Politics

Politics is offered as a joint honours degree which means that you study it in combination with another subject.

Follow the links below for a brief summary of each available Politics award, including information on the aims of various courses and their entry requirements:

• BA (Hons) Politics and History
• BA (Hons) Politics and Media
• BA (Hons) Politics and Social Policy
• BA (Hons) Politics and War Studies
• BA (Hons) Sociology and Politics

Why study politics at Wolverhampton?

Politics is about parliament and parties but it is also about much more. It’s about power and its distribution – whether at the local, national, regional, or global level – and it’s about conflict and how to resolve it. You will explore these issues through examples and case studies drawn from contemporary political practice across the world. You will study not only states, but also major global institutions such as the United Nations in their role as political actors.

Studying politics also challenges you to analyse and understand the major political and sociological traditions through which we make sense of the modern world. Here at Wolverhampton you will study the dominant schools and traditions in political theory, and the principal ideologies shaping the contemporary political landscape, and you will be encouraged to think about how these help us understand the practice of politics.

The Politics team here at Wolverhampton has a proven track record of active research which feeds closely into our teaching, so you can be sure that you will be discussing issues of real contemporary importance. The quality of our teaching was recognised this year (2019) by the Complete University Guide, which ranked us first out of eighty-three UK Politics departments for Student Satisfaction.

What will you study?

As a joint award, Politics will comprise one half of your degree subject. For a detailed account of the range of modules offered for each award, follow the links above. For the Politics element of your award, the following is a list of modules available to you.

Example of a typical first year politics module:

• Introduction to British Politics: this module will introduce you to important aspects of contemporary British politics, encouraging you to think critically about the role and effectiveness of British party politics and the British political system in the 21st century. 
• Other first year politics modules offered to our students include:
• Introduction to International Relations
• Contemporary Capitalism

Example of a typical second year politics module:

• Contemporary Political Ideologies: in this module you will explore the nature and purpose of established political ideologies, such as Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, and also more recent contenders such as Ecologism, Feminism and Fundamentalism. The module will challenge you to think about the relationship between political ideas and political practice, as well as the social contexts that underpin the origin and development of these ideologies.
• Other second year politics modules offered to our students include:
• Contemporary Britain: British politics since 1945
• Europe United? Politics, Society, Culture
• World Politics

Example of a typical third year politics module:

• Democracy and Terrorism: Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland examines the historical, political and social roots of the Northern Ireland conflict.  A major focus of the module is on the Provisional IRA's campaign of violence, the political consequences of this campaign and the strategies employed by the British government to contain it.
• Other third year politics modules offered to our students include:
• Political Theory
• The Politics of the Middle East
• India in a Global World
• Security and Integration in the New Europe
• Business and Community Link in Politics

Boost your career prospects

Studying Politics equips students with the skills appropriate to a range of graduate careers. Whilst the subject-specific skills acquired will enable students to undertake further research at MA level or to enter the teaching profession, the more general and transferrable skills of communication, team work, digital literacy, research and critical analysis will be relevant to many forms of employment in both the public and private sectors.

Students graduating with Politics in their award title have found employment in, for example, local government administration, political and social research, journalism, political marketing and communication, and the civil service.

Employers of graduates value work experience and so, as part of your degree, you can take volunteering modules that allow you to gain experience in an area that interests you, such as working within local government.

As part of your degree, you can also complete the modules needed to gain the Wolverhampton Enterprise and Employability Award. This award demonstrates to future employers some of the transferable skills which you have gained, such as communication skills in writing and presenting, research skills such as data gathering and analysis, IT skills, and teamwork.

You can also spend a year out of your academic studies working in a placement, or spend the summer break gaining relevant work experience in the UK or abroad.

Meet the team