BA Politics & International RelationsAdd to shortlist

Programme profile

Politics and international relations is all about thinking critically and understanding change. You might be attracted to studying this course if you are interested in understanding the way the world works. You will learn how to research, how to study and develop your analytical and reasoning skills, and how to apply these skills to the real world. You will learn about Ireland and Europe, their place in the world, about what makes a good society and about what doesn’t, and how we might tell the difference between the two.

Politics is central to our lives: it determines how we live and what we think a good life is. Political news dominates the headlines and political solutions are the only solutions to most of the world’s problems. There will be no solution to the destruction of the environment without politics, no reduction of global poverty, no peace in the world’s trouble spots, and no social justice without politics. Yet how many people understand politics? How can we work for a better future without such understanding?

This programme addresses these - and other issues - in the contemporary world. It is not a degree course that gives you answers to political problems. It does something more important than that: it teaches you how to ask the right questions so that you can find answers of your own about the way that the world works.

The programme helps you develop the skills that will enable you to find solutions to practical problems, and understand how and why people might act to achieve these solutions. It does this for all the levels of politics - the global, the national and the local. The course is suited to students whose interests are focussed on Ireland as well as to students who want to know about the wider world.

Programme content

This programme provides a unique, comprehensive introduction to all the areas of political studies and to researching political life.

In the first year the BA is divided into three parts:
1. An introduction to politics and international relations;
2. Subsidiary streams chosen from two of the following: History, Sociology, French, Spanish, Economics, German or Irish.
3. A grounding in political science research and methods that will teach you how to research topics, write essays, and make arguments.

Year Two will introduce the major sub-fields of politics by way of core modules taken by all students. These sub-fields are: international relations, comparative politics, political theory, European Union politics, public administration and Irish politics.

In Yar Three you will go out on external placement and external academic placement.

In Year Four, you will specialise in the areas of politics and international relations that interest you most, through your final year project and a choice of elective modules

Progression

The university offers Masters programmes in:

International Studies
Peace & Development Studies
Politics

Entry Requirements