Philosophy and Politics
Cardiff University
UCAS Code: LV26 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Cardiff University
UCAS Code: LV26 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Extended Project
For applicants taking the EPQ qualification, an A in the EPQ can be recognised to lower the entry requirements by a single grade. For example, an AAB offer would be "AAB from 3 A-levels or ABB from 3 A-levels and a grade A in the EPQ". Please note that any subject specific requirements must be met.
GCSE/National 4/National 5
You must have or be working towards: - English language or Welsh language at GCSE grade B/6 or an equivalent (such as A-levels). If you require a Student visa, you must ensure your language qualification complies with UKVI requirements.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
34-31 overall or 666-665 in 3 HL subjects.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
in a BTEC Extended Diploma in any subject.
Acceptance of T Levels for this programme will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Academic School. Consideration will be given to the T Level grade/subject and grades/subjects achieved at GCSE/Level 2.
The Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate will be accepted in place of one A-level at the A-level grades specified, excluding any subject specific requirements.
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
How should you live your life and relate to others? What is the theoretical basis of different political and governance systems? How do they work in practice, and how should they work? What are today’s big ethical, social, and political challenges and how should we approach them? How should characteristics like gender and race be taken into account in theoretical inquiry and social decision-making? With our Philosophy and Politics (BA) programme, you’ll investigate important questions at the intersection of philosophy and politics, along with other topics from each of these disciplines.
Our priority lies in developing your skills as a global citizen and a thinker in your own right. Throughout the programme, you’ll be supported in engaging critically and creatively with difficult problems in an open-minded way, including on sensitive and controversial topics.
During your studies, you’ll have the opportunity to explore a broad range of philosophical and political topics and traditions. You’ll develop a solid grounding in moral philosophy, will also study epistemology, philosophy of mind, and political philosophy, and will have the opportunity to study areas such as aesthetics, feminist philosophy, and phenomenology. In Politics, you can explore how parliaments and governments function, investigate how politics works in Wales, the UK, Europe, and across the globe, and evaluate key political ideas such as power, freedom, rights, conflict, accountability, democracy, and legitimacy.
Our modules provide you with opportunities to connect theory with practice in applied modules in both philosophy and politics. In addition to opportunities to explore public policy from a political perspective, in the final year you’ll take part in a project to apply philosophical research to develop policies or strategies aimed at solving a real-world ethical or social problem.
You’ll graduate with a range of valuable professional skills, including collaboration, effective communication, and independent critical thinking. You’ll have a deep appreciation of the ethical and social challenges that face contemporary society and industry, and have the ideas and confidence required to solve them. From here, you’ll be ideally placed to progress into a range of exciting careers.
**Distinctive Features of the Programme**
- **Follow your interests:** Choose from modules across a range of philosophical and political topics, trace connections to other disciplines, and engage with new research.
- **Think for yourself:** Critically and creatively engage with difficult problems in an independent and open-minded way.
- **Shape the future:** Apply research to develop policies or strategies aimed at solving real-world social problems.
- **Connect with political institutions:** Benefit from excellent links with the Welsh Government and Senedd Cymru, Westminster, the EU, and NATO.
- **Communicate effectively:** Develop skills and experience in shaping and presenting your ideas and arguments.
Tuition fees
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Extra funding
Cardiff University has many scholarships on offer to our prospective students. Please see our website at http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/funding/scholarships for further information.
The Uni
Main Site - Cardiff
School of English, Communication and Philosophy
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if the overall teaching satisfaction score here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Philosophy
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Politics
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Philosophy
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Although there aren't a lot of jobs around for professional philosophers, philosophy degrees are a relatively popular option, with more than 2,000 students graduating in a philosophy-related subject in 2015 - a little down on previous years, but still healthy. Nearly a quarter of philosophy graduates take a postgraduate qualification, and it's a relatively common subject at both Masters and doctorate level — so if you think academic life might be for you, think ahead about how you might fund further study. For those who go into work, philosophy grads tend to go into teaching, accountancy, consulting, journalism, PR, housing, marketing, human resources and the arts while a few go into the computer industry every year, where their logical training is highly rated.
Politics
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
The numbers of people taking politics degrees fell sharply last year and we'll keep an eye on this one - it can't really be because of graduates getting poor outcomes as politics grads do about as well as graduates on average. Most politics or international relations graduates don't actually go into politics - although many do, as activists, fundraisers and researchers. Jobs in local and central government are also important. Other popular jobs include marketing and PR, youth and community work, finance roles, HR and academic research (you usually need a postgraduate degree to get into research). Because so many graduates get jobs in the civil service, a lot of graduates find themselves in London after graduating. Politics is a very popular postgraduate subject, and so about one in five politics graduates go on to take another course - usually a one-year Masters - after they finish their degrees.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Philosophy
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£18k
£23k
£30k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
Politics
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£21k
£29k
£34k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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