About the course

Why should we obey the law? Why don’t democratic countries go to war with each other? Why don’t young people vote? Why do oil-rich countries have worse human rights records?

These are the kinds of questions addressed in our BA Politics (Including Year Abroad) course which provides a thorough training in all major areas of political science. You develop your interests in a wide variety of specialist areas and regions of the subject through a range of optional modules. The course thus offers flexible pathways through which you can best follow your interests. Whatever the questions that interest you, however, the aim is to go beyond simply arguing about them and instead to find the evidence needed to answer them.

In your first year you will take the compulsory Introduction to Politics, a comprehensive overview of democratic politics, and three from an impressive range of optional modules. In your second year there are two core modules: Political Analysis, which will develop your research skills, and Introduction to Political Theory which will introduce you to important concepts and will critically examine the political visions offered by the most important writers on politics over the centuries. You spend your third year abroad, where you must take modules related to your course. In your final year you are entirely free to choose modules in the areas that interest you most.

Why study BA Politics (Including Year Abroad) at Essex?

Our Department of Government is one of the largest and most prestigious in Europe, with an outstanding record of teaching, research and publication. We are the only political science department to have achieved the highest rating in all five UK Research Assessment Exercises (RAE), with 45 per cent of our research ranked as ‘world-leading’ in the most recent RAE (December 2008).

Our staff distinguish themselves in various ways; by acting as media commentators, by writing textbooks used by students across the world and with involvement in practical training. In addition, our students have access to academic staff and a constant flow of distinguished visiting scholars from abroad. Our research interests are wide ranging but we host the British Election Study, a major Economic and Social Research Council-sponsored survey of attitudes and opinions of the British electorate, with other significant research projects studying foreign policy attitudes, corruption, and civil wars and peacekeeping.

Why study this subject?

BA Politics (Including Year Abroad) is for those with a strong interest in how government works and how government and society interact. It is particularly useful for those interested in many different political questions and topics: you will begin with a broad overview of the entire subject, but there is then the flexibility to concentrate on the areas of politics that begin to interest you most. This degree will provide important employability skills: in written and verbal communication, in research and statistical analysis, and in the ability to think critically about your own and others’ ideas and proposals. During your year abroad you gain cultural awareness, confidence and independence.

Our facilities

As a student on this course you will be able to take advantage of our extensive learning resources, including laboratories of networked computers featuring extensive software for political analysis, as well as our University library, which provides access to a variety of politics databases as well as multiple copies of textbooks, e-books and materials to support your learning.

Study abroad/placement opportunities

Here at Essex we recognise the importance of studying and living abroad, so offer many opportunities for you to spend a term or a full year studying in another country and have exchange partners in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the Middle East, Hong Kong and Japan.

Introduction

As a new undergraduate, you may find university-level learning, assessment and studying differs to school or college. Here at Essex, we understand and recognise this by having support in place, particularly during your first year when you may notice the change more.

If you are studying a non-science subject, then your teaching mainly takes the form of lectures and classes, the latter involving about 20 students. A typical timetable includes a one-hour lecture and a one-hour class for each of your four modules every week. Any language classes involve language laboratory sessions.

First-year assessment is a combination of written coursework, end-of-term tests, practical and laboratory work (where appropriate) and end-of-year exams.

Teaching methods and styles

Within our Department of Government, all our courses offer you the opportunity to learn about political systems, political behaviour, and political ideas, as well as provide specialised training in the development of key skills in problem-solving, analytical thinking, exposition and argumentation, data analysis and clear writing.

Methods of assessment

Within our Department of Government, assessment to establish continuation into your second year takes place at the end of your first year. Assessment in your second and final years is based on both coursework and examination. In certain cases, a third-year project can be substituted for a module. As our courses are intended to transmit skills as well as knowledge, an appropriate language module can be substituted for an optional module.

Career destinations

Your degree is designed to develop many of the skills that are highly valued by employers. Studying politics involves thinking about puzzles and questions, collecting and analysing relevant evidence, and thinking critically about your own and others’ suggested answers. These skills of critical reflection, of data collection and analysis, and of drawing evidence together into clear conclusions, are at the heart of what employers call ‘competence-based recruitment’.

You also develop a number of more practical skills: effective verbal and written communication (including presentation skills); using statistical techniques; working in teams and producing group projects; and time management skills in order to meet multiple deadlines.

All Essex politics graduates have the distinction of a qualification from one of the world’s leading politics departments. In turn, many of those graduates have distinguished themselves in a variety of ways and gone on to careers in politics, the civil service fast stream, management, journalism, police, armed forces, commerce, business, finance, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), teaching and graduate research. For example, some of our most recent graduates from BA Politics have found employment as the marketing and communications officer for Qatar Financial Authority, assistant consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and roles within the Department of Health, Quay Public Affairs and local councils.

Our notable alumni include the former President of Costa Rica and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr Oscar Arias, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP. Reflecting the fact that politics opens rather than closes doors, more recent graduates have begun careers with such diverse employers as polling agency YouGov, Formula 1 magazine Red Bulletin, online bookmakers Betfair, and HM Chelmsford Young Offenders Institution.

As graduates from a leading department, our students are well placed to go on to further study, either at Essex – where we offer a wide range of Masters courses – or elsewhere.

Your employability and Essex

At Essex we take your employability seriously, helping you become a rounded individual with the ability to succeed, whatever your plans. You’ll find your department works with our Employability and Careers Centre to inform you about options to study or work overseas, your Faculty Employability Coordinator finds degree-related work placements, and our Students’ Unions ensures that, annually, over 700 students volunteer and more than 4,000 get involved in sports, clubs and societies.

At Essex you can gain new skills that look good on your CV, like paid placements through our frontrunners scheme, graduate-level paid internships, and opportunities to develop discipline-specific skills as part of your studies.

We help you understand your skills, and how to demonstrate these to an employer. You can get our extra-curricular employability award – the Big Essex Award – recorded on your transcript, receive one-to-one advice on careers, use our Essex CV guides on applying for work, learn from famous entrepreneurs and take part in workshops, and meet employers through on-campus events.

We develop your employability through fantastic opportunities, and give you the tools to explore the meaning of your unique experiences, so you are ready for your future.

Global employability

Here at Essex, our students can undertake period of study or work abroad specifically tailored to his/her academic interests and future career plans. You are taught and assessed by your host university, so assessment may be in the form of written papers, oral or written exams, lab or project work, research, or work-based learning. All successfully completed pre-approved modules will be credited towards your Essex degree.

Study abroad is an excellent opportunity for personal development. It affords you the chance to become immersed in another culture over a sustained period, coming to know a country and its people in a way that you could not hope to as a tourist. It is also an opportunity to experience a different educational system and develop different skills. You learn to view the world (and your academic discipline) from another perspective, becoming more independent and confident.

Study abroad also enhances your employability. It helps your CV stand out from other candidates and signals to an employer that you have maturity, adaptability and organisational skills. As the world of business is becoming increasingly international, the experience of living abroad is, in itself, attractive to many employers. Depending upon your study abroad destination, you may also gain fluency in another language, which is a highly attractive skill to have as you enter the employment market.

If you are interested in learning another language then our Languages for All programme enables you to study a language, alongside your course, at no extra cost. You can take one of 50 taught language modules on a part-time day-time basis, or undertake flexible web-based learning, or opt for a language module taught in the evening. As employers can struggle to find graduates able to speak more than one language, Languages for All places Essex graduates in a very advantageous position.

Postgraduate opportunities

Within our Department of Government, we offer taught Masters courses, as well as research supervision for PhD and MPhil. Our taught courses are designed to provide you with an advanced understanding of contemporary theory, research and methods, plus a knowledge of either the politics of a geographical area or an aspect of the discipline. This comprehensive range of MA, MSc and MRes courses cover an array of research fields, approaches and methodologies. You undertake rigorous training in analytical skills: qualitative and quantitative, theoretical and empirical, and global, local and comparative.

We have steadily consolidated our reputation as the best politics department in the UK and in Europe, with an outstanding record of teaching, research and publication. We offer research supervision in the following fields: government; ideology and discourse analysis; international relations; political behaviour; and politics