Bachelor of Arts in Politics and International Studies

at University of Warwick United Kingdom

Our single honors Philosophy course offers a broad range of modules as well as the freedom to choose your own path through the subject. You will learn how to think carefully and critically about a variety of philosophical questions.

Topics you may study include:

• What does it mean to know something, and what can we know?
• What does leading a good life consist in?
• Is the mind identical to the brain?
• Should we impose limits on human enhancement?
• Your first year is designed to help you develop the skills and confidence to succeed on your selected path. You will learn through a variety of teaching and assessment methods in order to foster your development as an independent learner and to help you develop the skills needed to pursue a range of careers.

In your second and your final year, there is a broad array of optional modules to choose from, which allow you to sample a number of different areas of philosophy, or specialise in a particular area of philosophy, such as continental philosophy, or philosophy of mind.

You may also choose to apply for an intercalated year, spent either studying abroad or on a work placement. This extends the duration of your degree to four years and will be reflected in your degree qualification (for example, BA Philosophy with Intercalated Year, or BA Philosophy with Work Placement).

Study abroad

We run successful undergraduate exchanges with Queen’s University, Ontario, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, enabling second-year Philosophy students (single or joint honors) to compete for the chance to spend a full year studying in North America. Modules and examinations are taken at Queen’s and Madison count towards your degree.

All students have the opportunity to apply for an intercalated year abroad at one of our partner universities, which currently include: Bourgogne, Dijon; Erasmus, Rotterdam; Copenhagen; Friedrich Schiller, Jena or Cologne; Vienna; Autonoma or Complutense, Madrid or Seville; Rome or Turin; and Koc, Istanbul. The Study Abroad Team offers support for these activities, and the Department’s dedicated Study Abroad Co-ordinator can provide more specific information and assistance.

Humanitarian Engineering is the use of science and engineering to invent, create, design, develop, or improve technologies that promote the wellbeing of communities facing grand humanitarian challenges.

Humanitarian Engineering spans a broad range of disciplines and is ideal for students who are looking to explore all the professional and disciplinary facets of humanitarian challenges.

The Postgraduate Award, Certificate and Diploma are specially designed to support professional development for those already working in the field or interested in humanitarian engineering. Making time for work, family, and friends is important, so take advantage of our flexibility.

Skills from this degree

• Equipped to think and work in a problem- and solution-oriented way across the professional and disciplinary facets of humanitarian challenges
• Have a broad perspective and the ability to communicate with parties of different backgrounds
• Enhance critical thinking, reasoning and analytical abilities which are sought after by multilateral development institutions (e.g. World Bank, IMF, United Nations), NGOs and the private sector (e.g. professional services, manufacturing, and investment banking) or academia

Are you passionate about examining the relationship between education, sustainable development, and the challenges facing the education sector? Are you enthused about sustainability challenges?

The course seeks to prepare you to become Global Citizens with a conscience, equipped with knowledge and understanding of the key issues of sustainable development from across a broad range of disciplines.

Adopting a problem-based approach, which fosters the investigation of issues using a range of means of enquiry used by researchers from the sciences, arts and social sciences fields, you will work with peers from other Global Sustainable Development (GSD) courses to explore the different approaches and solutions offered, their implications and limitations and their inter-connectivity.

You’ll be stimulated to think critically and creatively about contemporary problems of global significance and to explore ethically and morally complex areas in the search for positive interventions with a beneficial impact. Embracing new opinions from your peers across the world, we will challenge you to become an active participant in your own learning.

You can enhance your skills and studies through optional work placements, study abroad, and certificates.

Are you keen to specialise in the academic study of your chosen language and culture, and do you have the motivation to develop an individual research path, leading potentially to PhD study? This course combines taught modules with language-specific research and offers an advanced preparation for doctoral research.

You will work with the support of leading researchers, drawing on expertise in critical theory, research skills and key research themes. You will benefit from an introduction to critical theories and perspectives across the European and North American intellectual traditions, as well as develop your own research specialism in French Studies.

Skills from this degree

• Advanced research and information synthesis skill
• Advanced report-writing and written communication skills
• Oral communication skills
• IT skills

Political Theory, Comparative Politics and the study of Political Systems provide the core of this degree, then you can choose options across the full range of modules or focus on specific pathways.

You will tackle questions relating to the nature and distribution of power, the advantages and disadvantages of different political systems, gendered and racialized aspects of politics, and the role of ideology in determining political outcomes. You will critique how politics works in a number of different nations and question the appropriate level to analyze politics from the individual to the global system.

You will also consider how the work of political theorists can help explain the ways in which politicians intervene in questions of economy, law-making, conflict and the regulation of our daily lives. You will apply these ideas to everyday political problems such as immigration, poverty, war and climate change.

This course is designed to develop your knowledge and skills in leadership and management in an educational setting. This programme offers you a unique opportunity to customise your learning to match your professional background, needs and aspirations. Assessments are individually tailored making each topic highly relevant to your particular context.

To maximise your learning potential, you will receive individualised attention and the flexibility to select from a wide range of modules. The programme is research driven but with a strong focus on professional practice, making it suitable for establishing an academic career or pursuing middle and senior leadership roles in education organisations. At the end of the course, we anticipate that you will have developed reflective and critical capabilities, providing you with a sound basis for your next career move, alongside the necessary knowledge and skills to respond to a variety of educational leadership challenges within your organisation.

Skills from this degree

• Applying knowledge and understanding of research methods in planning, undertaking and evaluating a research project
• Informed understanding of concepts and theories of leadership and management in education, and their relationship
• Understanding of strategy and strategic perspectives in education
• Human resource management in education and its links with strategy
• Identifying factors affecting learner achievement and ways to improve it

On this joint degree, you will be a member of both the Politics and Sociology departments. Both departments are in the same building on campus and are closely associated.

This joint honours degree explores theoretical and empirical approaches to political and social ideas and issues, and the impact of these on our everyday lives. An interdisciplinary approach encourages you to consider the world from different political and sociological perspectives.

It enables you to think critically about contemporary society in the UK and beyond. It also encourages you to explore sub-fields such as gender and sexuality, race and difference, international relations, international political economy, sociology of media and culture, and international development.

Study abroad

There are two options to apply for study abroad in the Department of Politics and International Studies: Integrated or Intercalated. Students can also choose to apply for an intercalated year through the Sociology department.

Our MSc programme encompasses a breadth of pure and applied mathematics. This makes it an ideal choice if you aspire to become a professional scientist or you have a reasonable mathematical background and wish to learn about the interactions between sciences and mathematics.

As an interdisciplinary MSc student, you will take modules in related subjects such as Physics, Biology, Economics or any of the other departments listed below. The knowledge and skills you will acquire will prove useful for a range of future scientific careers or if you wish to progress to PhD level studies in Mathematics or one of the sciences.

Skills from this degree

• Conducting independent research on a challenging problem
• Gathering and organising data to make a case
• Preparing and delivering a technical presentation
• Scientific communication
• Technical precision
• Organising, absorbing and consolidating information and techniques
• Applying knowledge in the solution of complex problems

Big data and quantitative methods are transforming political processes and decisions in everyday life.

Local, national and international administrations are making ‘open data’ available to wide audiences; giant, world-level web organisations are putting more and more services in synergy; and some private companies or governments are developing strongly ideological projects in relation with big data. Therefore, there is a need for trained specialists who will have the capacity to compete and/or collaborate with strictly business or technique-oriented actors on the basis of sound knowledge from political and international studies.

Our programme provides you with an understanding of the implications of different approaches to issues concerning big data and public policy.

If you have an interest in both Classics and English, and have studied either Latin or Ancient Greek to A level (or equivalent), this course will enable you to study classical antiquity (its literature, art, material culture and thought) together with its reception in English literature through the Western tradition.

We are one of only a few universities in the UK to offer a combined degree that treats the two subjects as a continuum.

The course examines the multiple and ever-evolving interactions between the artistic production of classical antiquity and English literature, from Shakespeare to contemporary poets, novelists and dramatists.

You will study a range of modules each year. In the first and second years your modules are equally split between English and Classics, and include study of Latin or Greek texts in the original, while in your final year you can choose to weight your modules more towards Classics or English, to pursue areas of particular academic interest.

Study abroad

You will have the opportunity to spend your third year at one of our partner institutions in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia or China. You will then return to Warwick to complete your fourth and final year of your degree.

You will be able to apply to transfer to the four-year course at the end of your second year at Warwick, as long as you maintain a 2:i average, and subject to availability of places from the University's International Office.

The Study Abroad team offers support for these activities, and the Department's dedicated Study Abroad Co-ordinator can provide more specific information and assistance.