Politics and International Relations BA(Hons)

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Top reasons to choose this course

• Learn in a vibrant, progressive city with a reputation for radical, environmental and LGBTQI+ activism.
• Your lecturers are internationally recognised on issues including populism, gender studies, the Middle East, environmentalism, migration, housing and political theory.
• International exchanges at a partner university – in year 2, students in the politics subject area have the opportunity to spend a semester studying abroad at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands or the University of Lyon 2, France.
• Placement opportunities give you the chance to make industry connections and gain valuable experience.
• You can work with the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics which hosts talks, seminars, workshops and conferences, as well as offering research internships and 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 Professor 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 and Hove Community Land Trust. 

• Assignments don’t just mean essays – you’ll have the opportunity to be assessed in lots of different ways including films, podcasts, data visualisations, political speeches, social media campaigns – the types of projects that will be valued by employers.
• Graduate with both theoretical and practical knowledge. Our courses offer practical skills and real-world experiences to prepare you for your future careers, 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 emphasises lived experience, recognising that knowledge is held in communities, not only in academic institutions.
• You will be studying in a thriving community alongside students taking related degrees which informs our delivery.

Year 1 

In your first year, you will study six modules that introduce you to politics and international relations and help you to develop the skills central to your course.

Modules

• Introduction to the  Global Challenges Lab

  Supported by a tutor, you will design and conduct a research project that addresses one of the global challenges identified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. You’ll learn how to create blogs, podcasts and short films to communicate your research and ideas to a non-academic audience.

• Political Ideas

  This module gives a broad overview of the academic study of politics. You will focus on core concepts of political science and political theory and apply these to political processes, institutions, ideologies and the nature of political change. You’ll cover the core conceptual material needed for more advanced study in politics and also be introduced to ideas and approaches that can be applied in other social sciences.

• Foundations in World Politics

  This module will introduce you to a critical historical perspective on the modern international political system. You will examine how the peoples and governments of the world came to be linked through an imperial system by exploring major world events and processes of global history. By taking a long view of modern politics, the module is an opportunity for you to place world politics in its historical context. The key topics you will explore include the origins of the international political system, slavery, imperial and colonial expansion, anti-colonial resistance and liberation, global governance, controversy and historiography.

• Globalisation, Conflict and the Environment

  By examining the key concepts, theories and questions in international relations and global studies, you will interrogate and evaluate the political implications of different approaches for the study of key aspects of our contemporary world during this module. You will look at how concepts and theories are applied to contested global issues, such as environmental sustainability and war/conflict. 

• Politics in Practice

  This module introduces you to ideas about how politics is practiced by state and non-state actors at local, national and international levels. You will take part in field trips, Q+As with political actors and engagement with political communications. You’ll also be introduced to methods of data collection as well as forms of qualitative and quantitative analysis.

• Comparative Political Systems

  On this module you will be introduced to some of the key features of politics including institutions, political actors and political processes. You’ll identify the most important political hallmarks, for example the legislature, the executive, political parties and electoral processes in at least two contemporary states that illustrate democratic, partially democratic or/and authoritarian political systems. You’ll also study political concepts, such as power and the state, in order to analyse and compare those political systems.

Year 2

In year two, you build your knowledge of the subject, exploring British politics and theories of government and policy and focusing on international relations theories and key international institutions like the UN and the EU. You will begin to specialise in the subjects that interest you most through choosing option modules.

The community engagement module is an opportunity to undertake a voluntary work placement with a local not-for-profit organisation. You’ll gain practical work experience while contributing to the wider community.

Modules

Core modules

• Colonialism in the Contemporary Global Order

  Developing your understanding of anti-colonial, post-colonial and decolonial theory, this module looks at authors with links to the Global South to explore the continuing presence of power relations associated with colonialism. These will be examined in relation to global issues including the climate crisis, global militarism, international economic inequalities and international institutions.

• Debating Contemporary International Relations

  This module will introduce the relationships, ideas and principles underpinning historical and contemporary global governance. You will explore how International Relations (IR) theory can be used to explain and understand how the world ‘hangs together’. You will also look at conceptual issues including power, conflict, security, political economy, law, migration and governance.

• Researching Politics

  In this module you will study the research methods commonly used in politics, focusing on basic research design, ethical considerations and positionality, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, and case study research. You will explore the positivist paradigms dominant in politics research, focusing particularly on decolonising research methods.

• International Institutions

  This module focuses on key contemporary international institutions including the United Nations and the European Union and examines how different actors – including states, diplomats, non-governmental organisations and social movements – interact within these institutions. By looking at how decisions are made, you will explore questions of power, democracy and governance in a changing international order. The module will include at least one model United Nations event.

Options*

• Global Challenges Lab: Research Communication

  During this module, you will work with a tutor to design and conduct a research project that addresses one of the global challenges identified by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, for example poverty, hunger, gender equality or responsible consumption. You will communicate this research through a political speech and a social media campaign.

• Gender, Race and the Environment

  This module explores the gender, race and class aspects of the climate crisis by looking at theoretical approaches examining these connections. You will look at debates and theoretical approaches such as environmental justice, ecofeminism, feminist political ecology, Black critical theory, critical Marxism and postcolonial feminism to see how the climate crisis is absorbed and impacts different political locations and spaces.

• Authority, Democracy and Justice

  Authority, Democracy and Justice builds on your understanding of political theory, bringing in key authors in their historical context and examining core concepts in depth. It focuses on critiques of democracy, addressing the question of political obligation and the social contract, and bringing to the fore Marxist and anarchist analyses of democracy. You will also explore social justice, entitlement theory and economic democracy.

• UK Politics

  This module will give you an understanding of the role, form and evolution of the contemporary British state. It takes as its starting point the post-war settlement and Westminster Model and looks at key developments in the form of the state and its influences, including the rise of the New Right, globalisation, governance and devolution.

• Global Challenges Lab: Policy Solutions

  In this module you’ll work with a tutor to undertake a research project addressing a global challenge highlighted by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, for example poverty, hunger, gender equality or responsible consumption. You will examine policy organisations and their role in contemporary societies and learn how to write policy papers and press releases.

• Experiencing the Workplace: Practices and the Community

  This 40-hour community engagement module provides you with the opportunity to explore workplace practices and recognise your role as a global citizen. You will put into practice what you have learned in relation to policies, politics and communication, and reflect on issues such as gender, race and class representation. Through the placement you will acquire transferrable employability skills and abilities, including professional conduct in the workplace, teamwork and problem-solving.

• Nations and Nationalism

  This module will introduce you to political understandings of the nation and the phenomenon of nationalism. You will explore the historical construction of nationalism as imagined and analyse how nationalism matters for states and societies. You'll differentiate between the state and the nation and analyse the impact of nationalism in terms of conflict, identity, power and representation. The module will focus on the key thinkers on nationalism and seminal texts on the subject.

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

Final year

In your final year you will further develop your knowledge, skills and specific interests in politics and international relations through options.

You will also write a dissertation on a topic in politics, international relations or both. The dissertation is an opportunity for you to develop an idea independently, with the support of an academic supervisor throughout.

Modules

Core modules

• Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention

  This module explores human rights and humanitarian intervention, examining the role the international community plays in causing, preventing and responding to human rights violation. You will study human rights issues in the context of military intervention and the prevention of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and crimes against humanity, and question if and how human rights are being protected in a changing international order.

• Politics Dissertation

  With expert guidance, you will take on a research project you’ve designed and refined through a series of research lectures and supervisions. You will examine primary sources, analyse theoretical debates and use research methodology aligned with your course requirements, including quantitative and/or qualitative methods. The culmination of your research will be presented in a comprehensive dissertation.

Options*

• Radical Political Economy and Anarchist Politics

  This module provides an in-depth and critical examination of political economy and anarchism theories, introducing classical theories of political economy and presenting a range of alternatives from the political left and right. It also assesses the contribution of anarchist politics from different established perspectives.

• Global Social Policy

  You will learn about contemporary developments and challenges for human wellbeing and social policy at the global level during this module. It looks at supranational, regional, national and local contexts of social policy provision, the relationship of monetary and fiscal policy and policy transfer. The module applies theoretical frameworks and concepts from the social sciences, including social policy, politics, sociology and area studies.

• Race and International Relations

  The place of ‘race’ and its different connotations in the discipline and practice of international relations (IR) is currently the topic of a lot of scholarly research and debate. This module will investigate how conventional IR is subjectively racialised as white and how the production of whiteness in IR significantly constrains our collective capacities to understand world politics.

• Sexual Utopias: Imagining Radical Futures

  Recent years have given rise to a range of new approaches to the relationship between sexual politics and social change, raising questions about the kind of future we want and the role that sexual practices should play in creating it. This module introduces this theoretical work and provides a broad understanding of the relationship between gender, sex and sexuality and contemporary ideas about social transformation.

• Politics in the Middle East

  This module focuses on key debates in the study of Middle Eastern politics, taking a largely thematic approach to politics in the region and exploring relevant case studies within these themes. Topics under analysis include the legacies of colonialism; independence movements and nationalism; political economy; the role of religion in politics; and questions of democracy and authoritarianism.

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

Placements

Spend a year on placement

Gain valuable experience and earn money during an optional placement year following year 2. You’ll return to the final year of your degree with added confidence, real-world experience and valuable contacts. 

A placement year significantly improves your CV, giving you a distinct advantage over others when applying for jobs and starting your career. It will also help you to develop the softer skills such as communication and teamwork.

For the assessed part of your placement, you will create a reflective piece of work on professional practice and skills. 

The university has links with a wide range of organisations including in health, culture and heritage, housing, councils, the police, the probation service, policy think tanks and charities.

Our dedicated Placements and Employability team will support you in getting a placement that meets with your interests and career ambitions. They can help with CVs and cover letter writing, applications, online testing and more. Plus, they’ll provide support and guidance when you’re on placement and make sure that everything is going well.

Other placement opportunities

In your second year you can gain real-world experience on placement with the option module Experiencing the Workplace: Practices and the Community.

You’ll spend 40 hours working with an organisation and put into practice your learnings in relation to policies, politics and communication, reflecting on issues such as gender, race and class representation.

Through the placement you will develop transferrable employability skills and abilities, such as teamwork and problem-solving, and gain an insight into potential career paths – all while actively contributing to the community.

We will help you find a placement that suits your interests and support you to build your CV and with interview preparation.

Our politics students have spent their placement with organisations including:

• The Green Centre
• Sussex Community Development Association
• The Queery
• Afrori Books
• Sussex Prisoners Families.

Lab facilities

Mithras House has a series of lab rooms which can be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.

Life lab
A skills-based lab for practice-based teaching, social work, psychotherapy and counselling, and employability. The Life lab is fitted with lounge furniture to provide a comfortable space for conducting qualitative research with larger groups. The lab can be used to conduct research activities with children of all ages and can be used for meetings and events. The room also contains a dedicated space to conduct assessed role play or interviews with children.

City lab
This is a qualitative research methods and creative methods resource for all students, staff and researchers, as well as research participants, including children, community groups and the general public. It can also be used for meetings and events. The City lab contains a kitchen, a teaching/meeting room with enhanced acoustic isolation and two meeting spaces that can be separated with a screen or combined to accommodate larger groups.

Design lab
Housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, which are used in some teaching on our History of Art and Design courses, this has the space and equipment for you to work on textile projects. Displays created by students on these programmes are on view in the social spaces of the building.

Community lab
A space designed for collaborative student learning, this is used by students and staff involved in the university’s Global Challenges programme – our collective mission to contribute towards solutions to tackle the pressing issues facing our world.

Stats lab
A specialist workspace with computing equipment for statistical analysis and projects involving video and audio editing software. The lab contains eight acoustically treated booths for both recording and transcribing interviews undertaken as part of dissertation research and for recording and editing podcasts.

Applied cognition lab
A dedicated research space for psychological research involving measures such as electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalography (EEG). The space is designed to allow the participant and researcher to sit at separate desks whilst psychophysiological data is being collected. 

VR and eye tracking lab
The VR and Eye-Tracking Lab is used for psychological research using equipment, such as eye-trackers and virtual reality headsets. The space has adjustable lighting and a blackout blind for maintaining consistent lighting conditions during eye-tracking research, as well as sensors set up in the room to allow individuals to move freely around the room during virtual reality research.

Meet the team

Our staff are widely published experts in politics and international relations. You will be designated a personal academic tutor, normally the same tutor throughout your degree, who you will meet with regularly to discuss your academic progress.

Dr Francesca Burke, course leader

Francesca’s research and teaching centres on politics and international relations in the Middle East and, in this regional context, particularly on activism in repressive contexts, student movements and the political role of universities and transnational solidarity.

Read Francesca’s full profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include:

• Dr Clare Woodford
• Dr Heba Youssef
• Dr Chris Wyatt
• Professor Mark Devenney
• Dr Robin Dunford
• Dr German Primera Villamiza
• Dr Chrystie Myketiak
• Dr Zoe Sutherland
• Dr Vasileios Leontitsis
• Dr Joanna Kellond
• Dr Robin Jervis
• Dr Andy Knott

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more...
• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.

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