Find the perfect course for you - chat with Diggory, our new AI uni coach.

University of Brighton

UCAS Code: L202 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)

Entry requirements

A level

B,C,C-B,B,B

Access to HE Diploma

D:12,M:33

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

26

3HL Subjects

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DMM-MMM

UCAS Tariff

104-120

About this course

Course option

3years

Full-time | 2025

Subjects

Politics

Gender studies

This cutting-edge degree places sexuality and gender at the heart of political study, taking an inclusive and intersectional approach.

You will dive into critical issues like reproductive politics, trans* rights, and the rise of ‘anti-gender’ movements, exploring them through feminist, queer and trans* theory.

Customise your studies with option modules that align with your passions, and gain hands-on experience through practice-based projects that tackle global challenges.

Placements with local feminist and LGBTQI+ groups provide real-world experience. You will graduate equipped with the knowledge and skills to make a meaningful impact in the field.

**We offer three other politics undergraduate courses.**

- Politics BA(Hons)

- Politics and International Relations BA(Hons)

- Politics and Social Change BA(Hons)

**TOP REASONS TO CHOOSE THIS COURSE**

- Brighton is unique in offering an undergraduate course focused on this vital field.

- You will have the opportunity to apply to spend a semester studying abroad in your second year at a partner university.

- You can work with the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender, which hosts regular talks, seminars, workshops and conferences, as well as offering research internships.

- Learn in a vibrant, progressive city with a reputation for radical, environmental and LGBTQI+ activism.

- Your lecturers are internationally recognised researchers on issues including populism, gender studies, the Middle East, environmentalism, migration, housing and political theory.

- You will engage with cutting-edge academic research. The university’s Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Ethics hosts regular talks, seminars, workshops and conferences and offers an annual undergraduate research prize.

- Guest speakers have included Caroline Lucas and Sue Shanks (Green Party), Yousef Eldin (BBC documentary producer), Nancy Hawker (Amnesty International) and Prof Angie Wilson (ex-Chair of the Political Studies Association, researching sexuality and politics), as well as representatives from Make the Shift, The Free West Papua Campaign and Brighton & Hove Community Land Trust.

- Assignments don’t just mean essays, we offer you assessment methods including films, podcasts, data visualisations, political speeches, social media campaigns; the types of projects that will be valued by employers.

- You will graduate with both theoretical and practical knowledge. Our courses offer practical skills and real-world experiences, with opportunities to undertake placements, design a campaign for a political organisation and learn digital communication skills.

- The university’s commitment to addressing global challenges is the lens through which you will learn and issues such as climate change, equality and inclusivity, and sustainability are embedded in all teaching on our politics courses.

- Our decolonised approach to teaching and learning places emphasis on lived experience, recognising that knowledge is held in communities not only in academic institutions.

Modules

**Year 1**
Foundations in World Politics
Introduction to the  Global Challenges Lab
Introduction to Politics, Sexuality and Gender
Politics in Practice
Sex and Politics: Defining Contemporary Issues

Options*
Global Challenges Lab: The Global and the Local
Comparative Political Systems
Introduction to Environmental Politics
Globalisation, Conflict and the Environment

**Year 2**
UK Politics
Gender, Race and the Environment
Researching Politics
Unruly Bodies: Understanding and Contesting Normativity

Options*
Global Challenges Lab: Research Communication
Debating Contemporary International Relations
Authority, Democracy and Justice
Queer Writing
We, the People
Experiencing the Workplace: Practices and the Community
Gender and Sexuality
International Institutions
Global Challenges Lab: Policy Solutions

**Final year**
Social Change Project OR Politics Dissertation
Activism and Social Change
Sexual Utopias: Imagining Radical Futures

Options*
Community Placement: Theory in Practice
Language, Gender and Sexuality
Radical Political Economy and Anarchist Politics
Global Social Policy
Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention
Utopian Theory and Practice
Feminism and Post-Feminism
Politics of the Right
Colonialism, Capitalism and Climate Crisis
Care Ethics and Social Policy

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,535
per year
England
£9,535
per year
EU
£17,250
per year
International
£17,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,535
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,535
per year
Scotland
£9,535
per year
Wales
£9,535
per year

The Uni

Course location:

Brighton

Department:

School of Humanities and Social Science

Read full university profile

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.

94%
Politics
72%
Gender studies

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.

Politics

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

94%
UK students
6%
International students
79%
Male students
21%
Female students
68%
2:1 or above
17%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
B

Sociology

Teaching and learning

71%
Staff make the subject interesting
77%
Staff are good at explaining things
71%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
65%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

61%
Library resources
74%
IT resources
70%
Course specific equipment and facilities
41%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

95%
UK students
5%
International students
21%
Male students
79%
Female students
74%
2:1 or above
17%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

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.

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.

86%
med
Employed or in further education
51%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

14%
Welfare professionals
12%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
9%
Other elementary services occupations

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.

Sociology

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.

£25,000
med
Average annual salary
84%
med
Employed or in further education
40%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

14%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
13%
Childcare and related personal services
13%
Other administrative occupations

We have quite a lot of sociology graduates, although numbers fell last year. But graduates still do pretty well. Most sociology graduates go straight into work when they complete their degrees, and a lot of graduates go into jobs in social professions such as recruitment, education, community and youth work, and housing. An important option for a sociology graduate is social work - and we're short of people willing to take this challenging but rewarding career. Sociology is a flexible degree and you can find graduates from the subject in pretty much every reasonable job — obviously, you don't find many doctors or engineers, but you do find them in finance, the media, healthcare, marketing and even IT. Sociology graduates taking further study often branch out into other qualifications, like teaching, law, psychology, HR and even maths, so don’t think a sociology degree restricts you to just one set of options.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

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.

£32k

£32k

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.

Sociology

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£20k

£20k

£22k

£22k

£29k

£29k

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.

Explore these similar courses...

This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

Course location and department:

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here