Politics & International Relations
BSc. (Hons)
Overview
What makes our BSc (Hons) Politics & International Relations different?
- Rigorous, in-depth core subject study
- Interdisciplinary degrees, built around real-world problems
- Flexibility to create your own academic pathway with elective courses
- Gain core competencies and develop practical and transferable skills for your future career
- Embedded experiential opportunities to drive real-world change
- Explore the big issues that need agile thinking crossing subject boundaries
- Acquire the knowledge and experience that will empower you to make a meaningful impact in a fast-changing world
- Experience a semester abroad at one of Northeastern University’s campuses in the USA
Your learning experience
You will experience learning at the University through a combination of formats and class sizes. Some of our courses are delivered through a high number of scheduled teaching or ‘contact’ hours, while others focus on smaller, more personalised, guided independent study, or hands-on or community-based projects.
Our academic staff selects the most appropriate pedagogy and contact hours for each individual course in order to support students to develop and succeed in their studies. This means that within your undergraduate Politics & International Relations degree you are likely to experience a combination of scheduled lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials. The exact balance of these types of learning and number of contact hours will depend on the specific electives and optional courses you choose.
Most lectures and seminars will have a maximum of 40 student participants, while tutorials will typically have five or fewer students, and may sometimes be one-to-one. This personalised approach to teaching allows everyone to participate and thrive.
Employability
Core competencies are embedded within our Politics & International Relations degree programmes, preparing you for your future career while you are studying, so that you stand out from the crowd and are ready to succeed as soon as you graduate.
By the time you graduate, you will have taken courses fulfilling the following three competencies:
- Writing Across Audiences and Genres
- Integrating Knowledge and Skills Through Experience
- Demonstrating Thought and Action in a Final Project (can be dissertation)
You will also have taken courses inculcating a minimum of four of these additional competencies, depending on your learning pathways:
- Engaging with the Natural and Designed World
- Exploring Creative Expression and Innovation
- Interpreting Culture
- Conducting Formal and Quantitative Reasoning
- Understanding Societies and Institutions
- Analysing and Using Data
- Engaging Differences and Diversity
- Employing Ethical Reasoning
Careers Service
Our dedicated Careers Advisors work with students right from day one. Some students arrive at our university with their journey path clearly mapped, others need help finding their direction. Our Advisors are here to help both.
Advisors will help to identify aspirations and explore careers, as well as assist with the development of CVs, and developing an ‘elevator pitch’ to differentiate yourself in a crowded market. Advisors guide students through making the most of Linkedin, and applying for internships, placements, and graduate jobs.
Our Advisors are here to help you achieve your ambition and have expertise in a wide range of sectors including professional services, government, creative industries, law, and banking.
Structure
Summary
The opportunity to study Politics & International Relations at our campus in London offers the city as a classroom, with the seat of the UK government and many of its agencies, prominent international organisations (e.g. UN IMO), world-renowned research institutes (e.g. Chatham House – The Royal Institute of International Affairs), think-tanks (e.g. Adam Smith Institute), policy centres (e.g. Global Policy Institute), and many archives and libraries immediately surrounding our campus, and offering students one of the most current and vibrant environments to pursue the political discourses defining our present and future.
The BSc (Hons) Politics & International Relations degree comprises: (1) political science – analysing the organisation of government and society; (2) political theory – examining normative questions, political ideas, and ideologies; and (3) international relations – the only disciplinary field specifically concerned with the international problems of war, peace, security, economy, globalisation, and the conflicting and cooperative engagement amongst states and between state and non-state actors.
The curriculum appraises the relationship between the individual and the state, the sources of authority, and forms of governance with significant implications for policy-making, policy choices, and policy outcomes. It fosters an understanding of agency through the study of power, justice, anarchy, order, conflict, legitimacy, accountability, obligation, sovereignty, mediation, security, governance, and decision-making at different levels of governance (e.g. local, regional, and global).
This degree programme combines a rigorous politics and international relations syllabus with a personalised elective pathway. Students can choose to either deepen their focus on politics and international relations through elective courses, or they can further contextualise and broaden their studies with courses that align with interests and goals further afield.
Students develop a broad range of skills and knowledge relevant to institutional decision- and policy-making. Graduates can manage complex information flows and networks, collect appropriate material from a broad range of sources, and undertake causal and applied projects to develop and promote critical thinking. Students acquire the ability to contribute to debates on topical issues of great currency, and apply theoretical and methodological tools of policy, institutional, and behavioural analysis. These valuable and transferable skills open up a wide array of career possibilities upon graduation. Such career opportunities include for example working in the public sector’s governmental and intergovernmental institutions and agencies; in the private sector – in risk analysis and management within security and financial outfits, and in journalism; in the third sector – public policy analysis and review in think tanks and charities; and in the hybrid sector – towards sustainable development, social value accounting, etc.
Electives
Our growing range of Elective courses include the subjects that have in the past been available as minors, plus some new popular subjects and interdisciplinary themes.
Focus on one subject or study multiple subjects.
Flexible Elective Pathway courses will enable students to choose to either:
- Deepen focus in their degree subject
or - Combine their studies with courses in a particular second subject
or - Explore a broad range of subjects, developing agile thinking across disciplinary boundaries
Discipline Pathways
- Art & Design
- Business
- Computer Science
- Creative Writing
- Data Science
- Economics
- English
- History
- Law
- Philosophy
- Politics & International Relations
- Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE)
Thematic Pathways
- Sustainability
- Technology & Ethics
Focus on one one subject or study multiple subjects
Elective courses enable students to either deepen their focus on Politics & International Relations, or to combine their studies with courses in a particular second subject, or to explore a broad range of subjects, developing agile thinking across disciplinary boundaries.
Costs
Tuition
HK$216,762.17
(international)
HK$90,114.61
(home)
Funding
Admissions
Qualifications
At Northeastern University London, we look at you as an individual using references and personal statements in addition to exam grades to assess your unique potential to benefit from and contribute to the Northeastern University London community. The below are indicative of our standard offers for popular high school-level qualifications.
A Level
AAB.
Please note that A-level General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted by Northeastern University London as one of your A-levels.
Students studying the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) alongside three A Levels may be eligible for an alternative offer.
International Baccalaureate Diploma
An overall score of 35 points OR 6, 6, 5 in subjects taken at Higher Level.
Please note, the overall score of 35 points includes TOK and the Extended Essay, and students must achieve a pass in the IB Diploma for entry to our courses.
European Baccalaureate
85%.
Language requirements
IELTS
6.5
(including 6.0 in all four components) or an equivalent qualification.