Politics and International Relations and Social Policy
University of Strathclyde
UCAS Code: L2L4 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
University of Strathclyde
UCAS Code: L2L4 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Year 2 entry: AAA-ABB
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Year 1 entry: 32-30 Year 2 entry: 36-32 Maths SL5
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
Must include English
Scottish HNC
HNC Social Sciences: A in Graded Unit; Maths National 5 C, or equivalent
Scottish Higher
1st sitting: AAAA 2nd sitting: AAAAB (including English plus at least one other social science subject from those listed under preferred subjects below; plus National 5 Maths or Application of Maths at B-C).
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
- Explore the nature of power and those who govern in history, theory and practice.
- Delve into the history of political philosophy and become familiar with key concepts including justice, quality, democracy, the state and rights.
- Gain a firm grounding in the study of global politics, the interaction between states and the concepts underpinning world affairs.
- Choose between modules in international development, international security, green politics, feminism, data science and politics in Scotland, Britain, the USA and China.
- Work with a group internationally-renowned academic experts with a strong reputation for innovative research in government and policy
- Get practical experience via a work placement.
- From constitutions to wars and terrorism – Politics & International Relations covers a range of important issues. This new social policy degree programme gives you the opportunity to learn more about the social and economic challenges facing Scottish society and enables you to place these in a broader international and comparative perspective.
Ranked 2nd in Scotland for Politics (The Times/Sunday Times University Ranking 2024); Ranked 1st in Scotland for Social Policy (The Times/Sunday Times University Ranking 2024).
This course is part of our flexible BA Humanities and Social Science Degree programme. With our BA (Honours) degree you can choose from subjects in Humanities, Social Sciences and Business, with two of your three subject choices taught by the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences.
The BA degree is a three year course and the Honours degree is normally a four year course. This allows you to try new subjects, develop your own ideas, develop a broad range of knowledge and enhance your employability.
You should only enter one of the UCAS codes on your application form. Acceptance on one of these subject codes will enable you to study any combination of subjects. Only one application will be considered. This is lifted from page 50 of the prospectus.
https://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/undergraduate/flexiblebadegree/
Every one of our flexible BA options gives students the chance to gain valuable professional experience as part of a credit-bearing work placement class in their third or fourth year. Learn more about placements- https://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/undergraduate/placements/
The Uni
University of Strathclyde
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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.
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)
Social policy
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.
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.
Social policy
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
Just over 1,600 students graduated in social policy in 2015, which makes it one of the smaller social studies subjects. This is a popular subject at Masters level — 750 Masters in social policy were awarded last year - and so a lot of the more sought-after jobs in management and research tend to go to social policy graduates with postgraduate degrees. For those who leave university after their first degree, then jobs in social care (especially community and youth work) and education, the police, marketing and human resources and recruitment are popular — along with local government, although there are fewer of those jobs around than in the past. This degree is a bit less reliant on London for jobs than other similar subjects, so if you'd like to work outside the capital, it might be worth considering - although the jobs still tend to be in big cities.
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.
£20k
£24k
£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.
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.
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Lower entry requirementsSame University
Higher entry requirements
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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
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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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