
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Optional
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Year 2 |
Mandatory
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Optional
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Year 3 |
Mandatory
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Optional
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Teaching and Assessment
How will you be taught?
The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.
Teaching
You are taught through a combination of workshops, interactive lectures, seminars, directed study, tutorials, and student-led sessions.
The Politics BA (Hons) Module Resource Lists will support your learning experience. You will have direct access to e-books, online journals, websites, newspapers, data, as well as media recommended by the tutors. Throughout your degree, our Politics Academic Liaison Librarian will offer friendly guidance and support specific to each student.
In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course. You have an opportunity to book one-to-one tutorials with the lecturers on all modules (to discuss approaches to forthcoming assignments, for example).
Contact time
In a typical week you will have around 9-12 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year you will normally have slightly less contact time in order to work on your independent study (dissertation).
Typically class contact time will be structured around:
- Lecturers
- Seminars
- Workshops
- Practical exercises
- Directed study
- Practice assessments
- Student-led learning
Independent self-study
In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 24 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve directed reading in preparation for the following week’s seminars and independent researching and writing upcoming assessments.
Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources (e-books, e-journals, newspapers, visual media, etc.).
Teaching staff
You will be taught by a highly qualified and experienced teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course.
Most teaching is directly related to the research and publications of the lecturers, and most course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.
Assessment
The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.
Assessment methods include essays, source analyses, oral presentations, examinations, dissertation, literature reviews, learning journals, projects and portfolios.
The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:
Year 1
POLP mandatory module includes an essay and critical report.
POLP optional modules include essays, source/document analyses, portfolios, examinations, and a practical report.
Year 2
POLP mandatory module includes an essay and a report. You will also have the opportunity to engage in work-based learning/assessment (journal).
POLP optional modules include essays, document analyses, examinations, an individual article, news reports, a reflective journal, a policy briefing, a policy review paper, an individual/group presentation, and oral history interview.
Year 3
POLP mandatory module includes a discussion paper. You will also complete an independent study.
POLP optional modules include essays, a timed documentary analysis, projects, an examination, a news story, a document analysis, portfolios, a case study, and an article review.
Feedback
You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments. You will also receive feedback on draft chapters of your dissertation. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.
We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.
Careers
Where could it take you?
Employability
In the second year of your Politics course, you will engage in subject-related work experience through the Politics Work Project (POLP 2105) module. You will spend time each week working within an organisation such as the local council, a political party (or MP) or a campaign group. Following your placement, you will then write a reflective assignment about your experience.
In addition, volunteering opportunities with local and regional organisations are regularly publicised to students. You will also receive regular careers advice from our Careers & Employability Service throughout your degree.
Graduates of University of Worcester have gone on to work in many different sectors including
- Political parties
- Teaching
- The police
- The probation service
- Housing
- The civil service
- Local government and planning
- Pressure groups
- Think-tanks
- Voluntary organisations
- Charities
- The media
- Journalism
- Social work.
Your BA (Hons) Politics degree will enable you to show employers your adaptability and multi-disciplinary subject knowledge of domestic and international politics. You will also develop transferable skills in written and verbal communication, research and data analysis, through interpreting a range of sources and perspectives. BA (Hons) Politics will also prepare you for further postgraduate study.
Meet the team
Here are a few members of the department who currently teach on this course:
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Luke Devine
Luke is Course Leader and Admissions Tutor for Politics and also teaches in Sociology, having in the past frequently taught in History. Luke enjoys working in partnership with students to create exciting, dynamic and interactive learning and teaching environments.
Luke’s teaching is based on a keen interest in contemporary politics, classical/historical political philosophies, “race”/ethnicity, gender, anti-Semitism, Shoah, and post-structural and postmodernist perspectives.
Luke is committed to student-led teaching, developing diverse learning, teaching and assessment strategies, and to continued professional development. In 2014 and 2015 Luke won the University of Worcester Student Led Teaching Awards’ “Outstanding University Teacher” award, and was nominated again in 2016. Luke is also a passionate advocate of the University’s Module Resource Lists.
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Dr Simon Hardy (Head of Division)
Teaching areas include; sociological thought historical and contemporary sexualities, media and society, war reporting and pornography. He is currently researching the history of erotic writing, from Fanny Hill to 50 Shades of Grey.
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David Storey
At Worcester, I am course leader for BA Human Geography and a member of the Centre for Rural Research. I sit on the university’s Research Degrees Board and am the Institute of Science and the Environment’s research degrees co-ordinator.
I have an eclectic range of research and teaching interests covering aspects of territory and identity, sport and place, rural change and development. I have published widely on these topics and have delivered papers at various international conferences.
I have been involved in a number of research and consultancy projects for a range of external organisations. In 2012 I was Visiting International Fellow at the Alworth Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth.
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Mike Webb
Mike Webb is a PPE (Philosophy, Politics & Economics) graduate of Oxford University. At Worcester, he teaches across Politics and Sociology undergraduate courses with particular emphases on crime, political campaigning, the world of work, and social welfare.
His teaching also draws on his varied background as a former economics researcher, national organiser of a youth movement, special school teacher, and lecturer in media. Mike is Course Leader for BA Politics: People and Power.
Mike is a member of the Social Policy Association and has a long history of involvement in pressure groups and political parties; he has, for example, stood in the Worcester constituency as a General Election candidate.
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Dr Wendy Toon
Wendy Toon is an historian of the United States of America, specialising in the twentieth century. She is currently writing Images of the Enemy: American Constructions of the Germans and Japanese in World War Two (Routledge, forthcoming 2018).
She is Course Leader for BA History. Wendy Toon joined the University of Worcester in September 2002. She previously held positions at Staffordshire University and Keele University, and was a Royal Historical Society Fellow (Peter Marshall Fellowship) at the Institute of Historical Research.
Wendy Toon is a member of the International Studies Research Group, University of Worcester. Her research is in modern American History, World War II, propaganda and Women’s History.
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Dr Paddy McNally
Paddy McNally’s teaching and research interests are focused on Irish history from 1690 until 1848, German history from 1870 to 1945, and the history of political thought. He is author of the book, Parties, Patriots and Undertakers. Parliamentary politics in early Hanoverian Ireland and numerous articles on eighteenth-century Irish history.
He is currently writing From the Boyne to the Famine. A thematic history of Ireland, 1690-1848, to be published by Routledge. He teaches specialist modules on Irish history 1690-1848, German history 1870-1945, and Nationalism.
He has successfully supervised PhD and MPhil students to completion and welcomes expressions of interest from prospective postgraduate researchers in most aspects of British and Irish history from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries.
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Dr Neil Fleming
Neil Fleming is an historian of Britain, Ireland and empire since the nineteenth century. He has published widely and is currently engaged on a number of projects which include a study of metropolitan imperialism and government policy.
Neil Fleming joined the University of Worcester in January 2011. He previously held lectureships at Cardiff University, Queen’s University Belfast, and Glasgow Caledonian University, and was the 16th Fulbright-Robertson Visiting Professor of British History, Westminster College, Missouri.
Neil Fleming is leader of the International Studies Research Group, University of Worcester.
Costs
How much will it cost?
Full-time tuition fees |
UK and EU studentsThe standard tuition fee for full-time UK and EU students registering in the academic year 2018/19 will be £9,250 per year. For more details, please visit our course fees page. |
International studentsThe standard tuition fee for full-time international (non-EU) students registering in the academic year 2018/19 will be £12,100 per year. For more details, please visit our course fees page. |
Part-time tuition fees |
UK and EU studentsThe standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students registering on this course in the academic year 2018/19 will be £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20 credit module and £2,313 per 30-credit module. For more details, please visit our course fees page. |
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Additional costs |
Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses. |
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Accommodation |
Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience, and our welcoming student communities are great places to live and study. We have over 1,000 rooms across our halls of residence. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Hall' at £98 per week to 'En-suite Extra' at £159 per week. For full details visit our accommodation page. |
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Apply
How do you apply?
Applying through UCAS
Politics BA (Hons) must be studied in combination with another course. The Joint combinations available are:
History and Politics BA - VL12
Journalism and Politics BA - PL52
Politics and Sociology BA - LL23
UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry into full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK. For the latest information, check the UCAS website at www.ucas.com
Read our How to apply pages for more information on applying and to find out what happens to your application.
Get in touch
If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.
Admissions office
01905 855111
admissions@worc.ac.uk
